Town file
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Lake Havasu City, Arizona (Mojave County, Arizona) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 118, "A Strange Fun" (9 May 2019).
- Town
- Lake Havasu City
- County
- Mojave County
- State
- Arizona
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 118
- Approximate location
- 34.500, -114.311
Episode 118 / 9 May 2019 / 159 min / full
A Strange Fun
"We live in Phoenix. So let's stay close to home and go over to a terrible place that I would never visit, Lake Havasu City, Arizona. ... This is in Mojave County." about 0:06:30
The case: Murders of Carlos Cruz Ramos and Kevin Sweeney (July 1987). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2019
- Population
- 53,463
- Median age
- 53.1
- Median household income
- about $47,000
- Median home value
- $270,800
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $817
- Cost of living
- 105
- Religious
- 22.5%
- Property crime
- ▼ slightly below average
- Violent crime
- ▼ about half
History, in brief
- The town began as an Army Air Corps rest camp called Site Six during the Second World War, on the shore of Lake Havasu. about 0:09:44
- In the late 1950s Robert McCulloch, owner of McCulloch Motors, flew over Lake Havasu looking for open water to test outboard motors and decided a city could be built around it. about 0:10:10
- He bought 3,353 acres on the east side of the lake. about 0:10:49
- He later acquired another 13,000 acres of federal land the government no longer needed. about 0:11:06
- The town became a legal entity in 1963 but was not incorporated until 1978. about 0:11:45
- In 1964 there was one unpaved road into the city. about 0:11:51
- He flew 2,700 flights and brought 137,000 potential land buyers in between 1964 and 1978. about 0:12:44
- The last parcel of land was sold in 1978, and then the city incorporated. about 0:12:53
- London Bridge, built in the 1830s across the Thames, was dismantled and brought to Lake Havasu City in 1967. about 0:13:14
- McCulloch bought the bridge from the City of London for $2.5 million in 1967 money. about 0:13:50
- The stones cost $7 million to ship. about 0:14:52
- It took until 1971 to complete the bridge. about 0:14:38
- McCulloch gave the City of London an acre of land in Lake Havasu. about 0:15:22
- The London Bridge is the second largest tourist attraction in Arizona, behind the Grand Canyon. about 0:16:27
- It was one of 20 initial nominees for Best Arizona Attraction. about 0:17:33
- By 1981 the town had 17,000 people. about 0:17:49
- It was featured for MTV Spring Break. about 0:17:58
- It hosts the International World Jet Ski Finals, fishing tournaments, boat regattas and the Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Convention. about 0:18:07
- In 2008 Forbes magazine ranked Lake Havasu City the least educated city in America. about 0:21:39
The reviews read out
one star
"A three-year resident says stay away unless you are white, older than 60 and have no ambition: the town is highly racist, the public education is horrible, there is one badly rated charter school and no real private schools, activities need a boat or a fishing licence, and the teen pregnancy rate is high."about 0:20:18
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Golden Valley, Arizona49 miles
- Grasshopper Junction, Arizona62 miles
- Bagdad, Arizona65 miles
- Congress, Arizona86 miles
- Boulder City, Nevada99 miles
- Williamson, Arizona102 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.