In 1900, seven-year-old Clara Osborne and her father, who was mining near the Colorado River, sailed down the waterway from Topaz, California, to Toprock, Arizona, on a raft manned by Mohave Indians.
“I remember on our trip from Topaz, a few miles downstream from Needles, California,” Clara recalled in a 1978 interview. “we came through great cliffs on both sides of the river, and great whirlpools, sandbars, and very treacherous waters for a short distance. At that time, being young, I wasn’t aware of the great danger, but numerous boats and people had gone down in these whirlpools.”
She may have seen a handful of houses and a trading post along the undeveloped shoreline but little else. Yet something must have attracted the young girl to the area as she eventually made her home in this sparsely populated part of the desert and helped develop it into the viable, prosperous town now called Parker, Arizona.
Born April 11, 1894, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Clara was still a child when her family moved to Pasadena, California, where she attended school. She married in 1920 but the union only lasted a few years. She headed to Parker where her family still had mining interests.
Founded in 1908, the name of the town is attributed to several individuals such as Ely Parker, who was the first Native American to hold the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Earl Parker, who surveyed the area for the Santa Fe Railroad. Regardless of its namesake, Parker lies on Colorado River Indian Reservation land that is home to Mohave, Navajo, Hopi and Chemehuevi (a branch of the Paiute) peoples.
By 1930, Clara was working as executive secretary for the Northern Yuma County Chamber of Commerce and had great interest in building a bridge across the Colorado River to expand business possibilities in her adopted town. She had the support of politicians such as Nellie Bush, who was serving in the Arizona House of Representatives, along with Arizona Congresswoman Isabella Greenway.
In 1932, she was given unlimited authority to create a plan that would bring the bridge project to fruition.
Because the bridge was to be located on the Indian reservation, Clara had to gain approval from the Colorado River Tribal Council as well as the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Bureau of Army Engineers, as well as both the California and Arizona Highway Departments.
The bridge project was a success and in September 1937, as more than 10,000 people cheered her on, Clara cut a copper and gold ribbon dedicating Parker Bridge that spanned the sometimes turbulent waters of the Colorado River.
Clara realized she enjoyed her brush with politics during the bridge campaign. From 1942 until 1950, she served as representative for Yuma County in the Arizona House of Representatives, and served again from 1958-62.
Inheriting her father’s interest in mining, she chaired the Mines and Mining Committee, the first woman to do so, earning the title “The Mining Lady.” She also served on committees such as Agriculture and Irrigation, Highways and Bridges, Fish and Game, Ways and Means, Livestock, and Public Lands.
Parker was still a sleepy desert community with little industry to keep the population growing. The town had not had a local bank since the 1920s, so Clara convinced a banker to start a new one.
During World War II, she persuaded federal officials to mine strategic war metals found in the area. She worked with the Civilians Conservation Corps to establish a camp at Lake Havasu to develop wildlife and recreational facilities. As the driving force to make Parker, and the surrounding regions, a sustainable and progressive part of Arizona, Clara was instrumental in bringing electricity to the rural parts of northern Yuma County.
When she retired from the legislature in 1962, Clara said she hoped to expand the mining interests that she still held. Back in 1938, her Lion Hill Mine was said to have yielded the highest gold content ever found in Arizona.
By the late 1970s, the people of Parker realized how much Clara had done to improve their town. To show their appreciation, on Jan. 4, 1979, they renamed Parker Bridge the Clara Osborne Botzum Bridge.
Eighty-five-year-old Clara was driven across the bridge in an old but shinning 1925 Model T automobile, although Clara would adamantly argue, “Nobody ever does something of ‘great moment’ alone. It takes people working together.”
With Yuma so far from Parker, Clara had always wanted to see the northern part of Yuma County become a separate district. Her dream came to fruition in 1983 when La Paz County became Arizona’s 15th county, the only county established after statehood. Parker is the county seat.
That same year, the Arizona Senate honored Clara with the Spirit of Arizona Award for her “spirit of independence, strength of character, sense of accomplishment and a special quality of caring for others.”
On a trip to San Diego in 1986, 91-year-old Clara died.
Her obituary called her the “epitome of a pioneer. She was very forward-thinking. She wanted to be at the forefront of things, She sought change.” She had worked for over 50 years to improve the lives of the citizens of Parker.”
By 2012, the Clara Osborne Botzum Bridge was showing signs of age and deterioration and a new bridge was constructed to keep the flow of traffic coming into the town of Parker. Years before, a sign had been erected near the old bridge that read, “In tribute to the honorable Clara Osborne Botzum of Parker, pioneer citizen of Arizona whose untiring advocacy of this vital link between two states culminated in its opening in September 1937. She went on to serve 12 years in the Arizona House of Representatives in the highest tradition of public service. So designated this 5th day of January, 1979 by the Arizona Transportation Board.”
As Arizona’s former Governor Rose Mofford once said of the energetic and dedicated Clara Botzum, “She was one in a million.”
