Editing Parker, Arizona (section)

==History==
Founded in 1908, the town was named after [[Ely Parker]], the first Native American commissioner for the U.S. government. The original town site of Parker was surveyed and laid out in 1909 by Earl H. Parker, a railroad location engineer for the [[Arizona and California Railroad#Arizona and California Railway|Arizona & California Railway]]. The town officially incorporated in 1948 and became the county seat for the newly created La Paz County on January 1, 1983.

===Camp Colorado and Parkers Landing===
[[File:Arizona - Parker - NARA - 23933749.jpg|thumb|right]]
[[File:Arizona - Parker - NARA - 23933747.jpg|thumb|right]]
The town's name and origin began when a post office called '''Parker''' was established January 6, 1871, at [[Parker's Landing, Arizona|Parker's Landing]] and the site of the Parker Indian Agency, named for Ely Parker, on the [[Colorado River Indian Reservation]], four miles downriver from the site of the railroad bridge of the modern town, to serve the Indian agency.<ref>{{GNIS|9220|Parker}}</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20150119080011/http://www.bradhallart.com/images_phoenix/Arizona_Place_names_1935.pdf  Will C. Barnes, ''Arizona Place Names'', University of Arizona Bulletin, Vol. VI,  No.1, University of Arizona, Tucson, 1935, p.319]}}</ref><ref name=Theobald>John and Lillian Theobald, ''Arizona Territory Post Offices & Postmasters'', Arizona Historical Foundation, Phoenix, 1961.</ref>{{rp|118}} What became Parkers Landing was established on the river as the place to land and pick up cargo and personnel for the Indian Agency and the [[U. S. Army]] detachment that was stationed there at [[Camp Colorado, Arizona|Camp Colorado]] from 1864 to 1869, during the first years of the Reservation.  Camp Colorado was abandoned after  sparks from the departing steamboat [[Cocopah II (Sternwheeler)|Cocopah]] rapidly burned down the brush huts of the officers of the garrison, and endangered its barracks and storehouses.
<ref name=Lingenfelter>[http://www.ansac.az.gov/UserFiles/PDF/08182014/X028_FMIBurtellLingenfelterSteamboats/FMI%20Lingenfelter%20Steamboats/Steamboats%20on%20the%20Colorado%20River%201852-1916.pdf  Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118031332/http://www.ansac.az.gov/UserFiles/PDF/08182014/X028_FMIBurtellLingenfelterSteamboats/FMI%20Lingenfelter%20Steamboats/Steamboats%20on%20the%20Colorado%20River%201852-1916.pdf |date=January 18, 2016 }}</ref> {{rp|66, n.61}}<ref>[http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DAC18700124.2.19&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN------- Daily Alta California, Volume 22, Number 7248, 24 January 1870, p.1, col. 5, Arizona; Terrific Conflagration at Camp Colorado]</ref>