In spite of Evinrude's market lead, McCulloch continued to pursue the outboard market during the next decade. This led him to Lake Havasu in what was then Mohave County, Arizona in search of a test site. (In 1983, La Paz County was established from the southern part of Mohave County.) McCulloch purchased of lakeside property along Pittsburgh Point. In 1963, on the courthouse steps of Kingman, McCulloch purchased a parcel of barren desert that would become the site for Lake Havasu City. At the time it was the largest single tract of state land ever sold in Arizona, and the cost per acre was under US$75.