Oatman, Arizona, on Route 66
Ghost Town
Adventures
Travel Stories and Photography by Doug Duncan
Oatman
is another of the "Principal Ghost Towns", as rated in the book,
"Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps".
The way Oatman residents make a living today has changed greatly from the gold mining of yesteryear to catering to the needs and wishes of tourists.
Oatman has two unusual features going for it: One, it is on the most famous
highway in the US - old Route 66, fabled in folklore, story and song, and Two,
its free-roaming burros, descendants of some abandoned generations ago by
miners.
Souvenirs and postcards of Old 66 and the street burros abound in Oatman. The
town, with many preserved buildings, looks like old west, except for heavy car
traffic, even heavier on weekends when gunfights are staged, just about in front
of the old Oatman Hotel, where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are said to have
honeymooned.
The Oatman in-town burros, quite docile and pettable, treat the town as though it were theirs, and treat the tourists as food providers.
Route 66 is still passable for any type of car, but it's hard to imagine it
as part of the first coast to coast highway, especially to the east of Oatman,
where it passes another old mining site, Goldpoint, and climbs way up and over
Sitgreaves Pass, and heads for Kingman. Narrow and curvy, the road must be a
thrill for flatlanders.
Oatman began existence with the name of Vivian, when gold was discovered in
1902. The name was changed in 1908, in honor of Olive Oatman, a white girl who
lived with Mojave Indians in the 1850's, after surviving an attack by Apaches in
which most of her family were killed.
The population of Oatman eventually reached some 10000 after successive gold strikes between 1908 and 1913, but as usual, the "pay dirt" payed out, the population declined and activities were altered.
Oatman's proximity to gambling mecca Laughlin, Nevada, helps greatly to swell
the tide of tourists. Tours from Laughlin are widely offered there. In your own
vehicle you can reach the ghost town from Arizona Highway 95, south from
Bullhead City, AZ (across the Colorado River from Laughlin).
Or, you can choose the very scenic approach from Kingman, AZ, over old #66.
Or, as I did on my last visit, you can start from Interstate 40, south of
Needles, California, go to Golden Shores, AZ, and there pick up old 66, a good
gravel road, well advertised as the famous 66, to Oatman. On my last visit I
followed 66 on through Kingman, and Hackberry and Valentine, all the way to
Seligman, just to "get my kicks on Route Sixty-Six", as the old song
goes.