While I was traveling this past summer, I unfortunately did not have this blog at the time. There are definitely some places that I visited, that I would love to share more about. One of my favorite places along Route 66 was a small mountain town called Oatman.
I had never heard of the place until I started doing research on different landmarks and places to visit along Route 66. The more I read, the more I knew I had to check it out. The town draws in over 500,000 visitors per year. Since the latest fascination with Route 66, it has caused the town to develop an ever-growing profit off of tourism.
Oatman is an old mining town located in the Black Mountains in Mohave County Arizona. 10 million dollars worth of gold was discovered there in 1915. The town was named after Olive Oatman, a young girl who was kidnapped and held as a slave by a Native American Tribe only to be later sold to a friendly Tribe, then released to her family. You can see her face plastered across many signs in Oatman.
It is quite the journey getting to Oatman. It's a very long, twisting road that goes up and down for miles until you finally reach the town. There are several shops, restaurants, and "museums" to check out. They also put on staged shootouts! The Oatman Hotel is also located here. It was the honeymoon destination for Clark Gable and his third wife Carole Lombard. It is also said to be haunted. Tours are available to see the hotel and the room they occupied. The part that stuck out the most to me were the burros. These burros roam the town on streets and walkways. They are the direct descendants of the burros who helped during the 1915 gold rush. They are pretty friendly and appreciate when you feed them. Burro food is available at most shops for $1/bag. Word of caution: if you take your pet along with you, I would be careful. Burros will attack dogs if they feel threatened in any way, otherwise they are very friendly. The baby burro in the picture below, I was able to touch. The mother didn't seem to mind. I left Ruby in the car with the a/c running. She was being a pain in the butt that day anyway lol
I went at the beginning of August (morning time) and there were not many people there. It was extremely hot. They had also recently experienced some heavy rainfall that left a lot of mess to be cleaned up. There are less than 150 people who actually live in Oatman. Most of the people that work there live in neighboring towns. The people there are very friendly and if you have any questions about the area, they are definitely the ones to ask.
Overall I really enjoyed it. I had breakfast at the Olive Oatman restaurant, picked up some baked goods at a local bakery shop, a couple souvenirs, and of course.. some alfalfa hay for the burros. I definitely hope to go back to Oatman one day. If you are ever driving Route 66 or just in Arizona, you have to go check it out!
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