OATMAN ARIZONA
Gold mining ghost towns are a significant part of our history. In so many ways they are an insight into America, from the incredible fascination with the glittering valuable mineral to the extreme lengths miners would go to find their strike. Many areas, and many states, owe a great deal to the discovery of gold for it's ability to populate the west. The prospect of great wealth was enough of an incentive for thousands to pack up and leave home. Every gold mining town has it''s own unique story, but they all shared one thing - the prospect of "the big strike"!!! And, it brought them in by the tens of thousands.
Arizona had it's share of gold strikes, but the most famous, and the one that produced more than any other, in the State of Arizona, was from the City of Oatman. It is often referred to as a ghost town, but it doesn't really seem to fit that definition. At its peak, Oatman had a population of around 10,000, but today, and for quite a few years, it has had a population of a hundred or so residents. It exists today mostly as a tourist attraction, but there is still active mining going on.
The first gold was discovered in 1863 (in the middle of the Civil War) by a prospector named Johnny Moss. Two of the claims that he staked were the Moss mine (named after himself) and the Oatman Mine (named after Olive Oatman, whose name was eventually used as the permanent name for the town.) An official town, although comprised mainly of tents, began to form in the very early 1900s, and was then known as Vivian, (after the Vi-vian Mining Company.) In 1909 Vi-vian changed it's name to Oatman, in honor of Olive Oatman.
The origin of the Oatman name is interesting, and, as mentioned above, in honor of Olive Oatman. Oatman was a young Illinois girl who had been captured by Indians during their pioneering trip west 1851. During this captivity she was forced into slavery by her Indian captors. She was later traded to Mojave Indians who adopted her as a daughter, but later released her in 1856 at Fort Yuma. This is a picture of her as an adult (date unknown). Note the chin tattoo, a custom amongst the Mojave Indians.
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Gold mining in and around the Black Mountains, where Moss made his original claims, had it's ups and downs until the early 1900s, when things really heated up. The real gold boom began around 1904 and continued until around 1930. During this period, estimates put Oatman's gold production at about $36 million, at the then government controlled price of $20.00 an ounce. Every new strike drew more and more people to the city.
This is a picture of Oatman taken around 1921, before the big fire, which destroyed most of the town. Given its gold production, the town was later rebuilt:
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Oatman, today, serves mainly as a tourist destination, with one of its main attractions (in addition to its impressive history) being the wandering, tame burros, which populate the town. Vendors sell burro food (whatever
that is) and tourists can be seen hand feeding the critters, who have come to expect it. The burros are "wild" (or as wild as you can get under these circumstances) and nobody rounds them up at night. One word of caution if you visit Oatman - watch where you step!!!
Here are some pictures of the town as it exists today:
On the "dirt road" to Oatman
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The Town
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The Oatman Hotel
The Oatman Hotel was built in 1902 and is the largest two story adobe building in Mojave County. It's greatest claim to fame, other than it was one of the very few buildings that escaped the fire of 1921, is the legend that it was the Honeymoon location for Clark Gable and Carol Lombard in 1939. Today it is no longer used as a Hotel, but rather as a museum on the top floor and a restaurant and bar on the ground floor.
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Oatman is located about a 45 minute drive from Laughlin, Nevada / Bullhead City Arizona. To do justice to the town, you should give it a day, as there is a lot to see and do. There are two roads that lead to the town from the Bullhead City area - one dirt and one paved. Both are 2WD roads, but the dirt road will jar you a bit. Well worth the trip.