Are the Oatman burros wild?

Semi-wild — federally protected descendants of mining stock that wander in daily. Feed them only the approved pellets sold in town, and mind that they bite.

Oatman, AZ Ghost Town — History, Map & What Remains

The story

Oatman boomed twice: gold strikes made it a 3,500-person camp by the 1910s, and Route 66 made it a byword — the terrifying Sitgreaves Pass grade west of town was the Okies' last mountain test in The Grapes of Wrath years. The 1942 federal gold closure killed the mines, and the interstate later stole the road.

The town survived on legend: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard's 1939 honeymoon night at the Oatman Hotel, staged gunfights, and above all the semi-feral burros — descendants of miners' animals — that patrol Main Street shaking down tourists for alfalfa. A hundred-odd residents keep it running.

What remains today

An intact false-front main street on old Route 66, the Oatman Hotel (museum rooms), mine headframes, and the burros.

From the archives

[Street and business enterprises, including the Arizona Hotel, Oatman, Arizona]

Oatman, Arizona, ca. 1900

[Gold mines, Oatman, Arizona]: Oatman United Gold Mining Co.

[Gold mines, Oatman, Arizona]: Hauling machinery [by 20-mule team] into Oatman, Ariz.

Oatman turns up on 22,748 digitized newspaper pages from Arizona — read them free in the Library of Congress's Chronicling America collection.

Source: Library of Congress digital collections.

Questions from the field

Are the Oatman burros wild?: Semi-wild — federally protected descendants of mining stock that wander in daily. Feed them only the approved pellets sold in town, and mind that they bite.

From the field

The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.

Stamp your passport

Check in at Oatman — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.

File a field report

Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.

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Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Oatman's permanent record.

Reports and photos are reviewed before joining the record.

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Primary sources for this record

— USGS GNIS feature 8901
— Mohave County records — Oatman/Gold Road district
— Route 66 historical associations