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.
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.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Oatman's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — USGS GNIS feature 8901
- — Mohave County records — Oatman/Gold Road district
- — Route 66 historical associations