Oatman is a former mining town in the Black Mountains of
Mohave CountyMohave County is located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of 2007, its population was estimated to be 194,944, an increase of 39,912 people since the 2000 census count of 155,032. The county seat is Kingman...
,
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Located at an elevation of 2700ft/896m, it began as a tent camp soon after two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find in 1915, though the area had been already settled for a number of years. Oatman's population grew to more than 3,500 in the course of a year.
Oatman has the
ZIP codeThe ZIP code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service . The letters ZIP, a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan, are properly written in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
of 86433. The 86433
ZIP Code Tabulation AreaZIP Code Tabulation Areas are a statistical entity developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics from Census 2000. This new entity was developed to overcome the difficulties in precisely defining the land area covered by each ZIP code...
had a population of 128 at the 2000 census.
After a few other names, Oatman was named in the posthumous honor of
Olive OatmanOlive Oatman was a woman from Illinois famous for her abduction and forced slavery by the Yavapai people ....
, a young Illinois girl who was kidnapped by the Apache Indians and forced to work as a slave.
Oatman is a former mining town in the Black Mountains of
Mohave CountyMohave County is located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of 2007, its population was estimated to be 194,944, an increase of 39,912 people since the 2000 census count of 155,032. The county seat is Kingman...
,
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Located at an elevation of 2700ft/896m, it began as a tent camp soon after two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find in 1915, though the area had been already settled for a number of years. Oatman's population grew to more than 3,500 in the course of a year.
Oatman has the
ZIP codeThe ZIP code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service . The letters ZIP, a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan, are properly written in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
of 86433. The 86433
ZIP Code Tabulation AreaZIP Code Tabulation Areas are a statistical entity developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics from Census 2000. This new entity was developed to overcome the difficulties in precisely defining the land area covered by each ZIP code...
had a population of 128 at the 2000 census.
Early history
After a few other names, Oatman was named in the posthumous honor of
Olive OatmanOlive Oatman was a woman from Illinois famous for her abduction and forced slavery by the Yavapai people ....
, a young Illinois girl who was kidnapped by the Apache Indians and forced to work as a slave. She was rescued in 1857 near the current site of the town bearing not only the psychological marks of her ordeal, but physical marks as well. Traded to the
MohaveMohave and Mojave are both tribally accepted and interchangeably used phonetic spellings for a Native American people known among themselves as the Aha macave...
tribe who adopted her as a daughter, Olive had her face tattooed to identify her as an honorary Apache and photographs of her clearly show the markings.
In 1921, a fire burned down many of Oatman's smaller buildings, but spared the Oatman Hotel. Built in 1902, the now-Oatman Hotel is the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mohave County, a Mohave County historical landmark and is especially famous as the honeymoon stop of
Clark GableWilliam Clark Gable was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In , the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time....
and
Carole LombardCarole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in several classic films of the 1930s, most notably in the 1936 film My Man Godfrey...
after their wedding in
KingmanKingman is a city in and the county seat of Mohave County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 27,271. The nearby communities of Golden Valley and Butler bring the Kingman area's total population to around 40,000...
on March 18, 1939. Gable fell in love with the area and returned often to play poker with the miners. The Gable/Lombard honeymoon suite is one of the hotel's major attractions. The other is "Oatie the Ghost." "Oatie," actively promoted by the hotel's current owners, is a friendly
poltergeist, or recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis denotes an ostensibly paranormal phenomenon attributed to an an invisible spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects, generally in a particular location such as a house or room or place within a...
whose identity is believed to be that of William Ray Flour, an Irish miner who died behind the hotel, presumably from excessive
alcoholAn alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits....
consumption. Flour's body wasn't discovered until two days after his death and it was hastily buried in a shallow grave near where he was found.
From gold mining to tourism
1924 would see United Eastern Mines, the town's main employer permanently shut down operations. By 1941, the remainder of the town's gold mining operations were ordered shut down by the US Government as part of the country's war effort since metals other than gold were needed. Oatman was fortunate insofar as it was located on busy U.S. Route 66 and was able to cater to travelers driving between Kingman and
Needles, CaliforniaNeedles is a city located on the western banks of the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California. It is located in Mojave Valley, which straddles the California–Arizona border. The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95. The population was 4,830 at the 2000 census, and was...
. Even that advantage was short-lived as the town was completely bypassed in 1953 when a new route between Kingman and Needles was built. By the
1960sThe 1960s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1960, to December 31, 1969.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France,...
, Oatman was all but abandoned.
Oatman today
Oatman has undergone a renaissance of sorts in recent years thanks to burgeoning worldwide interest in Route 66 and the explosive growth of the nearby gaming town of
Laughlin, NevadaLaughlin is a census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 7,076. Laughlin is a port located on the Colorado River 94 miles south of Las Vegas...
, which promotes visits to the town. Wild burros freely roam the town and can be hand-fed carrots and "burro chow," both readily available in practically every store in town. Though normally gentle, the burros are in fact wild and signs posted throughout Oatman advise visitors to exercise caution. The burros are descended from pack animals turned loose by early prospectors, and are protected by the US Department of the Interior. Weekends in Oatman can see anything from classic car rallies to mock "Wild West" shootouts right down the middle of old 66.
Independence DayAn Independence Day is an annual celebration commemorating the anniversary of a nation's assumption of independent statehood, usually after ceasing to be a colony or part of another state, more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Most countries honor their respective independence day as...
celebrations include a contest where participants attempt to cook an egg on the sidewalk with the aid of solar devices. Along with the rest of Arizona's US 66 towns, Oatman is fiercely proud of its Route 66 heritage and replicas of 66's black-on-white US highway shield are posted all over the town. Route 66 souvenirs abound and many tourists have pasted autographed one-dollar bills on the walls and ceiling of the Oatman Hotel's bar and restaurant. Estimates of the number of bills run into the thousands.
From Laughlin, Needles or
Bullhead City, ArizonaBullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, USA, roughly south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the employment for Bullhead City. According to 2006 Census...
, Oatman is a short drive on State Route 95 to its intersection with Boundary Cone Road in Fort Mohave. About 10 miles (16 km) east of SR 95, Boundary Cone Road meets with old 66, now named the "Oatman Highway." Oatman is only about four miles (6.5 km) from there.
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