Lets Talk About...Oatman, Arizona

Oatman, Arizona, you say?  Yes, it exists and is considered one of the last "ghost towns", but this town has a population of people.  Granted the population is about 100.  Another piece of the demographic are the burros.  Yes, I said...burros.  Burros rule this town and have actually become the tourist attraction for this town.  They roam the streets.  They beg for carrots from tourists.  They are treated as children of Oatman, Arizona.

Take a trip back in time.  A lot of the stores do not take plastic.  Have cash ready!

Take a step back in time and you will enter 1902 when gold was discovered in Oatman, Arizona.  The Drulin Hotel was built in 1902 to accommodate the newest folks with gold fever.  This hotel is still open today.  In the first decade this mining town yielded at least $3,000,000.  Hard to believe today when you take the 5 minute stroll up the main drag.

The main drag in Oatman, AZ.

In 1915, big gold was found in the amount of $14.5 million.  This town is on the Route 66 piece of history. Due to this, the town was able to hang on even after a fire.  Then WWII came along and other metals were needed.  With this the gold mines were shut down and Route 66 was refitting a new roadway, this time not including Oatman, AZ.

Later with Laughlin, Nevada coming into being as a gaming destination on the Virgin River, Oatman started to see life again by the 1980s.  In 1995, the gold mine was re-opened, however the price of gold was so low that the mine was shut down again.  Now, Oatman is back on Route 66 and the burros are the big attraction.

Oatman pride and sense of humor.

Locals of Oatman noticed that the burros once used to haul gold were an attraction to tourists who stopped along the way.  Now, Oatman boasts burros that are friendly and will eat carrots from your hand.  All of the cute shops along the main drag sell small bags of carrots for a couple dollars to the tourists.  As soon as you walk out of a shop you are met with some loving asses wanting to be fed.

A little freaked out by my entourage of asses, but charmed just the same.

There is also an old western style gun fight held for the tourists with requests for donations.  These donations help keep this once thriving gold mine town from really becoming a true ghost town.

Don't hit the car!

This post contains pictures from visiting Oatman, Arizona after taking a jet skiing trip in Laughlin for the weekend.  I checked out the Oatman asses, had a beer, bought a few trinkets and checked Oatman off of my random list of places to see.

Burro feeding time.

More nostalgic photo ops from the town revived by jackasses.

Some love for Cacti in Oatman.  Pretty incredible species.  Too bad they do not survive my "black" thumb.

Baby burros are marked with a red circle on their forehead.  This indicates they are not old enough to consume the carrots.

Just go with it!

Much of the information above was obtained while touring Oatman, Arizona and chatting with store owners.  Also, listening to the live "western gun fight" provided additional Oatman history.  Other holes were filled in by reading about Oatman on the website: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-oatman2.html.