Oatman keeps Old West alive | Earth Odyssey Magazine

Monday, 01 March 2010 00:00

Oatman keeps Old West alive

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Recently, we took a day-trip to Oatman, Arizona. Oatman is a living his-tory town that provides a glimpse into what life was like for common folk in the Old West. Oatman is an “official” ghost town and it’s the only town I know of where wild burros share the streets with pedestrians, motorcycles and automobiles.

History

Oatman3web4 Oatman is a former mining town in the Black Mountains of Mohave County.

The town’s story began in 1902 when gold was first discovered. At the time, Oatman was a tent camp for miners. It was initially called Vivian after the Vivian Mining Co., which was the town’s first mine.

In its heyday, from the early 1900s to the 1940s, Oatman and the nearby town of Gold Road were the largest producers of gold in the state of Arizona. About $36 million in gold came out of Oatman’s mines.

Businesses to service the miners sprang up, including the Drulin Hotel, built in 1902. A narrow gauge rail line served the town between 1903 and 1905, transversing 17 miles of mountains and desert to reach the Colorado River near Needles, Calif.

The town changed its name in 1909 to honor Olive Oatman, a young Mormon girl who had been kidnapped by the Apaches after they massacred her family. The Apaches traded her to the Mojave Indians, with whom she lived for five years. In Mojave tradition, Olive was tattooed on the chin to indicate her slave status. She was rescued in 1857 near the site of the town.

Oatman4-web4 The town’s second mine, the Tom Reed Mine, was established in 1910 at a time when the Vivian Mine was about to close. In 1915, two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find and within one year the population exploded to 3,500.

Soon, the town had dozens of businesses, including its own newspaper, the Oatman Miner. The boom was short-lived, however. A fire in 1921 burned down many of the smaller buildings and three years later, the mining company pulled out.

The town managed to stay alive because of Route 66—a U.S. highway originally connecting Chicago to Los Angeles that encompassed more than 2,400 miles.

In the 1920s when Route 66 was being built, Oatman exerted its considerable influence as a mining town with clout and successfully campaigned to have the road pass through Oatman. So, Route 66 journeyed up through the Sitgreaves pass via many hairpin turns and switchbacks. By 1930, Oatman had two banks, seven hotels, 20 saloons and 10 stores. Almost 20,000 people lived in the area. But two more major setbacks were on the horizon for Oatman. The first was World War II and the second was improvements to Route 66.

During World War II, the government needed metals other than gold, so miners were relocated and the Oatman mines were closed. Then, in 1952 when improvements were being made to Route 66, the highway was rerouted to avoid the steep mountain grades and Oatman was bypassed. Oatman was soon reduced to a ghost town.

Ghost town

Oatman5-web4 Oatman is a town that was built for and by working-class people. To me, that’s one of the appealing facets about it. Oatman’s working-class roots have also helped the town survive all the ups and downs over the years.

Historians often clamor to save the mansions and monuments of the wealthy, but rarely are they interested in the preserving a slave cabin or a mining shack.

For example, the Riordan Mansion State Historic Park in Flagstaff is a 13,000 square-foot, 40-room residence. The Jerome State Historic Park was formerly the Douglas Mansion. Built in 1916, the mansion had a wine cellar, billiard room, marble showers, steam heat and a central vacuum system.

Both are under state care, although that doesn’t mean much in this economy. The Jerome State Historic Park is currently closed and the Douglas Mansion is in desperate need of repairs.

But for a real ostentatious monument to wealth, check out Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley National Park. This twostory Spanish villa contains many lavish “toys,” including a chimes tower with a set of 25 carillon chimes set to play on the quarter-hour and a music room that features a huge Welte-Mignon theater organ with more than 1,000 pipes. (For a story about Scotty’s Castle, see the April, week one, edition of EarthOdysseyOnline.)

How many people ever live this way and why is there a compelling desire to envy them through the ages? What good does it do to preserve the relics of the super rich and forget all about the working class upon whose shoulders their wealth was built?

No, Oatman is much more realistic, more fun, more real. Even its ghosts lack the luster of wealth, although a famous movie-star couple is among them.

Ghosts

Oatman1-web4 Oatman’s most famous ghost is “Oatie.” He resides in the Oatman Hotel, which was first named the Drulin Hotel and survived the fire of 1921. The Oatman Hotel is the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mohave County and is a historical landmark.

Oatie is believed to be an Irish miner named William Ray Flour. The story goes that his family died on their way to America and in his distress Oatie drank himself to death and died behind the hotel. His body wasn’t discovered for two days and then he was hastily buried near the spot where he was found.

Today, Oatie hangs out in his old room at the hotel where he is credited with opening the window and pulling covers off the bed. He is often heard playing his bagpipe around the hotel.

In the Theater Room Museum on the second floor, distinct outlines of bodies have been found in the dust on the beds there, although it appears nothing in the surrounding area is disturbed. Staffers think a former chambermaid, who is often spotted in the room, is the sleeping spirit.

This brings us to Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who spent their 1939 wedding night in the Oatman Hotel’s honeymoon suite after being married in Kingman. The couple loved the hotel and frequently returned for the peace and solitude. Gable was known to spend many a night gambling with the miners.

Apparently, the Hollywood couple loved the hotel so much, that they still visit. The hotel is filled with period memorabilia and the Gable/Lombard Room is furnished as it was when they visited all those years ago. Staff say that they have often heard them whispering and laughing from the Gable/Lombard Room. One photographer reported that when he took a picture of the empty room, a ghostly figure of a man appeared on the developed print.

But every old western town has a ghost or two, and no doubt, Oatman is an authentic Old West town, complete with gunfights staged on the weekends.

Burros

Oatman2-web4 While the original Route 66 still winds its way though town, drivers have to be patient because they are not the only ones on the road.

In fact, pedestrians who constantly amble back and forth across the street use the road more like a sidewalk. And then there are the burros that come to town to panhandle.

Oatman’s burros are opportunists who don’t easily take no for an answer. They are not interested in posing for your photos or being petted. They are interested in handouts.

The burros are descendants of the animals brought by miners in the late 1800s. When the miners no longer needed them, they turned them loose, and well, they have thrived over the years.

The burros live in the hills surrounding Oatman and they come into town every morning looking for food. Shops sell “burro chow” and carrots, which the burros love—and they are not shy in making their desire known.

They spend the day wandering the streets of Oatman, eating their fill of carrots and entertaining the tourists and then shortly before sunset they wander back into the hills for the night.

Visitors are asked not to feed carrots to the baby burros because they can choke. Stickers are placed on their heads to help identify the burros that should not be fed.

Oatman receives more than 500,000 visitors a year. The town’s gold-mining history and its burros draw tourists. In the late 1980s, Route 66 enjoyed resurgence in popularity. Tourists from the world over began visiting Route 66 towns, including Oatman. The town has been used as the location for several movies, including “How the West Was Won,” “Foxfire,” and “Edge of Eternity.”

Walk along the wooden sidewalks and peruse the shops. Shopkeepers offer a wide variety of products, including handmade leather goods, Indian jewelry and knives. Most of the traditional tourist fare, including Route 66 memorabilia, wind chimes and T-shirts are available.

The Ghost Riders Gunfighters perform Wild West Shootouts twice a day on the weekends and are also available for “shotgun weddings” and “stage coach holdups,” otherwise known as Tour Bus Robberies.

A stable provides guided horseback rides and stagecoach tours. See page 20 for a list of scheduled events in Oatman. For more information, contact the Oatman Chamber of Commerce, at 928-768-6222.

Oatman events

March 13

St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival

April 21 –25

Laughlin River Run & Biker Festival

May 29–31

Memorial Day Weekend: Chili Cook Off and Pie Eating Contest

June 12

Red, White and Blue Festival Commemorating Flag Day Festival

July 4

Independence Day Weekend: 20^th Annual July 4^th Sidewalk Egg Fry Festival—

On the sidewalks of Old Historic Route 66, participants have 15 minutes to make the most edible fried egg. The Chamber of Commerce provides two official eggs and a piece of foil. The fryers can use any type of solar heat: mirrors, magnifying glasses, etc. Winners are selected in several categories and rewarded with medals and prizes.

Categories include: showmanship (costumes and gizmos and gadgets), youngest fryer, and fryer who has traveled the farthest. Participants frequently come from across the United States. No charge to enter. Just show up. Participants are responsible for protecting their eggs from the burros.