Oatman, AZ.

                                                          Friday  3/16/2012

We got directions and left Bullhead City to visited Oatman, AZ. On our drive we found the road that we should have taken the day before when we ended up in Kingman,  I wrote about in my previous blog. The road we should have taken to Bullhead City is just south of Oatman. We thought the road was north of Oatman.

The parking lot was full when we arrived in Oatman. On the outside of the restrooms/outhouses was this sign.

We missed the St. Patrick Day Celabration by one days.

A cactus growing inside the middle of a gift shop.

One of the buildings behind one of the gift shops.

A look up the old western town of Oatman, AZ.

One of the two baby burro's. The sticker on his forehead tells visitors to not feed him for any reason. A store owner told me that that burro's under 6 months don't have back teeth and can choke. She said they had a baby burro choke and die once because it was fed. She also told me some people have taken off the stickers because they think it is mean not being able to feed them.

People were lining up to watch a shoot out that was going to begin on the hour.

We continued to walk up the street and stopped into the Oatman Hotel Resaurant, which is plastered in signed dollar bills everywhere.

Two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find in 1915. The town grew to 3500 in a year. Burro's were brought to the town to haul the rocks, and supplies from and into the mines. In 1941 the government order what every gold mines that were still open closed because other metals were more important for the war. The burro's were let free to the wild at that time.

We were told by others to take a bag of carrots to feed the burro's. I came prepared! They do sell some other kind of feed in the gift shops

I am a kid in a candy store when it comes to animals.

Oatman is now supported by tourism because it is on Route 66 and because the surrounding cities, Kingman, Bullhead City, and Lake Havasu City promote the town to tourist.

The Oatman Hotel is the oldest building in town.

In 1912 a fire took many building in the town, but the hotel was spared.

The Oatman Hotel is famous for being the honeymoon place for Clark Gable and Carole Lombard after their wedding in Kingman, AZ. on March 18, 1939. It is also famous for, "Oatie the Ghost", who is presumed to be William Ray Flour, a miner, who died behind the hotel of  excess alcohol. He was not found for two days, and when he was found he was buried behind the hotel.

The town sits in the Black Mountains.

This is a teenage burro.

This burro rolled in the gravel and then laid and took a napped.

Sweet dreams Mrs. Burro. All the burro's have names. When a burro is born, whoever see it first goes to the recorder office and registers it name.

She let me come up and get a close up shot of her.

She has some P Jammies in her eyes as my mom called them when she was a little girl.

They love the carrots and smell them  from about 20 feet away.

One is a teenager and the other is an adult. There are four teens in the town and ten females and one male.

They can be very assertive about feeding them.

Joe had no desire to feed them. He said they were smelly animals.

These looked to be an old foundations of  long ago homes on the hill.

We had a great time visiting Oatman, AZ. and their wild burro's. We were also glad we didn't get lost and got home before dark.

"Home Sweet Ridgeview RV Resort Home".