Oatman, AZ

Today, we visited Oatman, AZ.  It was built in the late 1800's, a wild west town. Then it stated mining gold. It was going great until the gov. told them that gold was no longer needed for the WWII war effort.  It was also a main road for the Dust Bowl immigrants going west.  Now it is an old wild west tourist attraction. It has lots of wild burro's roaming the streets. In the 1880's, they brought in burros to haul everything. The descendants are still there. My Dad told us to watch where we walk and he was sure right.  The burro's wander anywhere they like and that means they do their business anywhere. It is a fun town to see. Most of the old buildings are still in use.   Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon there. They loved how quiet and laid back it was. Clark Gable played poker with the miners.  They went there quite often. Hard to imagine.

The road is part of the last long stretch of RTE 66 still in use.  The closer we got, the road got worse. it is still a 2 lane road, but very, very narrow with hairpin turns that you can't see around. Quite the drive.

A donkey nursing her young. As you can see, it is in the middle of the street

Denny's friend

Denny introducing me to his new friend

Aren't they cute!

An overview of the town. You can see the donkeys going down the middle of the street. In the left foreground, you can see what you have to be careful not to step in

More donkeys, they are everywhere

Doesn't this look like it would be fun to watch. Oatman is  just the kind of town that would have bed races. Lots of artists live there now.

This leads up to to their honeymoon suite.  It was being remodeled, so we couldn't go up. We had ice cream in the Ice Cream Parlour in the lobby.  Forgot how much I liked Rocky Road. It and chocolate chip mint were my favorites as a kid.  Haven't had either one in years

This is the beginning of the original wooden sidewalks. Most of it is in pretty bad shape. Lots of rickety and loose boards.