We headed south of Bullhead and then East into the hills. Our destination was Oatman. The town of Oatman was established in 1906 as a gold mining camp and did very well for itself until 1942 when the war effort meant mothballing gold mines and enhancing copper and nickel mines. The town did survive and many small gold mines are operational in the surrounding hills today. The town is mostly a tourist attraction now and lies on the historic Route 66. Lots of shops, the wild burros and of course the gunfights!
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| Some of the buildings are showing their age. |
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| A Fordson tractor. |
The burros were in fine form today. Many tourists feeding them burro feed.
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| This guy was a couple of miles out of town. Banished no doubt. |
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| Part of the herd. |
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| Traffic jam! |
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| Salt lick. |
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| Another day at work. |
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| Too cute! |
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| More of them!! |
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| Wandering through a gunfight. |
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| Time for a nap. |
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| Can I borrow a dollar? |
We saw three gunfights. Not surprisingly they all ended the same way. The bad guys got shot and the surviving member of the gang rides off with the gold.
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| A singing gunfighter. |
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| A little late on the draw. |
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| He died good! |
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| This guy was quite the actor! |
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| Sheriff and a furry deputy. |
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| Sheriff gets his man......and the gold! |
We headed north out of Oatman on a very twisty, and incredibly beautiful road with rugged landscapes. Hard to believe this was Route 66 and a major roadway across America before the Interstate system created new, modern and wider highways.
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| One twisty road. |
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| Mine entrance |
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| Active mine |
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| Laughlin casinos in the distance. Behind the rocks. |
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| The back road to Bullhead City. Only 15 miles of rough road. |
We stopped at Cool Springs, a rebuilt and rejuvinated tourist stop on the way toward Kingman. It was run by a very enthusiastic merchant, Crazy Ray! He is quite a character. He gives the patrons a history lesson of the area and what he plans to do with future expansion. It was hard not to support his efforts by buying some of his goods so we bought some apple and some pepperoni peanut brittle. (Yes, it was very good) and a couple bottles of pop, cream soda and a root beer.
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| Crazy Ray!! |
We took some back roads around Kingman and into Bullhead City from the north. A great big circle route. Wonderful scenery and an overall great day!
....and that was Our View From Here!
Love it there in Oatman we enjoyed some great entertainment in the hotel a good signer and story teller, always enjoyed the gunfights there and the twisty drive up to Kingman another fun place to explore.
ReplyDeleteThey do a good job to entertain you in Oatman. And it's all free if you don't buy souvenirs of course!
DeleteGreat day! Oatman looks like a fun place to visit. Lots of burros and gunfights. It's always fun to drive Route 66 when you have the chance.
ReplyDeleteWe've been from Winslow to Williams and now Oatman to Kingman. We want to get o Seligman yet this year. All lots of fun to explore.
DeleteWe have been by Oatman a half a dozen times but have never taken the time to stop. We will have to do that one of these days, looks like an interesting little town!
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty neat spot. Lots to see and a good way to spend half a day.
DeleteWhat a wonderful place to visit. Looks like a fun way to spend some time. The burro's are certainly plentiful there.
ReplyDeleteI loved RTE 66 pictures. Another year ....
Safe travels.
Route 66 has been on my bucket list for a long time. We've seen a lot of the Arizona Route this year and hope to see more yet this month.
DeleteGreat job on the blog! We plan on "finally" visiting Oatman next week. Looks like a neat spot to spend a day.
ReplyDelete