Oatman Arizona is an old gold mining town and historic stop on Route 66. Today, Oatman Arizona is a tourist town with free roaming burros, shops, and a daily old west show. At one point, over 10,000 people called Oatman home. Today, just a little over one hundred people live here year-round.
The Oatman Arizona area was first mined for gold in the 1860’s. Then in the early 1900’s the Vivian Mining Company began operations and between 1904 to 1907, the mine yielded over $3,000,000 million in gold. Another large gold strike at the Tom Reid Mine in 1908 brought in over $13,000,000 million in gold. In 1915 another large gold find worth $14,000,000 million was discovered.
The Oatman burros came to town with the early miners. The burros hauled rock, ore, water, and supplies. When the mines closed, the burros were released into the wild. The burros that you see today in and around Oatman, are descendants of those domesticated burros.
In the 1920’s Route 66 was built through Oatman, which allowed the town to cater to the many travelers along the highway. However, in 1953, Route 66 was changed for an easier route around the mountains. This, along with the closing of the mines during WWII, caused the decline of Oatman and it became a ghost town. Oatman saw a rebirth in the late 1980’s when traveling along Route 66 became popular for tourists.
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