The History of Oatman, Arizona and Its Free-Roaming Burros

An Old Mining Town That Survived

Nestled along a section of the old Route 66 in the Black Mountains of northwestern Arizona is the little village of Oatman.

In 1863, a prospector in the area named Johnny Moss discovered gold where Oatman now stands. Moss filed a number of claims, one of which he named Moss and another which he named Oatman in honor of Olive Oatman.

Olive Oatman was well known and famous in that era and the location of the Oatman Massacre was one of the few nearby places in the then mostly empty surrounding desert.

The town of Oatman began sometime after Moss filed his claims. Oatman was not the first name of what is now the town of Oatman; with its early booms and busts, it ended up with a number of new names as a result of its population declining to near zero during the busts and then re-emerging shortly after following a new boom.

At some point in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, it was named Oatman and that name stuck. However, it doesn’t appear that Olivia Oatman ever visited or had anything to do with Oatman, Arizona, other than the fact that the site of the massacre of her family and the start of her five-year captivity occurred in the surrounding desert.

Oatman Struggled to Avoid Becoming Another Ghost Town

Like Tombstone, Arizona, Oatman is an old mining town whose mines have been closed since the start of World War II and whose remote location has rendered it economically obsolete.

In the case of Tombstone, a change in a planned railroad route killed off chances of attracting new residents and employers. However, in Oatman’s case, it was located along the famous U.S. Route 66 that ran between Chicago and Los Angeles. But, starting in the 1950s as motor travel began increasing, new roads, like Interstate 40, replaced much of Route 66 and other former major roads.

Unlike many other dying mining towns, Oatman residents saw their town not as a dying relic of the past but as a place for people to immerse themselves in a past that previously existed only in history books.

Over Half a Million People Visit Oatman Every Year

Oatman is a town that, according to the 2010 Census, has a population of 128, sits in the middle of nowhere and is accessible solely via a section of the old Route 66. Despite these handicaps, half a million tourists visit and spend money in Oatman every year.

The town is visibly old, with most of its aging and weatherbeaten old buildings still in use as stores, restaurants, and other tourist-centered businesses. Some of the sidewalks are still made of wood.

One of its major buildings is the Oatman Hotel, Restaurant & Bar—a two-story adobe structure built in 1902 that survived the 1921 fire that destroyed many of the town's smaller wooden buildings. The hotel portion of the building is now a museum, with one of its major exhibits being the room where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon following their 1939 wedding in nearby Kingston, Arizona. The restaurant and bar portion of the building still serve food and drink.

Our visit to Oatman occurred this past Thanksgiving, which meant that the town was mostly empty that day. Two or three other people came by while we were there. Only a couple of stores were open, one being an antique shop with early to mid-twentieth century everyday items. We didn’t buy anything, but it was fascinating to walk through and see things our great-grandparents used.

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Wild Burros Outnumber Humans and Attract Tourists

The area in Northwestern Arizona where Oatman and the surrounding Black Mountains are located is a rugged, high desert, mountain environment with few people and few roads. In 1863, a prospector and mountain man named Johnny Moss discovered gold in the area and filed claims on places where he found gold. Moss's discovery and filing of claims attracted other prospectors, which led to the creation of a mining camp where Oatman now stands.

Prospectors were mainly loners who spent their lives wandering alone through the mountains accompanied by a burro carrying the prospector’s food, supplies, and tools. They spent weeks or months alone with their burro as their only companion. The burro loyally accompanied through the wilderness as they searched for gold.

Without their sure-footed burros to carry their tools and supplies prospectors would have been unable to survive while searching for gold in the vast, rugged area.

The harsh conditions, injury, illness, and old age resulted in a number of prospectors dying alone in the wilderness while searching for gold. Following a prospector’s death, his loyal burro was forced to wander off and live in the wild. After a few decades, the wilderness area around Oatman was home to many wild burros.

Since it was the burros that were the backbone of the early mining in the area that led to the establishment of Oatman as a town, the townspeople have responded by allowing the burros to roam and relieve themselves freely in the streets (locals and visitors have to watch where they step). The burros, like wild horses, are protected by Federal Law.

Oatman Named After Olive Oatman

As mentioned above, Oatman is named after Olive Oatman. At the age of 14, she was traveling across the western Arizona desert with her parents and siblings when an encounter with a band of local Indians resulted in the death of her parents and most of her siblings. Olive and her 7-year-old sister were taken captive. Following her release from captivity some 5 years later, she and her story became very famous.

Olive was born in Illinois on September 7, 1837. She was one of seven children born to Roys (or Royce—the spelling varies depending on the source) and Mary Ann Oatman. She and her family were members of a group, known as Brewsterites, that broke away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) and led by a man named James C. Brewster. Among other disagreements with the Mormon Church leaders in Salt Lake City, Brewster believed that California, not Utah, was where the members of the Church should settle and have their headquarters.

On August 5, 1850, a group of families led by James Brewster left Independence, Missouri, for California. Tensions arose among the group (numbering just under 100 people) as more and more people began opposing Brewster’s leadership.

As they neared Santa Fe, many, including Roys Oatman, became so upset with Brewster that the wagon train split, with some following Brewster along a northern route and many others, including the Oatmans, choosing the southern route (known among other names as the Southern Emigrant Trail). The latter led across the deserts of southern Arizona and California. Roys Oatman ended up becoming the leader of the group.

Royce Oatman Continues to California While Rest of Wagon Train Stays Behind

Upon reaching a desert oasis northwest of Tucson, Arizona, in February 1851, the families in the wagon train were warned that the route ahead was dangerous. In addition to the fact that the route traveled across a barren desert, they were also warned about hostile activity by some of the tribes residing and operating in the desert.

While the miles of desert ahead were harsh and barren, winter was a better time to cross due to lower temperatures and the greater possibility of finding water from the winter rains. However, the threat of hostile attack offset the advantages of traveling this route in winter.

When the other families in the wagon train decided to remain in Arizona, Royce Oatman and his family chose to continue on to California alone. Why Royce decided to continue on with his family alone is somewhat of a mystery. Despite his break with James Brewster, there is no evidence that he gave up on the Brewsterite belief that promised site for Mormon settlement was in California rather than Utah. Some sources also state that Royce Oatman hoped to find gold in California, which makes sense as this period was the middle of the famous 1848–1855 gold rush.

An Encounter Gone Bad

Whatever Royce and his family’s intentions were, they ended up being massacred by a band of natives four days after leaving the Maricopa Wells Oasis. Interestingly, every account of the massacre starts by describing what happened as an encounter rather than an attack. All of the accounts that I have reviewed describe the encounter as a group of native men on horseback approaching the wagon and asking for tobacco, food, and guns.

With a long trip across the desert ahead Royce was naturally concerned about giving away his supplies of food and was certainly unwilling to hand over the family’s guns. His refusal to hand over food and guns resulted in the native group turning hostile. A short fight ensued that resulted in both parents and four of the children being killed. When the murderous melee ended, only 14-year-old Olive and 7-year-old Mary Ann remained alive and physically unharmed. Fifteen-year-old Lorenzo also survived but had been beaten unconscious and assumed dead by the two girls and the attackers. Lorenzo regained consciousness sometime after and managed to make his way to a settlement vowing to find his sisters after he recovered.

Following the massacre of the family, Olive and Mary Ann were taken by their captors, who Olive later identified as Tonto Apaches (however, most scholars claim that her captors were Tolkepayas more commonly known as Western Yavapias), back to the tribe as slaves. While with the Tolkepayas Olive and Mary Ann were forced to go out and forage for food, carry wood, and other menial tasks ordered by their masters. Both were beaten when they displeased tribal members.

Mojave Chief Espaniole Buys Olive and Mary Ann and Adopts Them

During a trading visit by a group from the neighboring Mojave Tribe, the two girls were noticed by Topeka, the Mojave Chief Espaniole’s daughter, who, seeing how the girls were being mistreated took pity on them and urged her father to buy them. The Tolkepayas initially refused, but at a later meeting did agree to sell the two girls to the Mojave chief, who made them a part of his family.

Both Olive and probably her sister were tattooed according to Mojave custom. After her return to her own people, many cited her tattoos as evidence that Olive had been branded as a slave by the Mojaves. However, tattooing was a common practice among the Mojaves, who believed that the tattoos identified them as members of the tribe and were needed to gain admittance to heaven after death. They didn’t tattoo slaves because slaves were outsiders and the Mojave were not concerned about what happened to the slaves after death.

During Olive’s and Mary Ann’s stay with the Mojaves, the tribe endured one of the area’s periodic famines. Olive survived, but Mary Ann and a number of other members of the tribe perished before the famine ended.

Olive survived the famine and appears to have assimilated into the tribe and its culture. She also appears to have found happiness in being a part of the tribe. She not only took a Mojave name, Oach, but also avoided being seen by railroad workers who were camped nearby and other occasional visitors from the outside world. This may have been partly due to the fact that she didn’t know that her brother, Lorenzo, had not only survived but was looking for her. There were also rumors, which were not only never substantiated as well as repeatedly denied by Olive, that she had been married to a member of the tribe and had given birth to children with him.

Despite Olive’s and the tribe’s efforts to keep her hidden from American authorities, rumors did begin to circulate about a white girl living among the Mojave. At the age of 19 and some 4 years after surviving the attack that killed most of her family the authorities at Ft. Yuma in Arizona had enough evidence to demand the return of Olive to American authorities.