To get to Oatman, Arizona from Kingman, Arizona one has no option but to take old Route 66. It winds you through the Black Mountains and is absolutely gorgeous!
A new version of Route 66 bypassed them in 1953, but the old route has been paved again and is truly miles of sights to behold.
In this particular 150,000 acres of wild-ness, we should find the largest herds of wild burros and desert bighorn sheep in the entire state.
During the Great Depression of the 1930's, half a million people struggled west on Route 66 in an attempt to find work. The Black Mountains were a barrier to that goal. I remember some old-timer telling me that the fuel in a Model T was gravity driven. If a hill was too steep, no fuel could reach the engine. The cleverest of men figured out that if they turned their "T's" around and backed up the mountain, gravity worked in their favor. (How would you like to be smarter than a Model T?) That's probably why, in 1953, the government built a bypass around the mountain. It made traveling easier, but then folks missed all the scenery!
Oatman is an old mining town founded around 1908. Over the next thirty years, 1.8 million ounces of gold had been mined from the area. By World War II, gold (believe it or not) was consider nonessential to the war effort and the mines were closed. (I guess they needed all able-bodied men "over there.") But the price of gold is so incredibly high the last few years that mines are reopening.
It's impossible to drive through the town of Oatman for all the burros filling the street.
(Notice I said, "street." There's only one. :) So the burros were allowed to range free thereafter and are protected by the Federal government from capture or harassment, hence the huge herds.
But the burros are for real - and they're multiplying!
They are really beautiful, but wild. You are warned time and again that, though they appear tame, they are in reality wild as a March hare and WILL bite.
I just happen to love all of 'em!
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