 |
Leaving Lake Havasu City and heading north and west on Rte 40 for a few miles, you exit the highway and pick up Historic Route 66 and travel into a former gold mining town call Oatman, AZ. Once home to more than 10,000, the population now numbers less than 200, and a few dozen wild burros. Of the estimated 1,500 burros that live in the surrounding hills, fortunately, only the dozen or so wandering the downtown streets today were seeking handouts and posing for pictures. Each has and knows it’s name, and by tradition, the first person that sees a new baby burro, gets the privilege of assigning its birth name.
As in all tourist towns, galleries and gift shops line the main street. The Gable/Lombard suite #15 at the Oatman Hotel is named for the famous movie duo who spent their honeymoon night here. We had lunch here; a Navaho Taco and Sarsaparilla for my Cowboy. Oatman offers tours of the Gold Road Mine, which tunnels under Route 66. Gunfights happen in the streets about three times a day and the gunfighters even perform actual marriage ceremonies they prefer to call “Shotgun Weddings”. We didn’t find any gold here, but did manage to get out of town with any gold we came with, minus the cost of grub and a souvenir magnet.
No comments:
Post a Comment