Oatman, Arizona: The Ghost Town the Burros Took Over

Oatman has about a hundred residents, no traffic light, and a Main Street where the right of way belongs to donkeys. Not as a marketing gimmick. You will stop your car for them, and they will not hurry.

The name comes from Olive Oatman, a girl whose family was attacked on the trail west in 1851. She spent years living with Native people in this desert and came back with a blue tattoo across her chin that made her one of the most photographed women in the West.

Gold built the place. Prospectors hit a major vein in 1915, and inside of a year a tent camp became a town of more than 10,000 people stacked into a canyon barely wide enough for one street. Then the ore thinned, Washington shut down nonessential gold mining during World War II, and Route 66 was realigned in the 1950s to skip the pass entirely. The burros stayed. Miners had hauled ore with them and turned them loose when the work ended. A century later their descendants are the entire economy.

Know before you go

Oatman is free: no gate, no entrance fee, no reservation. It sits in the Black Mountains of northwest Arizona, roughly 28 miles southwest of Kingman on the Route 66 Historic Back Country Byway, a 42-mile paved stretch managed by the BLM's Kingman Field Office. Wild burros roam the street freely and are federally protected; the BLM asks visitors not to feed or approach them, even though half the shops in town sell pellets. Go October through April, and plan on the drive being the real event: the climb over Sitgreaves Pass is paved but steep and hairpinned, with a 40-foot vehicle length limit.

Oatman quick facts

What is the drive to Oatman actually like?

Two ways in. From the north, leave I-40 at the McConnico exit (exit 44) five miles south of Kingman and climb across Golden Valley. From the south, exit at Topock/Golden Shores (exit 1) and come up the switchbacks past the old Goldroad mining site. Either way you're on original Route 66 alignment, which is the whole reason to do it. It's paved throughout, but the BLM recommends an automatic transmission for the grades and posts speeds between 20 and 45 mph. Hairpins, no shoulder, few guardrails. Use the pullouts near the summit.

The stuff nobody mentions until it's a problem: no drinking water, no toilets, and cell service is a rumor. Nearest gas is Kingman, Golden Valley, or Bullhead City. Fill up before you leave the interstate.

Can you feed the burros in Oatman?

The honest answer is messier than the town lets on. Shops along Main Street sell alfalfa cubes and burro pellets, and feeding gets treated as the entire point of a visit. The Bureau of Land Management, which manages this herd under federal law as the Black Mountain Herd Management Area, asks the public not to feed or approach them at all. Feeding teaches the herd to gather along roads and in town, which drives up collisions, property damage, bites and kicks.

The scale is real. BLM estimated roughly 3,896 burros in the herd area as of March 2026 against an appropriate management level of 478, and began a gather in April 2026 using bait and water traps rather than helicopters.

So go see them, give them room, and watch where their ears and back legs are pointed.

What is there to do once you park?

Not a lot, and that's fine. Oatman is a two-hour town, three if you eat. The Oatman Hotel, built in 1902, is the oldest two-story adobe building in Mohave County, and its bar is papered floor to ceiling in signed dollar bills, a tradition that started with miners pinning up a bill so they'd always have money for a drink. The town's most-repeated story is that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard honeymooned here in 1939, and the hotel leans hard into it.

Gunfight reenactments run most days around midday, staged in the street by volunteer troupes. Times shift with season, weather, and crowd size, and the late show often gets dropped in summer heat. Ask in a shop rather than trusting a schedule you found online.

Can I bring a dog to Oatman?

Yes, on leash. The BLM requires pets leashed at all times along the byway, and service dogs go anywhere visitors can go. The burros are the complication: a loose or reactive dog around a wild burro is a genuinely bad situation, and burros kick. Keep a short leash, cross the street rather than squeeze past a group, and stay away from any jenny with a foal. The other hazard is pavement. Main Street bakes, and asphalt that feels merely warm through your shoes can blister paws.

Bringing kids?

One of the easiest stops in Arizona with young kids. Flat, short, no hiking, and the main attraction walks up to them. The gunfights are loud but cartoonish, and the town is two blocks long, so nobody gets marched past their limit. Teach the burro rules before anyone opens a car door: no running at them, no hands near the mouth, stay out from behind. Then plan for the road, winding enough to matter if someone in the back seat gets carsick. Topock is the gentler climb.

How do you stay safe out here?

Heat is the headline. Low desert, no shade, no public water, and summer afternoons that are dangerous rather than merely unpleasant. Carry more water than a two-hour stop seems to justify, because resupply is 28 miles away. The BLM's hazard list here runs to venomous reptiles and invertebrates, extreme heat and cold, and flash floods, with no first aid on site and no reliable cell service. And watch for burros on the road after dark, when they're nearly invisible against the asphalt and very much still standing in it.

Oatman FAQs

Can you feed the burros in Oatman, Arizona?
Shops in town sell burro pellets and alfalfa cubes, and many visitors do feed them. The Bureau of Land Management, which manages the herd, asks the public not to feed or approach wild burros because it draws them toward roads and town and increases collisions, bites, and kicks. They are federally protected wild animals, so the safest choice is to watch and photograph from a distance.

Is the Oatman Highway drive dangerous?
It's paved the entire way and any road-worthy vehicle can drive it, but it's steep, narrow, and full of hairpin turns with few guardrails over Sitgreaves Pass. The BLM recommends an automatic transmission for the grades. Drive it in daylight and use the pullouts for photos, and it's a great road rather than a scary one.

Can you take an RV to Oatman?
Not if it's over 40 feet. The BLM enforces a 40-foot length limit over Sitgreaves Pass between Golden Valley and Oatman, with signage in Golden Valley warning drivers before they commit to the climb. Wider vehicles under the limit should still use caution, since there are no shoulders through the switchbacks.

Put it on the map

Oatman is one of the 60 stops on the McSenderson Arizona Outdoor Adventure Map, and it's exactly what that map exists for: not a marquee park, just a spot that pays off for people who take the long road. Building a route around the state? Start with the full 60-stop Arizona bucket list, then add Bisbee, the copper camp that reinvented itself instead of emptying out.

Ryan Laboy — Co-founder, McSenderson. Single-digit handicap golfer and ten-year skier based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Researches and designs every McSenderson map. hello@mcsenderson.com