Ghost Towns of Route 66 (20 page)
Read Ghost Towns of Route 66 Online
Authors: Jim Hinckley
From the Power House Visitor Center and Route 66 Museum in Kingman, continue west on U.S. 66. Take the left curve behind the Mohave Museum of History & Arts. Cross under Interstate 40 just west of Crazy Fred's Truck Stop, and at the four-way stop, turn left onto Oatman Road.
The road through the Black Mountains features the sharpest curves and steepest grades found anywhere on Route 66, and as a result, large RVs or trucks with trailers are not recommended. For these vehicles, it is best to use exit 1 on Interstate 40.
Nestled in its scenic, narrow canyon, the site of Goldroad is dominated today by a new mining operation, mine tailings, concrete slabs, and a fascinating section of old road with stone bridges that dates to 1905 and that served as the first alignment of the National Old Trails Highway.
Oatman, a few miles to the west, was also a mining town. Because the town centered on the massive complex of the Vivian Mining Company, the post office opened in 1903 under the name Vivian. In 1909, it changed to Oatman in reference to the rescue of Olive Oatmanâa young girl taken captive several years previously and sold into slavery with the Mohave Indiansânear the town site in 1857.
In 1910, the discovery of an even richer deposit led to the establishment of the Tom Reed Mine, and within a few months, it was in sight to eclipse the record of three million dollars in gold extracted from the Vivian Mine. With the establishment of the Oatman Mining District, which included the mines at Goldroad, this became the largest gold-producing district in the territory of Arizona.
The spire of the Elephant's Tooth dominates this skyline of imposing peaks and cliffs in the Black Mountains above Oatman.
Oatman, established in 1902 in the shadow of the distinctive Elephant's Tooth, was the largest town in western Arizona by the late teens.
Mohave Museum of History and Arts
Further fueling growth was the National Old Trails Highway, Route 66 after 1926. Estimates place Oatman's population during the early 1920s as several thousand. The business district included a theater, a lumber company, general stores, garages, service stations, restaurants, saloons, and hotelsâincluding Oatman Hotel, the oldest and largest adobe structure in Mohave County.
The raucous mining town has had a number of brushes with fame. In 1914, Louis Chevrolet, Barney Oldfield, and other drivers roared through town in the last of the great Desert Classic “Cactus Derby” races.
In 1938, after marrying in Kingman, Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their first night as husband and wife at the Oatman Hotel. During the 1950s and 1960s, numerous movies were filmed here including
How the West Was Won
,
Foxfire
, and
Edge of Eternity
.
Mining is the cornerstone of Oatman, a town that now lives on its association with the legendary highway and the fascination of tourists who come to see the burros roaming free.
The slide to obscurity began in the 1930s, escalated with the 1942 closure of the mines, and culminated with the bypass of Route 66 in 1952. Rittenhouse notes that the Oatman of 1946 was “a mining boom town whose day has passed, although a few mines still operate. US 66 passes through the town's one main street. Along one side are boarded up stores, plank sidewalks, old sidewalk awnings.”
Oatman today is again a boomtown. This time it is tourism on Route 66, not gold, that keeps the stores open. During such events as the Route 66 Fun Run, held on the first weekend in May, the town becomes a living snapshot from when Route 66 was truly the Main Street of America and the main street of Oatman.
This is a view of Oatman as it was when Clark Gable and Carole Lombard honeymooned here in 1939.
Joe Sonderman collection
In Oatman, Route 66 is the main street and was the catalyst that transformed the old town into an icon recognized throughout the world.
ROUTE 66, THE FORGOTTEN CHAPTER
T
HE LAST GHOST TOWN
on Route 66 in western Arizona is on the post-1952 alignment of Route 66, now Interstate 40. While almost nothing remains to indicate the territorial origins of Yucca, you'll find a wide array of remnants from the Route 66 era.
Ranching, railroading, and providing supplies for remote mines in the surrounding hills formed the foundation of Yucca. Growth proved elusive, but by 1905, the community was large enough to justify the establishment of a post office, and a school soon followed.
Some maps for the National Old Trails Highway dated 1914 indicate that Yucca was on an alternate route for those wishing to bypass the grades and curves of the main road through the Black Mountains. Tying into this alternate route was the primary road from Kingman to Phoenix, a road that crossed the Bill Williams River near Alamo Crossing, a small mill town to the south.
During World War II, the town received an added boost with the establishment of an auxiliary airfield for the massive Kingman Army Airfield training complex. Ford Motor Company transformed this abandoned airfield in 1955 into a test facility, currently operated by Chrysler.
With the realignment of Route 66 in 1952, Yucca briefly boomed. Vestiges from this period include the Honolulu Club (relocated from Oatman), a motel, a garage, café ruins, foundations, and a towering Whiting Brothers sign that looms over a field of weeds and broken concrete.
The recent acquisition of mining claims in the area of the old Boriana Mines south of Yucca by a large mining conglomerate may signal a new boom. This is the largest known deposit of tungsten in the United States.
The 1952 opening of the Black Mountains bypass proved the death knell for Oatman and Goldroad, and the catalyst for the rise of Yucca.
Mohave Museum of History and Arts
Forlorn remnants, empty lots shadowed by towering signs, and empty cafés line old Route 66, now a frontage road for Interstate 40, in Yucca.
Jim Hinckley
How long before harsh desert wind and vandals erase this vestige of Yucca's glory days?
Jim Hinckley
