Welcome to Colleen’s Corner. This is a column meant for fun and some information About myself: I am a Freelance Photographer you often see me on the side of the road or in various places taking photos of different things animals, birds, places, people etc. l have lived in Lumby just over 8 years you have seen my photos in the newspaper (Lumby Valley Times) and once in awhile in the Vernon Morning Star, and the Lumby Art Gallery. Photography is my passion. Disclaimer: The information on some of my photos that I write about a lot of times come from the Internet or books I research them, hopefully the facts are as close to the truth as I can come.
On route 66 in the Mojave Desert there is a very small old gold mining town that is called Oatman Arizona, originally called Vivian. Oatman is now regarded as a “Ghost Town”. In 2021 there were approximately 43-50 residents living in Oatman when at one time there were more than 10,000 people. Now there are more Burros than people that live here. In this town you will see Burros everywhere freely roaming the streets. In fact that’s what has made this little town so famous is all the Burros. At one time Oatman was a bustling gold mining town, they used the Burros as their pack animals. When the gold mining ended the Burros were left behind, leaving the Burro descendants to become feral. You are usually greeted by a few Burros as you enter the town. Once you arrive in the town the Burros will be everywhere, some will even come up to you and give you a bump with their head hoping you will feed them. You will see them walking everywhere in this town, including on the wooden sidewalks, sometimes even popping their heads into stores.
In Oatman they now have daily gunfight shows in the afternoon, this is a lot of fun to see.
When the town was first developed with a post office the name Vivian came from the name Vi-vian which was a mining company. Johnny Moss was a famous gold prospector who named two mines one after him and one after Olive Oatman. The Oatman family had been massacred by either the Western Yavapais or Tolkepayas (the history of that is not certain) throwing the brother of Olive over a cliff after bludgeon his head leaving him to die. The warriors captured both Olive and her younger sister Mary-Ann and then later sold to them to the Mojave natives. Olive was tattooed with blue ink on her chin and on her arms to show that she was a slave in case she ran away. Her younger sister had died earlier due to starvation when the food had been scarce because of the drought in 1855. Olive was released five years later. Olive became a speaker and travelled throughout the country relating her story. Years later after being released she found her brother Lorenzo who had lived all though left for dead after being thrown over the cliff. With their reunion Olive and her brother lived together even after her marriage to John Brant Fairchild. After their marriage they moved to Sherman Texas where they adopted a girl which they named Mary Elizabeth. Olive was buried in Sherman Texas, there is also a historical marker in Sherman.
There had been rumors of a man name John Oatman who was the half son of Olive and an Mojave tribe member, but this has never been proven. The town of Vivian officially renamed the name to Oatman in 1909 in honor of Olive.
Oatman has a lot of history, which is well worth reading. If you are in Arizona and you can’t make it to Oatman to see the wild Burros, don’t worry there are different places where they are seen wandering around.
