Oatman, Arizona: Living Ghost Town: Burros and Gunfights

Chaotic Old West street of wandering burros and free gunfights.

Off Hwy 40, at the Colorado river on the AZ. Side, follow the signs to Oatman, just north of the 40 approximately 20-25 minutes. Take your time, as burros own the road and are always on it. Do not feed them sugary foods; the stores have burro cookies and pellets for $2 a bag.

Nubian Donkeys have crosses on their backs and are said to have carried the baby Jesus after he was born. They are friendly, but a couple of them can bite, so be careful. Donald the donkey gives kisses and lets you pet and hug. The Mayor of this town is a burro and lives at the end of this western town, up on the right in a bright yellow house.

Love the burros! We went on Labor Day weekend and were lucky enough to see two baby burros. They put stickers on the baby burros' foreheads that tell the tourists not to feed them. Great idea.

While we were there, we saw the typical dumb tourist trying to feed them ice cream. Really? Shop owners stopped that quick.

There are fun stores that sell typical souvenir merchandise. They also sell bags of burro food for a dollar.

What great fun! One of the best Roadside America attractions that I have visited. The town has a real charm that most tourist attractions lack nowadays. Really cool to see the burros casually mingling with all the people. One word of advice: if you are coming from Kingman, the road is treacherous! It's a winding road at the edge of a cliff with very narrow lanes.

After bumping over the pass on a really dodgy road from the east side, coming on a traffic jam and a gob of tourists was very surreal. Donkeys were all over the place and not bothered by the cars at all. Have the ice cream.