{"id":22,"date":"2010-07-27T14:40:38","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T14:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/wild-in-the-streets-of-oatman-arizona.html"},"modified":"2010-07-27T14:40:38","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T14:40:38","slug":"wild-in-the-streets-of-oatman-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/wild-in-the-streets-of-oatman-arizona.html","title":{"rendered":"Wild in the Streets of Oatman, Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Just west of
\nKingman, Arizona, charming old Route 66 climbs into the Black Mountains,
\nbecoming a winding, treacherous, nerve-wracking drive with no guardrails (just
\nthe occasional protective cable) and plenty of hairpin turns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Past filling
\nstation ruins and skeleton cars in the parched moonscape hills, motorists still
\nwhite-knuckle the wheel for about 10 miles until the road gently empties down
\nin the town of Oatman.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Oatman Hotel, where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard famously honeymooned in 1939 still stands, along with a number of other historic structures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oatman
\n(population about 150) thrived back in the early 1900s thanks to all the gold
\nin them thar hills. But once the mines tapped out, the town almost went with
\nthem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wandering the
\nstreets today though, clearly, something helped saved it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burros!<\/font><\/p>\n

A plaque in the
\ncenter of town explains: “Oatman was founded around 1906 as part of Arizona’s
\nrichest gold mining area. Oatman was reborn in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s
\nas a tourist town. The main attraction was the wild burro herd. The burros
\nroaming the Oatman area are descendants of the burros from the mining ventures
\nof earlier times.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it were not
\nfor these burros in all probability, neither you nor this plaque would be
\nstanding here today. People from all over the world come to visit, feed, and
\ntake pictures of the burros.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Posted signs
\nwarn that the animals might bite and kick but on this lazy summer day they seem
\ncontent to peacefully do what they do: munch carrots, tie up traffic and
\nprovide photos ops for tourists who snap way like paparazzi on the red carpet
\nat Cannes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 Such is life for
\na bunch of four-legged saviors who come and go with the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\"oatman<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just west of Kingman, Arizona, charming old Route 66 climbs into the Black Mountains, becoming a winding, treacherous, nerve-wracking drive with no guardrails (just the occasional protective cable) and plenty of hairpin turns. Past filling station ruins and skeleton cars in the parched moonscape hills, motorists still white-knuckle the wheel for about 10 miles until…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nWild in the Streets of Oatman, Arizona - The Pop Culture Road Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/wild-in-the-streets-of-oatman-arizona.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wild in the Streets of Oatman, Arizona - The Pop Culture Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just west of Kingman, Arizona, charming old Route 66 climbs into the Black Mountains, becoming a winding, treacherous, nerve-wracking drive with no guardrails (just the occasional protective cable) and plenty of hairpin turns. 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As an author, Epting has found that unearthing and chronicling \"\"hidden\"\" locations offers him a challenge. What began as an inquisitive hobby soon developed into the writing and photographing of 18 books based on his discoveries, including \"\"James Dean Died Here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6The Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks,\"\" \"\"Elvis Presley Passed Here, Even More Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks,\"\" \"\"Roadside Baseball,\"\" and \"\"The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain: The Locations of America's Pop Culture.\"\" As an extension of his efforts to chronicle the unique, Epting joined Hampton Hotels for a sixth exciting year as national spokesperson and consultant for the Hidden Landmarks program in support of the brand's national \"\"Explore the Highway with Hampton Save-A-Landmark\u00c3\u201d\"\" campaign (the program recently won the President's award). Chris is a frequent featured guest on numerous radio and television programs such as National Public Radio's \"\"All Things Considered,\"\" \"\"The Savvy Traveler,\"\" \"\"Access Hollywood\"\" and FOX TV's the \"\"Best Damn Sports Show Period,\"\" plus radio and TV programs around the world. He has contributed articles for such publications as the \"\"Los Angeles Times,\"\" \"\"Westways,\"\" \"\"Travel + Leisure\"\" and \"\"Preservation\"\" magazine, and hosts the weekly syndicated radio show, \"\"The Pop Culture Road Trip.\"\" Chris's latest book, \"\"Hello It's Me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Dispatches from a Pop Culture Junkie\"\" will be released in July, 2010. Chris lives in Huntington Beach, CA with his wife and their two children.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/author\/cepting"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}