A reminder about photographs: Some photographs appear as thumbnails, all other photographs appear within the text as hyperlinks, so be sure to check them out!
West of Kingman, an old, twisting, curvy & treacherous alignment went through
the Black Mountains to Oatman, Topock and then on to Needles, California. A newer,
straight alignment was created, which is now the present day I-40. Of course, I
wanted to take the old alignment into Oatman!
Before the ascent into the Black Mountains, one comes upon the ruins of Cool Springs
(left). Cool Springs was a filling station & 
store, and they
also later served
meals and providing lodging by way of a few tourist cabins.
Subsequently, when this area was bypassed by the new alignment, the business
closed. The family members of the original owners ran various other business
ventures at this location, but all closed. The buildings eventually deteriorated
into ruins. For the 1992 film Universal Soldier, Cool Springs was rebuilt - then
blown up. What exists at the location today is the remains after the movie
production. I didn't explore the area around here because there was a small herd of
cattle nearby (right)!
An issue of Route 66 Magazine has an excellent article on the history of Cool
Springs.
I have read that this old alignment has not changed much over the years. As one ascends the mountains with its steep edges, navigates hairpin turns and other sharp curves, it is a bit intimidating and nerve-racking, never having driven such a road before! But I snaked my way up the mountain a new, modern, air-conditioned vehicle (and with a cell phone handy and a nice ice-filled cooler in the back), I thought about how the families of Okies must have felt, in their over-packed jalopies trying to make this necessary trip. For them, being so close to the "land of milk and honey," this was no time to give up! But now, in the present day, as a Route 66 traveler, one must realize that this is for fun and things will be fine! I wasn't really nervous, it was truly more exciting! Besides, it was another new kind of landscape I've never seen, so I approached every turn with anticipation! It was funny though, that I was constantly thinking of Milton Berle's repetition of the line from It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World about Jimmy Durante's car "sailing out there." LOL! (FYI, that movie was not filmed on Route 66). Additionally, traveling this alignment would yield a special reward you would miss on the newer alignment of Route 66 (Interstate), and that is the visit to Oatman! Here are two close-up maps of a section of this road east of Oatman, so you can see the twists and turns! I have broken it up into two image files (so it would load faster). Driving east to west, you would view the maps below from right to left (though please note they are in different scales).
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Here are various photographs & digital video captures of the road:
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Finally, we rounded a corner and approached
Oatman. We pulled in to a parking area to the right, before a group of buildings.
When we got out of the car, I could hear really loud braying - it was the famous
Oatman burros!
Perhaps other people would
take such things for granted, or be disinterested, but for me, seeing Oatman was amazing.
I've been to Frontier Town in New York, a theme park based on the old west, and while it's
fun, it's obviously just a recreation. Oatman, however, is a real old west
town. At times, they do have staged gunfights and shootouts for tourists, but the
town and the buildings are all original.
We walked over to the shops, and by The Oatman Hotel, where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard
stayed after their wedding in Kingman.
It didn't take long to come
across the "wild" burros. I use the quotes around the word wild, because
while they are actually
wild, the burros have become used to the tourists and are approachable. Besides,
even if you don't approach them, chances are that they will approach you anyway! They are
quite adept at "working the crowd" for carrots! Just use a little caution to
avoid being kicked or bitten. Most importantly, if you feed them, make sure it is
only carrots; even then, do not overfeed them (it interferes with their
appetite/natural diet). The Oatman General Store (left) has carrots for sale.
We spent about an hour in
Oatman, walking on the raised, wooden plank sidewalks past all the shops, constantly
meeting up with the burros, right on the walkway! They tried to go into the General Store,
but the proprietress shooed them away. We took our time, we were not in any hurry,
because our next stop for the night (Needles, California), was not too far. But when the
stores closed at 5:00, we continued on our way.
As we left Oatman, we saw the burros leaving as
well, to go back into the mountains. I thought that was interesting that they left as soon as the stores closed, and people began
to leave for the evening. We continued our descent of the Black Mountains and into Topock,
where we got our first view of palm trees! This was the beginning of the change of
landscape to that of the California desert area.
As we approached the state border, we followed Bob Moore's book to the original Old Trails Bridge (which you can see in The Grapes of Wrath). We turned back, and headed for the Interstate, the only way to cross the Colorado River.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005