Oatman Hotel

The Oatman Hotel is the only adobe structure in Mohave County. It was built in 1924 when Oatman was experiencing a period of prosperity thanks to the productive gold mines in the area. Tourists traveling on the National Old Trails Highway, which became part of Route 66 in 1926, further encouraged this growth as well. The hotel is also notable for being where famous actors Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon in 1939. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Oatman became a mining center in the early 1900s. Gold was discovered nearby on a site in the Black Mountains called the Vivian Ledge around 1901-1902. A company called the Mount Mohave Gold Mining Company was founded in 1903 and consolidated the small claims in the area. It built mining facilities as well. The mine did not produce a lot of gold, however, and the company stopped operations. In 1906, another company called the Tom Reed Gold Mining Company bought the mine and two years later found a large gold vein that would produce around $13 million in gold. Another vein was later found in 1913. That discovery sparked a boom in Oatman that saw the population growing from a few hundred to 3,500 residents by 1916. The population reached a peak of around 10,000 in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The Oatman was first called the Durlin Hotel after its builder, John Durlin. The building today is not the original one; that was destroyed a fire in 1921 that razed most of the town. Several individuals owned the hotel over the years. The third owner, George Rayburn, bought it in 1939 and renamed it "Ox Yoke Inn." In 1967, the new owner, Robert Whitaker, named it the Oatman Hotel.

The hotel today features a saloon and restaurant. The saloon's walls are covered with signed one-dollar bills. Miners signed their names onto bills and attached them to the walls so they could use them when they were low on money. Other visitors have done the same. Visitors are allowed to go upstairs to view the Gable-Lombard honeymoon suite.

"Oatman." TheRoute-66.com. Accessed September 13, 2023. https://www.theroute-66.com/oatman.html.

Perreault, Bill. "Durlin Hotel." National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. August 25, 1983. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/83002988_text.