The town is just 4 blocks long and filled with Old West Charm. Oatman takes pride in keeping its town as authentic as possible. It is an authentic western ghost town and mining camp. There are historic buildings, plank sidewalks, unique shops, dancing to live music, and food to savor. There are wild Burro's panhandling, gunfighters shooting and ladies dressed in 1890's style strolling.

Add to that majestic scenery that surrounds the town, live gunfights on the main street on the weekends, customed dancers and friendly locals that will make you feel welcome and now you see why everyone enjoys Oatman. Oatman receives over 500,000 visitors each year.

Wild burrows wander the town, descendants of the domesticated donkeys that were first used as pack animals and later worked the mines up until 1942. The burros are protected by the US Department of the Interior.

Oatman was a gold mining town until the 1930’s. At that time there were about 10,000 people living in the area, today the population is around 100. Some mining still continues around the area. There are tours given of the Goldroad Mine which was opened originally in 1900 after the discovery of gold.

Several movies, including "How the West Was Won" and "Edge of Eternity," were filmed on location in Oatman, taking advantage of the town's picturesque street scene.

The Oatman Hotel is the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mohave County, a Mohave County historical landmark. Originally built in 1902, the Durlin Hotel was rebuilt in 1924 after the fire.

The eight-room hotel enjoyed a prosperous business with local miners and is especially famous as the honeymoon stop of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard after their wedding in Kingman on March 18, 1939.

Oatman was named in honor of Olive Oatman, a young Illinois girl who was kidnapped by Indians and forced to work as a slave. She was later traded to Mohave Indians who adopted her as a daughter and had her face tattooed in the custom of the tribe. She was released in 1855 near the current site of the town.