Day 9 Route 66, Oatman, Lake Havasu and Laughlin

So Saturday we got up early, had breakfast at the Denny’s in Kingman and then headed out on to Historic Route 66 to Oatman, AZ. Out first stop on was Cool Springs

This was an old gas station, rest area and restaurant that was built in the mid-1920s and has been connected with Route 66 from the very start. For early motorists, Cool Springs represented a life-saving stop, to check for oil, water, gas up and maybe grab a bite to eat. In 1966 it fell into disrepair and eventually burned to the ground. In 2001 it was rebuilt into a museum and gift shop.

There is also a fun geocache find here in an antique gas pump.

We traveled along the route doing more caches along the way until we arrived in Oatman.  

This is a former mining town in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, it began as a tent camp soon after two prospectors struck a $10 million gold find in 1915. We had visited Oatman the first time we came to Vegas and took a tour through the local gold mine, they were only doing tours back then but because the price of gold had gone up they are back up and running. They are even taking the old tailings and reprocessing them.

We parked at the beginning of Main Street, went to the first store and purchased some alfalfa pellets to feed the wild burros that roam the main streets. Back in the mining days burros were used to pull the carts in the mines. When the mines shut down the burros were let go into the wild to fend for themselves. According to a local there are 11 burros that roam the main streets and most of the stores have small bags of feed for a $1, he said that they don’t like people feeding them carrots because if everybody did that the burros would get too fat.

Oatman was also on Route 66 so all the stores pretty much are souvenir shops or restaurants. 

Also found a couple of geocaches here as well. After Oatman we decided to go and see the London Bridge that was relocated to Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, The city was founded by Robert Paxton McCulloch who was American entrepreneur most notable for McCulloch Chainsaws and  for purchasing the old London Bridge and moving it to Lake Havasu.

By the end of the 18th century, it was apparent that the old London Bridge needed to be replaced. It was narrow and decrepit, and blocked river traffic. By 1924, the east side of the bridge was some three to four inches (102 mm) lower than the west side. The bridge had not been designed to withstand 20th century automotive traffic.

In 1967, the City of London began to look for potential buyers for the London Bridge. Lake Havasu City founder and entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch placed the winning bid of $2,460,000 on April 18, 1968. Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled. The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. Where it was reassembled in Lake Havasu City, it is the center of their waterfront area.

From Lake Havasu we headed north to Laughlin where we walked along the riverfront checking out all the casinos. We decided to walk instead of taking the water taxi that goes back and forth between all the casinos on the river. Dinner at the Aquarius Casino buffet was very good and then a uneventful drive back to Vegas.