Arizona Hotel

Only a concrete vault and some crumbling walls mark where the Arizona Hotel stood, but they measure how big Oatman once was. Built in 1915, it was one of seven hotels in a town then rich with gold, offering forty-five rooms, numerous baths, and concrete fire walls fed by two water mains. Those walls earned their keep in 1921, when the Great Fire swept the north end of town and this southern building survived. It was demolished in the early 1950s to cut the property taxes, a quiet end for a boomtown landmark.

What the plaque says

You are standing on the site of what used to be the ARIZONA HOTEL. In 1915, it was one of seven hotels that existed in Oatman during the early years. The hotel had 45 rooms and numerous baths. It had concrete fire walls and two separate water mains for fire protection purposes. Being in the southern end of town it survived the "Great Fire of 1921", which took out most of the buildings in the northern end of town. It was torn down in the early 1950's to reduce property taxes. All that remains of the Arizona Hotel today is the concrete vault and the crumbling concrete walls in front of you. Just imagine if these walls could talk and the many stories they could tell.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oatman — steps away
  A gold camp in the Black Mountains that outlived its mines, now run by wild burros — reached by the wildest switchbacks left on Route 66, and named for a history worth telling straight.
• Kingman — 22 mi
  The working hub of Route 66 in Arizona — a railroad town named for a surveyor, Andy Devine's hometown, and the last real stop before the road's two wildest endings.

More markers nearby

• Oatman Arizona and its Burros — steps away
• Fairchild, Olive and Oatman (1837 - 1903) — steps away
• Durlin Hotel — steps away
• Gold Road Mine — 1.4 mi