Fairchild, Olive and Oatman (1837 - 1903)

Olive Oatman's story was mythologized almost beyond recognition, so it is worth telling plainly. In 1851 her Mormon family was attacked on the Gila River, most likely by Tolkepaya, the Western Yavapai; most were killed, and Olive and her sister Mary Ann were taken and enslaved, then traded to the Mohave. Mary Ann died of starvation; Olive lived four years among the Mohave, who tattooed her chin, before she was returned in 1856. A minister's lurid 1857 book made her famous. This town, renamed from Vivian in 1909, carries her name.

What the plaque says

Olive Ann Fairchild, Indian captive and lecturer, daughter of Royse (Royce) and Mary Ann (Sperry) Oatman, was born in Illinois is September 1837 or 1839. In 1850 the family joined a wagon train bound for the part of the Colorado River now in southern California, but the train split several times until the Oatman's and their seven children were left to travel alone. On February 18, 1851, Apaches (some authorities say Yavapais) attacked them on the Gila River in Arizona. Olive and her sister Mary were captured, their brother Lorenzo left for dead, and the rest of the family massacred.

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

• Durlin Hotel — steps away
• Arizona Hotel — steps away
• Oatman Arizona and its Burros — steps away
• Gold Road Mine — 1.4 mi