The wild burros of Oatman belong to the Black Mountain Herd Management Area, the largest in Arizona, about 1.1 million acres of Bureau of Land Management country running 80 miles along the Colorado River from Hoover Dam to the Needles bridge. The BLM describes the animals as descendants of burros brought in by miners and prospectors from the early 1860s, of North African ancestry, and Oatman sits in the centre of the southern half of the range. By the usual account, the pack animals that hauled ore and supplies were no longer needed once the mines closed, and the herd grew from the ones that escaped or were turned loose. Since the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 they have been federally protected, and the BLM is required to keep the population near a level the land can carry.
That level, the appropriate management level, is 382 to 478 burros. The herd has run far above it. Ahead of a helicopter roundup in January 2024 that aimed to remove up to 1,000 animals, it was estimated at about 1,900; by March 2026 the BLM's estimate stood at about 3,896. The 2026 gather used bait and water traps instead of helicopters and gathered 495 burros between April and May and shipped 486 of them to a corral in Axtell, Utah, for adoption or sale.
Road safety is one of the reasons the BLM gives. Burros are hit by vehicles on the roads through the range, and Mohave County prohibits feeding them in the roadway through Oatman, which draws them onto the curves.
Getting there
35.0264, -114.3833
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
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