Staged gunfights on Main Street in Oatman turn the old Route 66 into an open-air stage: costumed gunfighters walk out into the roadway, onlookers close in around them, and a shootout plays out with real guns firing blanks while the crowd stands within ten or fifteen feet of the action. The best-known troupe, the Oatman Ghost Riders, had by a 2014 account been staging reenactments daily for more than 25 years, and Roadside America also recorded a second group, the Bitter Creek Outlaws. There is no admission. A hat goes around instead, and the money has gone to Oatman's community facilities, local charities and Shriners Children's Hospitals.
The show belongs to Oatman's second life. The gold camp went quiet after its mines closed, the highway was rerouted around it in the early 1950s, and the town came back on visitors driving the old road over Sitgreaves Pass. The burros that wander Main Street, descended from pack animals turned loose by the miners, were described by Roadside America as staying calm through the shooting.
Getting there
35.0267, -114.3833
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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