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Oatman Highway
As you begin your journey
on south of
Kingman
on the
Oatman
Highway you will see little more than a dozen ram-shackle houses and
hundreds of yucca plants, as you wonder when the road will begin its
ascent into the mountains ahead.
However, before you know it, you'll take a peek
behind you to see that the elevation has fallen below, as you come upon
the small road side stop of Cool Springs Camp. Gleaming in its
appearance today, you might be surprised to learn it wasn’t so long ago
that this wonderful camp had gone completely to ruin.
Cool Springs Camp
Built in 1926, the initial camp included a café and a Mobil Oil
Station. The last stop before the steep
Goldroad
grade, the camp was a welcome respite to check vehicles' oil, water and
gas, and grab a bite to eat.
In the 1930's, James Walker moved his family from Huntington, Indiana
to operate the camp, improving the station and building eight tourist
cabins. However, sometime later, the couple divorced, leaving Mrs.
Walker and the children to run the camp.
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This tattered windmill speaks to some very
windy days along the first stretch of the Oatman Highway south from
Kingman, Kathy Weiser, April, 2008.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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 The camp continued to flourish and Mrs.
Walker remarried a man named Floyd Spidell. After World War II, when
people began to travel at a pace never seen before, the chicken
dinners served at Cool Camp became famous for the many travelers
making their way to
California.
In the early 1950's, the
Yucca Bypass
was developed, which took its toll on the camp, as well as nearby
Oatman,
effectively turning it into a
ghost town.
Sometime later, the Spidell's divorced,
and Floyd was left to run the camp. In 1957, he was joined by his
niece, Nancy Schoenerr and her husband Chuck. Though traffic had
dwindled on the steep Sitgreaves Pass, they continued to operate the
camp until 1966, when the entire camp burned completed to the ground,
leaving nothing but remnants of the stone foundations. For the next
several decades, the site was left abandoned and neglected.
However, in 2001, the camp was purchased by Ned and Michelle Leuchtner and the delicate restoration process was begun. In
2004, the Cool Springs Camp store was fully restored and opened to a new
generation of
Route 66'rs, featuring a gift shop and art gallery.
The Leuchtner's continue to improve the property, and as of this
writing (2008), are building a structure that resembles one of the old
tourist cabins.
About a mile on down the road, you will come to the remains of Ed’s Camp
which have, unfortunately, not faired as well. The camp belonged to
a man named Ed Edgerton, a miner who came to the area in 1917. When
Route 66
came through, he decided to build a trading post upon his property and set
the foundation. However, traffic increased at such a rapid pace, he
simply put a roof over the foundation, saying, "The hell with the
building, we will leave it open.” Ed’s open air trading post was
born. Soon the Kactus Kafe, a gas station, and cabins were added to
the camp. Today, it sits lonely and abandoned, piled with iron bed
frames, rocks, old tires, railroad ties, and other debris.
At this point,
Oatman
Highway begins to live up to its reputation as the road
becomes narrow and steep along Sitgreaves Pass. In the early
days of
Route 66,
when vehicles had little power, the only way up the 3,500 foot grade was
sometimes by driving backwards. Driving in the lower gear of reverse
solved the problem of early gravity-fed fuel systems.
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