Oatman Massacre Site

Once I knew we would be stopping at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, there was another interesting piece of history in that area on my bucket list. I knew of the Oatman Family story from a little newspaper that is printed monthly sharing the history of AZ, usually focusing on people. The Oatman's story was published in one of the issues this winter.

I learned the graves of the Oatman family were about 10 miles west of the Painted Rock site AND a geocache was near there. We checked the maps and saw roads that would get us near both places. We left the Painted Rocks about 1:00 and continued west on the gravel road. After a couple of wrong roads/turns/no trespassing/private property stops and starts, we drove back to I-8 to take the next exit as my phone indicated a road from the south to the geocache. Another 10 miles north on a gravel road and another wrong turn or two, we finally found...

It wasn't until I was doing a bit of research

that I realized this was NOT the burial ground.

The grave sites are on the No Trespassing/Private Property

land that we would not drive on without permission.

This wooden sign goes with the following sign from Painted Rock:

This was the trail used by the Mormon Battalion

and later became the...

Butterfield Trail

It was after 4:30 when we reached I-8 to continue our journey to Yuma.

If you want to  locate the Oatman grave sites, use

this website:

AZOffRoad