Oatman Massacre Site & Imperial Sand Dunes Old Plank Road

wayoflife

wayoflife

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On our way home from the 2013 Overland Expo, we decided to take a round about way back to California and do a little overlanding ourselves. Heading south to Gila Bend and then west on Interstate 8, our first detour along the way would be over to an area known as Oatman Flats. Here, we would spend some time exploring the remnants of the old Butterfield Stage Route, the old Fourr's Cemetery, the grave site of the family that the flats got it's name from as well as the massacre site that got them buried there. The following morning and final leg of the trip, we passed by the small town of Felicity (aka, the "center of the world") and checked out the old plank road out in the Imperial Sand Dunes. Here are a few pics from our trip, I hope you enjoy.

Off the Interstate and heading north toward the Gila River...
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After descending the plateau, we found ourselves down in an area known as Oatman Flat, the location of Jordan Ranch. Here, we made our first stop over at the old Fourr's Stage Station which was established back in 1862 by William Fourr and where several of his children are buried...
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Just beyond Rubicat, you can see the remains of the old Butterfield Stage Route...
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Taking a short hike up the old stage route...
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Up on top of the plateau looking east - tough country to be crossing in a wagon...
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Looking back down at the old stage station and where we left our Jeeps...
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It wasn't easy to find but, after looking around for awhile, we eventually located the Fourr's Cemetery where two of William and Lucinda's children and their still born "Baby" are buried...
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Heading west across Oatman Flats, our next stop was over to the Oatman grave site, the final resting place of the six members of the slaughtered Oatman family...
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On the move again with the sun going down...
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As the sun was starting to set, we made our final stop over at the actual Oatman massacre site which is up the bluff from the grave site...
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Looking down the path of the old Butterfield Stage Route and across Oatman Flat...
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It's a little hard to tell in these pics but, the grooves in the basalt were created by countless wagons rolling up this grade over 150 years ago...
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Time to head on out...
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The following morning and our last leg of the trip, we made a stop over at Felicity, the location of "The Center of the World"...
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Our next stop would be to visit an old wooden plank road which was constructed over 100 years ago to help the first automobiles cross the Imperial Sand Dunes...
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Looking back at our Jeeps and imagining what it would have been like to drive on this road...
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Even today, the ever shifting sands wants to swallow everything up...
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Plaque dedicated to the old plank road...
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Before calling it a day, we decided to check out the awesome serpentine like border fence snaking across the dunes...
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And that's how we ended our adventures out to the 2013 Overland Expo. I hope you enjoyed following us on our adventures. :cool:
 
Its pretty cool to see that you have checked out my neck of the woods! I was raised in Yuma, AZ and have spent plenty of time in the desert out there exploring with my dad as kid.

Out in the Tacna area there is a monument dedicated to the training general Patton did out there and you can still see the camp grounds outlined with little rocks out in the flat areas. Its all on the east border of YPG (Yuma Proving Ground).

Next time your in the Yuma area you should check out the quarter master depot and the Yuma territorial prison. If you haven't already.

Great pics BTW! Thanks for sharing!

Sent from some trail, somewhere
 
Cool pictures. How fast did you go on that sand next to the fence. Look like you could drive for miles.
 
The border patrol monitors the fence pretty heavily. They have quads, SXS's hummers and even long travel sand rails. They also have other, more secretive means of monitoring. You see some crazy shit down there.

Sent from some trail, somewhere
 
Oatman flats

Thanks for sharing the pictures we have done a bit of exploring out there and been to quite a few of the spots in the pics and its hard to imagine the folks on the stage coaches coming and going. talk about offroaders they were tough.
 
Great pics, RubiCat.. never really knew about the history of oatman flats. I've Been out in the desert (AZ Native), though, and came across an old family cemetery once, pretty eery. Best is a few old indian ruins i've come across, and an old indian grinding stone, or metate, i've found. A lot of that here still.
 
Sweet pics thanks for sharing.

Saw a special on the plank highway on 'california gold' with Huegl Howser a few years back. Looks real pretty, wouldn't mind getting out there some time to check it out.
 
Great pics thanks for sharing:thumb::yup: WOW, You and Cindy get to see some great places.:yup: How awesome is that! :beer::clap2:
 
Very cool! One of my good friends grew up in Gila Bend. I may have to see if he wants to plan a trip :)

Eddie, do you keep GPS tracks of all the trails you go on, or do you just map it?
I think it would be cool to have a section in the forum dedicated to people's favorite trails with GPS cords for the trailheads and waypoints along the trail. Maybe there is and I've just missed it.


- Josh
 
...and trips like that are why we all do this... Its what makes all the sweat and busted knuckles and hard work worth it, right?? :thumb:
 
WhiteDynamite said:
Very cool! One of my good friends grew up in Gila Bend. I may have to see if he wants to plan a trip :)

Eddie, do you keep GPS tracks of all the trails you go on, or do you just map it?
I think it would be cool to have a section in the forum dedicated to people's favorite trails with GPS cords for the trailheads and waypoints along the trail. Maybe there is and I've just missed it.


- Josh
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A lot of people don't like to post exact locations to cool things. The Internet is free and the idiots can look it up and go ruin the cool things or get the trails closed. The less info out there the less they can find. :yup:
 
Being relatively new to all this, I hope to someday have an shred of the knowledge you have Eddie of all these great places.

My goal is share as much as I can with my kids now so we can learn and explore together. Then maybe, when they are older and have their own kids, they will have that much more knowledge and experience to share.

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing.
 
OverlanderJK said:
A lot of people don't like to post exact locations to cool things. The Internet is free and the idiots can look it up and go ruin the cool things or get the trails closed. The less info out there the less they can find. :yup:
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I guess I didn't really think of the negative effects of creating something bad-ass for the guys that would use it as intended. I love guns and offroading, both of which get a bad rap by the actions of idiots. :doh:
 
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