yumajeeper
New member
growing up in the yuma area i have been to almost every one of the places you have taken pic of. i would really like to make it back out to the Oatman Massacre one of these day i haven't been there since i was a kid.
Oatman Massacre Site & Imperial Sand Dunes Old Plank Road
- Thread starter wayoflife
- Start date
Linebacker
Caught the Bug
Yuma isn't exactly the most exciting and challenging landscape (my apologies to native Yuma Zonies), but when you overland to historical sites like this, it comes alive and takes on a beauty of its own. Love it! When in the area, I'll second the suggestion to see the Territorial Prison. Brutal existence!:yup:
Just came across the following article about Olive Oatman and thought it would be good to add it to this thread. :yup:
The girl with the tattooed face
Olive Oatman was born in Illinois in 1837. In 1850, when she was 14, her family (parents Royce and Mary Oatman and their seven children) joined a wagon train to travel from Utah to California.
Various disagreements along the way meant the Oatman family eventually travelled alone.
On the fourth day, the Oatman family was attacked by a group of Native Americans (described by Olive as Apaches, but possibly a branch of the Yavapai people). Only three of the Oatmans survived the attack. Olive's parents and four children were killed; Olive's brother Lorenzo was clubbed and left for dead. Lorenzo eventually reached a settlement and rejoined the original wagon train. He found and was able to bury the bodies of his family.
Olive and her sister Mary Ann, then seven years old, were abducted.
Their captors used Olive and Mary as slaves. After a year the girls were traded to a group of Mohave, who were thought to have treated them better. The Mohave leader and his wife may have adopted the girls.
The Mohave tattooed both Olive's and her sister's chins. Though Olive later claimed the tattoos marked them as slaves, experts believe tattoos were fairly standard in the Mohave tribe, a tradition that led to a good afterlife.
Around 1855, when Olive was 19, there was a severe drought. Mary Ann died of starvation, along with many Mohaves.
Read more about Olive Oatman on the article found here:
http://mashable.com/2015/02/28/olive-oatman-capture/
