The Remote Oatman Family Massacre Site and the Story of Olive Oatman

today we're visiting the site of a famous old west Massacre where a Pioneer Family was attacked by a group of Native Americans leading to the Abduction of two children and probably one of the most famous photos of the old [Music] west hey everyone welcome to Sidetrack Adventures this is Steve right now I'm in Sentinel Arizona right off of Interstate 8 and today we're going to be heading north of here out into the desert to the middle of nowhere and the reason we're going to be doing that is we're going to try to visit the Oatman family Massacre site so back in 1851 there was a family that was heading to California when they were attacked with most of the family being killed and two of the children being captured and enslaved by Native Americans several years later when one of the children all of Oatman return to Western Society she was kind of a 1850s media sensation so we're going to head out there talk about what happened in the Oatman Massacre and see what there is to see to get to the Oatman Massacre site we're going to take Oatman Road Northeast from here towards the hila River this area is supposed to be pretty volcanic and [Music] barren and we've made it to Oatman flat sight of the Oatman Massacre this place is pretty remote not quite as remote as it was in 1851 but even now there is nothing for miles from here getting out here I think most cars can make it most of the way though the last couple miles of the road were pretty rough and definitely require a high clearance vehicle but now that we're out here let's take a look around looking at this area without this sign you'd never know that anything of note ever happened here eventually two different wagon roads would cross through here but in 1851 there was only a difficult path up to this point from the flat area near the river [Music] below Royce Oatman and his family set out from Independence Missouri in August 1850 they were a part of a sect of Mormonism called Brewster rites in early 1851 the Oatman along with a number of other families made it to Maricopa Wells which is about 60 Mi east of here the group was warned that the desert between there and California was pretty Barren with little in the way of water and natives who had been known to have been hostile most of the group decided to stay where they were but Royce Oatman decided his family which consisted of Royce his wife Maryanne who was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant and seven children would push on the Trail West largely followed the course of the hila River about 4 days after leaving Maricopa Wells the Oatman reached this Plateau getting the wagon up the hill was rough and it had to be emptied in order to get it up after an exhausting job of carrying their supplies up the hill the family began to reload the wagon and Maran started making dinner then the company arrived a group of Native most likely Western Yavapai approached the family they asked the Oatman for tobacco and food with the Oatman running low on supplies themselves Royce was hesitant to give too much but did give the natives some tobacco and bread all of a sudden the group of natives let out a yell and they began to attack the family with clubs the family didn't stand a chance the attackers killed the parents and four of the children including including a three-year-old girl and a baby boy Lorenzo Oatman who was 15 was bleeding from his ears and nose after the attack he began to stir still hanging on to life but the attackers picked him up and tossed him over the edge somewhere near here 13-year-old Olive Oatman had been struck in the head and was unconscious for a short time she awakened to see the attackers stripping the bodies of her family and rans sacking their wagon as far as she knew only her younger sister Maryanne still lived the two sisters were now the property of their [Music] attackers somehow Lorenzo survived the attack and being thrown down this Rocky Hill when he finally came to he stumbled back up to find most of his family dead he also realized two of his younger sisters were missing he then headed east on foot and despite being badly injured and having no supplies he reached a settlement and then rejoined The Immigrant train when Lorenzo made it back here to the massacre site a few days later he gathered the bodies of his family together and built a rock Karen over them as a grave the bodies were moved a few times over the years and that actually brings us to our next point of Interest here as there's supposed to be a grave and Memorial to the Oatman family down below us on the other side of the river so let's head down there next just to the south of us is the newer Wagon Road this is the road the Butterfield Stage would have used but we're going to head down the same road the Oatman would have taken [Music] up it's pretty cool there are still places where you could see where the wagon wheels would have worn down the Rocks this probably doesn't look a whole lot different than it did in 1851 when the oatman's came up here you can only imagine trying to get a wagon up this path it's hard going down it on foot have to watch my feet here I think I might have misspoken earlier and said that we were at Oatman flat on top of the hill that's not true Oatman flat is actually the flat area in front of us at the bottom of the hill I think I'm going to go down the side here so I'm going to put the camera away for a minute so I have both hands free but I'll see you at the [Music] bottom well we've made it to the bottom here's a look back towards the massacre [Music] site as we try to find a way across the river I'll get back to all of Oatman I don't think there will be much water if any in the river so we just need to find a decent way to get through also there are coyote tracks and Scat everywhere so hopefully we're making enough noise that we don't surprise them looks like a little path here the natives took all of and Marianne's Bonnets and shoes and forced them to walk Barefoot to their Village which was probably located about 60 Mi north of here the sisters were used as slaves by their attackers and as I expected there's no water in the hila river right now the hila River was actually the border with Mexico at the time of the attack this didn't become part of the United States until 1854 and thankfully no coyotes yet [Music] but anyways after about a year of slavery a group of Mojave Native Americans came to trade with the Western Yavapai the daughter of the Mojave chief saw the girls in their poor treatment so she traded for them they were then taken to a Mojave Village which was located near where Needles California currently is for some reason I just thought there was going to be a path to the other side of the river I had no idea I was going to be bushwacking today hopefully all the Talking lets any coyotes know that we're coming so we don't surprise them but getting back to the girls with the Mojave they weren't treated as slaves but as members of the tribe they were even given their own plots of land to farm the girls eventually became fully assimilated with the tribe and were even given traditional Mojave tattoos on their chins and arms to ensure that they reach the Land of the Dead and are recognized as Mojave there the Mojave never tattooed their slaves and here are some steps so it looks like there is a trail going through the through the river here I don't know if that was what we were on or if we were just on a coyote path but we've made it to the other side of the hila River and we have a fence here that's private property on the other side of the fence and the memorial should be in front of us this way around 1855 there was a famine and a number of Mojave perished and that included Maryann Oatman she was about 10 or [Music] 11 during her time with the Mojave Olive never revealed herself to the white men who would come to the area but that didn't mean she went unnoticed rumors of one or more white women living among the natives got to Lorenzo who never gave up looking for his sisters and that that led to a letter in the Los Angeles star a man named Henry grel was reading the letter in the Los Angeles star at Fort Yuma and a member of the Yuma tribe named Francisco told him he knew of the girl and if he gave him some items to trade for her he could have her here in 20 days when Francisco was given items such as a horse and blankets people at the Fort thought grel was a fool that Francisco was going to take the items and never return but Francisco travel to the Mojave Village and after several attempts and an explanation that the whites would come and destroy the Mojave if the girl wasn't returned Olive was on her way back to Western society and it looks like we've made it to the memorial 20 days after he left Francisco had returned to Fort Yuma with all of Oatman who had fully assimilated to Mojave life and no longer spoke English at the fort all of arrived to Cheers this is said to be the current grave of the oans though I'm not 100% sure they're actually buried here they were moved so many times over the years the memorial also has the wrong date as the massacre happened in February oliv's return made national news as did her reunion with Lorenzo a few weeks later a book was written about the oatman's the the author did let some of his own biases against Native Americans shape the narrative the book however did become a bestseller and the royalties were used for Lorenzo and Olive to attend college Olive went on a tour across the country to promote the book where she was a curiosity people wanted to see the blue tattoo on her face for themselves she was the first known tattooed white American woman as well as one of the first female public public speakers Olive eventually got married to a Rancher and died in 1903 she had no known children of her own but did adopt a daughter the town of Oatman Arizona is named for her as was Olive City Arizona which no longer exists so that's our look at the Oatman Massacre site and the story of Olive Oatman thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up consider subscribing and we'll see you next week

Channel: Sidetrack Adventures

Views: 811,969

Keywords: Oatman Massacre, Olive Oatman, Oatman Gravesite, Arizona history, Sentinel Arizona, Oatman Flat, Lorenzo Oatman, Interstate 8, Arizona travel, Oatman History, oatman massacre site

Id: MKATccmQC9o

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2023