Laughlin, Oatmen and on to Lake Havasu

We stopped off for a couple of days in the southern corner of Nevada where it joins Arizona. Laughlin and Bullhead look across the river at each other. Laughlin has the casinos, Arizona the punters.

Laughlin's started in the 1940's a motel and bar that catered to gold and silver miners who dotted the map, and to the many construction workers who built the nearby dam on the Colorado river. In 1964 Don Laughlin, owner of Las Vegas' 101 Club, flew over the now derelict motel and offered to buy the property. In less than two years the motel and bar, now called the Riverside Resort, was offering all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, play on 12 slot machines and two live gaming tables. The Laughlin family lived in the other four rooms.

The U.S. Postal Service inspector insisted Don Laughlin give the town a name-any name-in order to receive mail. Don Laughlin recommended the name of Riverside or Casino, but the postal inspector used his name instead. As Don Laughlin is a car buff he has a museum and showroom of some great american iron and a few imports.


Across the River, Bullhead City flourished in the glow of the casino light. Shuttle boats transported customers from the Arizona side of the river to Laughlin's glitter gulch.

We headed out of Bullhead and up to another old town which used to be supported by gold mining.
This one is called Oatman. It also used to be a stop on the road to California on Route 66.

Now it pans for tourists and instead of salting
mines with nuggets of gold it arranges for donkeys to wander its streets and arranges gunfights outside the bank every hour.

It even has buildings of national interest,
or at least that is what the sign says.



Yes, this one believe it or not!





The donkeys follow the tourists mooching
for carrots, which enterprising shopkeepers just happen to have for sale. The whole thing is really well organised and even the babies are covered by a no carrots sticker system. They die if they eat solid food too soon. See the sign between the little ones eyes.


We headed on south to Lake Havasu where we found that an american really had bought London Bridge, or at least one of them, transported it to the desert and rebuilt it there.