Oatman Flat, is a

flat Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

, south of Oatman Mountain, on the south bank of the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...

and north of the mouth of

Wild Horse Canyon ''Wild Horse Canyon'' is a 1938 American Western film directed by Robert F. Hill and written by Robert Emmett Tansey. The film stars Jack Randall, Dorothy Short, Frank Yaconelli, Warner Richmond, Walter Long and Dennis Moore. The film wa ...

Maricopa County Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about 6 ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. The flat was named for the Oatman family that was massacred in their camp on the bluff overlooking the flat in 1851. They were later buried there along the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Northern Emigrant Trails.'' Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage ...

overlooking the flat that bears their name. What became known as Oatman Grave , on the flat below is a memorial and not the grave site. Oatman Flat was the location of the

Oatman Flat Station Oatman Flat Station, later Fourr's Stage Station, was a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail located along the Gila River in Maricopa County, Arizona. The site was located east of Flap-Jack Ranch and west of Murderer's Grave Sta ...

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

station of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

from 1858 to 1861. Later when stagecoach traffic returned in 1866, the Oatman Flat Station reopened, from 1868 to 1877 a new station was built near the old one and was run by William I. Fourr, who improved the route between his station and the stations to the east and west of his and charged a toll for its use. Fourr and his wife lost children that were buried nearby in the Fourr Cemetery.The Fourr Ranch
Summary in 2006 by M. Lesko. Updated in 2011 by T. Johnson from gvrhc.org accessed October 13, 2014 Following the advent of the railroad in Arizona in 1878 the station closed and fell into ruin. The flat is now farmland that covers the sites of the old stations, but the Oatman Grave and Fourr Cemetery are still to be found.

References

External links

* [https://archive.today/20141013000554/http://truewest.ning.com/forum/topics/graves-along-the-butterfield-trail-in-arizona-why-are-they Graves Along the Butterfield Trail In ArizonaWhy are they disappearing? Posted by Gerald T. Ahnert on April 4, 2013 at 7:22 am in The Bucket. See 1970 photo of the ruin of Fourr's Stage Station and includes the site of the Fourr family graves and nearby location of the original Oatman Flat Station.]
Oatman Grave
from findagrave.com accessed October 13, 2014
Fourr Cemetery
from findagrave.com accessed October 13, 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oatman Flat American frontier Pre-statehood history of Arizona