Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Expensive Wallpaper


When parked at Bullhead City, one of my exploring days I headed over to Oatman Arizona. Route 66 passed through this one time gold mining town.


One version of why Oatman died is contained in this monograph.


No gold to mine. Hit the pockets of the tourists. The draw is its onetime Route 66 connection, the burros roaming around town looking for a carrot handout and the Oatman Hotel was the site for the John Wayne/Carole Lombard honeymoon.

 
To keep the tourists in town and spending, there is a staged robbery and gun fight in front of the Oatman hotel. Carrots are for sale, as are the usual kitschy stuff found in every tourist town. There were John Wayne souvenirs, items with Route 66 connection and several other souvenirs pertaining to a visit to the Southwest. Some had "Oatman, Arizona" prominently displayed on the item so you would know where it came from.

The bar and restaurant at the Oatman Hotel is wall papered with some fine greenbacks. Pretty expensive wallpaper. Looking at the walls, ceilings, railings, it appears there may be thousands of one dollar bills. Most are signed and dated. Looking real close, I assured myself it was real money. (See the inset enlargement.)


Throwing money in wishing wells or pasting money to walls is not the way I want to part with my money.

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