There are places you visit that are easily forgotten, if not for a few pictures you may have taken. Then there are places that will forever be etched in your memories because of who you were with or an adventure you experienced.
Then there are places like Tombstone. Hard to describe, but I will try.
Tombstone is historic and timeless, as in time stopped somewhere around 1890 and has barely moved on. It is authentic and genuine, a true western, cowboy, shoot-em-up kind of place. Tombstone is friendly and down to earth, full of larger-than-life characters, whether they are the storekeepers, waitresses, bartenders, or old-timers meandering through town telling anyone that will listen a funny yet true story about a cowboy, a gunfight, or an animal stuck in the hills.
Tombstone was founded in 1877 by a mining prospector named Ed Schieffelin in the high desert plains of the Arizona territory. His discovery of silver and gold created a boom that lasted just a few short years, drawing thousands to the area in hopes of striking it rich. Many did, others found misery or moved further west.
But for a town old Ed named for what a friend had called a folly – “you ain’t finding nothin out there but your name on a tombstone” – the legacy of the town would be written and rewritten several times over.
The “town too tough to die” was a favorite slogan still in use today. Only three original 1880 buildings still stand today, The Bird Cage Theatre, the Schieffelin Hall, and the Cochise County Courthouse. Most of the remaining structures have been rebuilt over the past 100 years. Tombstone suffered two major fires, 1881 and again a year later. Several other buildings have many original features remaining, like the famous Fly’s Photography Studio (he took the famous photograph of Geronimo), the Crystal Palace and Oriental Saloon (a favorite hang-out spot of Wyatt Earp), and the granddaddy of them all, the OK Corral.
We have all read the stories about this famous gunfight, it has been enshrined in several Hollywood movies, and its tale and legacy continue to define the grittiness of the American Wild West. And yes, it did all really happen, and it happened here in Tombstone.
Tensions had been brewing for a while between the lawmen and the cowboys, and on a cold October afternoon in 1881, in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral, eight men stood their ground for a fateful 30 seconds. Brothers Marshall Virgil Earp, Wyatt and Morgan Earp, and their friend, Doc Holliday were victorious, although injured, and three of the Clanton-McLaury gang members were dead. This was vigilante justice, a common practice in the West. But we learned so much more than what the movies and books explain. We learned that there had been a long-standing feud between the lawmen/businessmen and the cowboy ranch hands and suspected stagecoach robbers. This was set against the backdrop of a post- Civil War and disputes between the Northern and Southern families, between Democrats and Republicans, between financially stable landowners and poor ranchers – issues that people in the US Territories struggled day to day with, not the other big button issues that the states had fought against.
We saw a re-enactment of the fight in the actual vacant lot. The actors were all paid, community actors, and the play was well done – entertaining, funny, and charming.
Other attractions in the town of Tombstone were less charming. The Vincent Price narrated movie and painfully outdated, moving diorama of the history of Tombstone was bad. The old Courthouse Museum was very interesting and informative. It was hot and dusty, and I was hard-pressed to find a fresh vegetable or piece of fruit in the whole town. But it was charming and friendly and a unique stop for sure!
If you love the West, cowboys and history, if you enjoy the desert and being in the middle of nowhere, then Tombstone is certainly worth a visit.