Tombstone

USA - Arizona

The True Wild West in Arizona "The Town Too Tough To Die"
(St. Louis Post Dispatch in 1932).

Nowhere else in the world you will find, not just museums, but an entire town that is living memorial of some of the wildest, wolliest heydays in America's history.

TOMBSTONE

The name conjures an image of the true Wild West. The imagination tingles with the sight of boardwalks lined with saloons, gambling houses and bordellos. It brings to mind a picture of windswept streets and dusty horses tied to hitching posts. As you walk the streets, you can almost hear the wind carrying the sound of honky tonk music, a woman's shrill laugh, cards being shuffled and chips being counted.

What started as Ed Schieffelin's TOMBSTONE mine in 1877 soon grew into a wild frontier town.
As news of the rich strike spread, people began to flood the area. The vast fortunes being made daily attracted settlers, legitimate business and more than their share of undesirables. Thieves, cattle rustlers, gamblers and gunmen, and the business that catered to them, saloons and bordellos.

BIG NOSE KATE's SALOON once was The Grand Hotel in the 1800's. Big Nose Kate Elder was the girlfriend of Doc Holliday. Because of her drinking and quick temper finally Doc sent her packing.

Drinks from the bar:
BIG NOSE KATE's SPECIAL - Vodka, Rum, Gin, Tequila, Orange Juice, Grenadine.
FUZZY NAVEL - Peach Schnapps & Orange Juice.
BLOODY MARY - Vodka, Tomato Juice, Special Spices.
SEX IN THE DESERT - Vodka. Amaretto, Cranberry Juice.
SCREAMING ORGASM - Irish Creme, Kahlua, Amaretto.
COWGIRL's DREAM - Butterscotch Schnapps, Irish Creme.
COWBOY's DREAM - Kahlua & Whip Cream.

Lifesize figures depict the participants in the infamous Gunfight at the O.K.Corral in 1881. Lasting less than half a minute, the battle took the lives of Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton and saw Virgil and Morgan Earp wounded. Only Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday escaped uninjured.

The COURTHOUSE became an Arizona State Historical Park. It now houses an extensive collection of artifacts, honoring Tomstone's historic beginning.

The Cochise County Courthouse served the people of Tombstone and Cochise County from 1882 until 1929. During that time, one of the most notorious trials held in the COURTROOM was that of Dan Dowd, Red Sample, Tex Howard, Bill DeLaney and Dan Kelly.

Those men, along with John Heath who masterminded the plot, had robbed the Goldwater-Catsenada Store in Bisbee, shooting and killing three residents. Within 45 days of the robbery, the men were imprisoned in the Courthouse jail. A special district court was called and the five men were indicted by the grand jury, tried and convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree. They were hanged together March 8, 1884, on an oversized gallow constructed in the high-walled jail yard of the courthouse.

BOOTHILL GRAVEYARD

In the northwest corner of Tombstone is a plat of ground that perhaps more than any other, tells the tale of this WILD WEST town's history. Lying in eternal rest in BOOTHILL GRAVEYARD, side by side with honest citizens such as Mrs. Ah Lum, or China Mary as she was better known. Quang Kee and C.S. Fly, are badmen like Tom and Frank McLaury and Bill Clanton, killed in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Also laid to rest here is Newman Haynes, "Old Man" Clanton, cattle rustler and father of the Clanton boys.
Inscription on one of the graves below:

AS YOU PASS BY
REMEMBER THAT AS
YOU ARE SO ONCE WAS I
AND AS I AM
YOU SOON WILL BE
REMEMBER ME