Since I was heading back west to Tucson, I really couldn’t just drive by the turnoff to Tombstone without visiting it for a couple of hours.  After all, this is where the shoot out at the OK Corral happened, where American childhood play of cowboys and Indians came from!  Interestingly, Tombstone is still a thriving little town of just over 1,300 people, and the streets outside the old historic district have a decidedly modern feel to them.

Ah, but the historic district…  That’s pretty much exactly what you think it would be!  The raised wooden sidewalks, the souvenir shops, the wild west shows, the people in costume… all there.  But strangely, very few people.  It was a Monday morning, maybe that explains it.

I’m not clear about what happens at this mustachery, but as a fan of facial foliage, I highly approve of the enthusiasm.

I wandered the shops and had a sarsaparilla, learned a bit about the history of the place, and just generally enjoyed a relaxing morning.  I especially enjoyed talking to Julia, a silversmith at the artists’ collective there, who gave me great advice about the area, and recommends the wine region around Willcox!  Overall the old town was a bit kitschy, but surprisingly less than you’d expect.  Or at least less than it could have been!

By far my favorite part of visiting Tombstone was the Boot Hill Cemetery though.  The cemetery was only open for six years (1878 – 1883), but they must have been a pretty rough six!  The cemetery had fallen into disrepair, but was revitalized by the locals and management was taken over by the city about 20 years ago.  The markers aren’t the original ones (except for one marble marker), because the weather conditions deteriorate them so rapidly — they need to be replaced about every seven years.  But every attempt has been made to replicate the wording and look of the original markers.  This is just a selection of the ones that I found the most interesting as I wandered around.

These were the men killed in the shootout at the OK Corral, shot by Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp.

The “worthy pioneer” above seems to have killed another pioneer…

Racism was apparently alive and well in the old west…

Mrs Stump has a fence around her… perhaps she was of a higher class…?

Although other people had been killed by Indians, this is the only marker I saw for an Indian who had been killed himself… by another Indian.

I think this one is fairly famous and gets a lot of attention… but spare a thought for poor Ormsby behind him.  He was shot.  That’s all we know.

When the Marshall is in the cemetery, there’s not a lot of law and order…

There were quite a few ‘unknowns’ there as well..

There are over 250 graves there, mostly outlaws or men who “died with their boots on,” although there were a significant number of others as well.  This teamster killed by Apaches was probably a nice enough guy, and there was a marker for a 3 month old baby as well.

I’d have to recommend Tombstone as a great place to spend a day, enjoyable from a historical perspective as well as just fun!  I was tired and just wanting to spend a couple of hours, but next time I’d probably see one of the wild west shows too… those things are always awesome…