Tombstone...........

I have been delinquent in blogging in a timely fashion lately, so I'll try to catch up a bit in the next few days! The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we took a field trip to the tourist town of Tombstone, for a taste of the wild west. For more info, click here. It is an old mining town, and also the location of the OK Corral and the famous gunfight with the Earp brothers and the McLaury and Canton boys. We  had a really good time! 

Note: When I was researching the information for our fun outing, I was a bit alarmed to read that there was an actual shooting at the OK Corral about a month before. One of the actors had a live bullet in his gun! Yikes! You can check it out by googling "live rounds used during gunfight reenactment at OK Corral, Oct. 18, 2015.

Tombstone Courthouse...a National Historic Site

well Howdy!

getting some info for our visit to this town

Cool bench! Like the horse motif Jess?

Jess...you would have loved this store

its still very early in the day...the town is just waking up I think!

lots of places to eat and drink

put the gun away!

there were a lot of gunfights being acted out...it was a rough town

the famous Bird Cage Theater (all these things require tickets....just fyi)

the holiday season in Tombstone

narrated stagecoach rides

this stagecoach was the Butterfield Stage, that we learned about back in Carlsbad, NM  (the postal route)

'Nuf said

lots of shops too

Superstition Sue's

There were a lot of different attractions, complete with entrance fees, but we settled on just catching the OK Corral Gunfight Site, the original site of the famous gunfight, and the re-enactment of it by pretty talented actors. The small museum at the OK Corral was OK-we spent a few minutes checking out some of the displays before the "show".A short historical documentary of Tombstone was shown next door to the OK Corral, and was included in the ticket. The presentation included a historama type of display on the stage that rotated depending on the story being told in the documentary. Very interesting. Tombstone is known as the "town too tough to die". It survived the closing of the mines, and two massive fires. The townspeople quickly rebuilt. Nice bit of history. We spent a couple of hours exploring the town as well, and really enjoyed our time there.

the small museum area at the OK Corral

museum

more

mining town!

more displays at the museum

the story

the oldest bathroom I've ever been in....(just kidding!)

love the quilt

here is the display of the gunfight scene

The actual re-enactment is in a small outdoor stadium theater, and was pretty good! It was very entertaining....depicting the story of the feud with the Earp brothers and the Clanton and McLaury boys....with a bit of humor thrown in by the actors every once in a while, as they commented to the audience.

The show......Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and his brother

feuding....before the gunfight

Back on the streets, it was a bit more crowded with visitors to the area. There is lot of history here, as well as tourist attractions. There were several different venues with gunfights, and then there was  the mine tour as well. Shops and restaurants were plentiful too!

the period costumes were great

looks like an "old west" street (at least how they were depicted in the old westerns)

the famous Crystal Palace

tours given here

big business in Tombstone for a while...is now closed

lets check this out when it opens later!

check out that typewriter

printing presses

we've come a long way!

fancy outfits for such a tough environment

The scenery of course was outstanding-the surrounding mountains look like a painting. You could let your imagination roam back to the late 1800's, when the town was booming. Horses, buggys, cowboys, miners...the wild west!

aren't those mountains just beautiful

Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone is on the National Register of historic places, and also a popular tourist spot, so of course we had to go and check it out. We weren't there too long though. The cemetery became overgrown and in a state of disrepair over the years, but interested citizens did extensive research to preserve the cemetery as it is today. That is why the cemetery looks as good as it does now.

The graveyard really was full. All of Tombstone's early pioneers were buried here from 1878-1884, whether an outlaw, a victim of crime, or an ordinary citizen. Its called Boothill Graveyard because many literally died with their boots on...suddenly and violently. Many of the tombstones state cause of death, which was pretty interesting to us. Some of the causes of death were murder, shot, killed, killed by Apaches, suicide, meningitis, scarlet fever, etc. We purchased a pamphlet that gave a bit more description than what was on the tombstone. Some names were recognizable, such as the Clantons and the McLaurys (from the OK Corral shootout).

here we are....Boothill Graveyard

ready Tom

Appropro for our times too! (Have we had enough shootings in this country yet?)

part of the restored area

the famous Clantons and McLaurys are here

this is an actual graveyard with the bodies laid to rest here........its just been spruced up a bit

several rows of grave sites

you can see that the stones and headstones are in good shape

It was fun experiencing the wild west of yesteryear...and learning a bit of history of that time period. Since it was still early afternoon, we decided to check out Bisbee...about a half hour away. Ah, but that's another post for tomorrow!

a nice ride to Bisbee