• Photo: Peter Guttman/Peterguttman.com
  • Photo: Atomazul | Dreamstime.com

Tombstone

When prospector Ed Schieffelin headed out in 1877 to seek his fortune along the arid washes of San Pedro Valley, a patrolling soldier warned that all he’d find was his tombstone. Against all odds, his luck held out: he evaded bands of Apaches, braved the harsh desert terrain, and eventually stumbled across a ledge of silver ore. The town of Tombstone was named after the soldier’s offhand comment.

The rich silver lodes from the area’s mines attracted a wide mix of fortune seekers ranging from prospectors to prostitutes and gamblers to gunmen. But as the riches continued to pour in, wealthy citizens began importing the best entertainment and culture that silver could purchase. Even though saloons and gambling halls made up two out of every three businesses on Allen Street, the town also claimed the Cochise County seat, a cultural center, and fancy French restaurants. By the early 1880s the notorious boomtown was touted as the most cultivated city west of the Mississippi.

In 1881 a shoot-out between the Earp brothers and the Clanton gang ended with three of the "cowboys" (Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury) dead and two of the Earps (Virgil and Morgan) and Doc Holliday wounded. The infamous "gunfight at the O.K. Corral" and the ensuing feud between the Earp brothers and the Clanton gang firmly cemented Tombstone’s place in the Wild West—even though the actual course of events is still debated by historians.

All in all, Tombstone’s heyday lasted only a decade, but the colorful characters attached to the town’s history live on—immortalized on the silver screen in such famous flicks as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone, and Wyatt Earp. The town’s tourist industry parallels Hollywood hype. As a result, the main drag on Allen Street looks and feels like a movie set (even though most of the buildings are original), complete with gunning desperados, satin-bedecked saloon girls, and leather-clad cowboys. Today the kitschy "Town Too Tough to Die" attracts a mix of rough-and-tumble bikers, European tourists, and pulp-fiction thrill seekers looking to walk the boardwalks of Tombstone’s infamous past.

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