Wow! What a trip back in time today! Back to the wild west of the 1880's!!!! And WILD it was - our visit to the historic and renowned Tombstone opened our eyes to truly what life was like in those "cowboy and Indian" days! A fun morning!
Pete really loved it - a cowboy fan from boyhood and great memories of going to see "Gunfight at the OK Corral" starring Bert Lancaster took on a new dimension for him - seeing it all in reality! He knew all about "Boot Hill" where the cowboys were buried so actually seeing the grave yard and the graves was a bit surreal! Buried here are the outlaws with their victims, suicides, and hangings, legal and otherwise, along with the hardy citizens and refined element of Tombstone's first days.
So much of Tombstone is still from the original 1880's era when it was a roaring mining town - silver and gold. Great to see it has been preserved and looked after, so today we can enter the town and experience and empathise with life in the wild west as it was in the 1880's!
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Wild West Country - the open plain and the Dragoon Mountains
are the backdrop to historic Tombstone. |
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Graveyard to many cowboys, pioneers and inhabitants of Tombstone.
It is a wonder anyone lived for very long with the harshness and tediousness
of living in those times! There were two people in the graveyard that lived to the
ripe old age of 100 - incredible!!!, but many died young! - murdered,
poisoned, suicide, crushed by wagons, mine accidents, shot in trivial arguments. |
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Graves of Billy Clanton,Tom and Frank McLaury who were
murdered on the streets of Tombstone in 1881 in the OK Corral incident.
Wyatt,Virgil and Morgan Earp as well as Doc Holliday were involved in the shoot put.
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| Click on pic to enlarge |
The main street - Allen Street- has the original shops and sidewalks.
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A very popular Honky-Tonk with the miners and not just for the theatre, music ,dancing and gambling - if they had
$25 (about $1000 today) they could be entertained for the evening by one of the ladies in the bird cage
crib compartments that were suspended from the ceiling overhanging the Gambling Casino and Dance Hall. |
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| Wyatt Earp and the origin rifles that were used b him and his brothers. |
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| Photos taken by C.S Fly in the 1880's of Wyatt and his brothers. |
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| The bird cages over the Dance Hall - all original |
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| The original stage in The Bird Cage |
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The original grand piano - it has not been moved since it was put there.
Read below |
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| Must have been rich! |
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| One of the original gambling tables - still has the original cards etc on it |
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| The horse drawn hearse that took the 3 dead bodies from the OK Corral shootout to Boot Hill Cemetery |
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| Wyatt Earp's girlfriend and later wife |
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| Her prostitute Licence |
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| Wyatt and Jo's story |
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| The bordello room in The Bird Cage where Wyatt and Jo would meet |
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| The original notice! |
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| One of The Bird Cage ladies |
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The Earp's and Doc Holliday
Photos by C.S. Fry |
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Doc Holliday and his girlfriend Big Nose Kate - also on of The Bird Cage ladies.
She later opened her own Saloon - see beow |
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| The original bar and mirrors in The Bird Cage |
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The stagecoach comes to town!
Must have been difficult travel when you see the desert they travelled through!
Ah, the good old days! Think not!!!!! |
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| One of the first businesses in town - wonder why!? |
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| The original Saloon. |
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| Replaced by the car! |
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Inside Kate's Saloon - still functions as a Saloon today.
Vistors to Tombstone enjoy a refreshment! |
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The story.
Click pic to enlarge. |
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His photographs from the era have survived and been a great historic resource
in relation to the life and times of that era. |
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| Great re-enactment of the OK Corrall shootout! |
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| The origin stables. |
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Original sidewalks and shops in the main street of Tombstone.
All the shops still have active businesses operating in them. |
As we left Tucson and nearby Tombstone so the landscape changed yet again - still desert but vegetation took on a new look. The Yucca's replaced the muscle men of the desert - the Saguaro Cactus - as its sentinels, brown grasses flourished and there was a lot more sandy soil - you could see lots of dust storms and willie-willies in the valleys as you traveled along.
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| The Yucca's |
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| Dust storm down the valley in the distance |
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| The brown grasses |
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| A very different looking desert to the desert around Phoenix and Tucson |
Looks like a fun town!
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