Tombstone Arizona

Tombstone Arizona is known as the town that would not die, and it's trying to maintain that example today. The main street for about 3 blocks and some other spots in town are clinging to the history to try and keep the town from finally dieing.

The Courthouse is a good place to start and they have turned it into a very well done museum. The town reached its pinnacle of riches and then faded, all within the short span of eight years. In 1877 silver was found and it brought over 12,000 people to the area. Over 37 million dollars worth of silver had been taken from the mines before they closed in 1886.

The courthouse stood empty from about 1931 until 1955 when it was restored and turned into a museum. It is a beautiful structure today and well maintained.

The courtroom on the second floor is completely redone and if you sit for a long time with your eyes closed you can hear the ghosts of some of the past trials.

The main street has been covered with dirt and you can still get a stagecoach ride around town and be able to listen to a taped explanation of what you are seeing.

Looking down the street where some of the good and bad guys have walked before us like Wyatt Earp, "Doc" Holliday, and John Slaughter.

The stores are well laid out trying to maintain a similarity of that period of time. You can pay your few dollars and go into the OK corral and see a re-creation of the big shoot out, which lasted all of 30 seconds. There is a very well-done description of the shoot-out at the OK Corral in the Courthouse Museum.

The Bird Cage Theatre I think is one of the few original buildings that date back to the 1800s. Most of the others have been lost over the years by fire. A lot of the original history is still intact inside this building.

Some of the people have been around for a long time also.

An interesting town, glad we got to see it.

To be continued...