The infamous and nefarious Tombstone. Getting there was quite an adventure.
We stayed the weekend in Bisbee which is another old mining town. We had a neat
little two bedroom house on stilts. The town itself was a big center of copper
mining in it's day and now has art galleries, shops, bars and restaurants. If
you watch the movie Tombstone closely with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer you can
hear reference to Bisbee. As the juggler gets up on stage you can hear "I saw
this guy in Bisbee!"
I wasn't fully versed in my Tombstone lore when we got there, but you could
still feel the history of the events. And of course the town plays it up for
you. :) All over town are signs indicating where people were shot, where they
died, how many bullet holes they had, where they ate breakfast, which direction
they walked from, etc. It's kind of surreal in some respects. Maps and locations
to where people were gunned down in the streets.
A large part of the movie Tombstone is the Bird Cage Theater. That's where
all the action happens. And down at the end of the street is the real one,
all decked out in pink. This of course is where Wyatt Earp meets his new love
interest and Doc plays his cards. We took the tour they offer where you can see
bullet holes in the walls, in the floor, in the ceiling... It's a relatively
small place, but there is so much to see. The booths where they have mock ups of
the Earp's watching the show, the card tables, the piano and of course the main
stage. I'm sure it had quite the night life in it's day.
Underneath the main part are rooms, the bar and more places for playing
cards. The rooms are simple and have their unique layer of dust, but I guess
that's part of the charm. You can even see some risqué photos on the walls.
The other main attraction right outside of town is Boot Hill. It literally is
just down the road. In fact you walk past Wyatt's house to get there. And as you
would expect, the main markers are those of the Clanton's and McLaury's right
there at the gate. There is some humor with the headstones as you can see and
maybe even a mistake or two was made as to who actually was hung in the old
town.
Tombstone is a unique place to visit. It's hard to say what's true and what's
legend. But something happened out there, the bullet holes prove that!
Pictures taken with Sony F828.
