And hell is coming with me...........

Weeeelll Hell, pardners. Ify'all fine yaselfs inta Arizona ya gottta getcha self to the old west and the best place, perhaps to do that is the town of Tombstone.

Tombstone is of course famous for the gunfight at the OK Corral but even without that little skirmish it was a bloody and lawless place. Today it is safe, corny but still very interesting. WE had a great day learning about the history, listening to the stories, watching a mock gun fight [which the kids loved and I enjoyed it more than I had a right to], pacing the streets, visiting the smallest state park in Arizona which is the old court house which is now a museum.

From Wikipedia; Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million in silver bullion, the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than 7 years. In 1881, it became the county seat of the new Cochise County.

Far distant from any other metropolitan city, by mid-1881 Tombstone boasted a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dancing halls and brothels. All of these were situated among and on top of a large number of dirty, hardscrabble mines. The gentlemen and ladies of Tombstone attended operas presented by visiting acting troupes at the Schieffelin Hall opera house, while the miners and cowboys saw shows at the Bird Cage Theatre, "the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast."

Under the surface were tensions that grew into deadly conflict. Many of the ranchers in the area were Confederate sympathizers and Democrats. The capitalists and townspeople were largely Republicans from the Northern states. The fast-growing city, only 30 miles (48 km) from the U.S./Mexico border, was a wide-open market for beef stolen from ranches in Sonora, Mexico by a gang of outlaws known as The Cowboys. These men were a loosely organized band of friends and acquaintances who teamed up for various crimes and came to each other's aid.

The Earp brothers—Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan and Warren Earp—arrived in December 1879 and the summer of 1880. All assumed roles as lawmen at one time or another which led to ongoing conflicts with Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and other Cowboys. After repeated threats against the Earps by the Cowboys over many months, the conflict escalated into a confrontation that turned into a shootout, the now-famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Tombstone main street

Some folks we met criticised Tombstone as wildly touristic and commercial and disrespectful of history. I could clearly see the first two but i thought the last was a little unfair. My only real criticism of it was that most guides expected you to have a good knowledge of the history already plus an encyclopedic knowledge of the films such that they could correct the film's historical inaccuracies. In other words their interpretations were more about the finer points rather than the big picture narrative. At any rate my appetite has been whetted to see both of the films.

Again from Wikipedia; "On the evening of March 15, 1881, three Cowboys attempted to rob a Kinnear & Company stagecoach carrying US$26,000 in silver bullion (about $626,152 in today's dollars) en route from Tombstone to Benson, Arizona, the nearest railroad freight terminal.[16]:180 Near Drew's Station, just outside of Contention City, the popular and well-known driver Eli 'Budd' Philpot and a passenger named Peter Roerig riding in the rear dickey seat were both shot and killed. Deputy U.S. Marshal Sheriff Virgil Earp and his temporary deputies and brothers Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp pursued the Cowboys suspected of the murders. This set off a chain of events that culminated in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which the lawmen killed Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton.

The gunfight was the result of a personal, family, and political feud. Three months later on the evening of December 28, 1881 Virgil Earp was ambushed and seriously wounded on the streets of Tombstone by hidden assailants shooting from the second story of an unfinished building. Although identified, the suspects were not prosecuted. On March 18, 1882, Morgan Earp was killed by a shot that struck his spine while playing billiards at 10:00 p.m. Once again, the assailants were named but escaped arrest. Wyatt Earp, concluding that legal justice was out of reach, led a posse that pursued and killed four of the men they held responsible on what became known as the Earp Vendetta Ride.[17]

After the Earp family left Arizona, it was left to future Sheriffs to finish the job of clearing the county of outlaws. John Slaughter was elected Cochise County Sheriff in 1886 and served two terms. He hired Burt Alford, who as a 15 year old boy had witnessed the shootout between the Earps and Cowboys. Alford served very effectively for three years until he began to drink heavily and began to associate with outlaws."

The kids had a good day and after checking out the town, its streets and museums what else does one do in a typical wild west town but have a wild west rootin tootin game of mini golf!!

Responsible parenting number 1 - children being encouraged to shoot things

Responsible parenting number 2 - children playing in front of gallows

RIP Tom

RIP Matt [Btw stop smiling....]

Millie enjoys a coffin with head room.........

Canyon Towhee

After the debacle that is putting on artificial greens in the Arizonan desert we had our last stop in town, which coincidently was the last stop for quite a few people - the Tombstone cemetery at Boot Hill. Here was evidence about the nature of the town and the culture of the mid 1800s.

From the Legemds of America website;

"John Wesley Heath was born on December 15, 1844 in Ohio but moved to Terrell, Texas with his family at a young age. There, he got involved in rustling and robbery. He also married twice, first to Mary Ann Redman in October, 1867. What became of her is unknown. He married again in March, 1869 and was known to have had three children – Myrtle, Kittie and John.

However, by the early 1880’s he was living in Arizona, where he served as a deputy sheriff in Cochise County for a brief time. However, he soon found that the pay was not nearly as good as thievery, resigned and went back to his outlaw ways. Living in Bisbee, Arizona, Heath opened a saloon and dancehall. In no time, it quickly became known as a hangout for area outlaws and other shiftless characters.

On December 8, 1883, five men held up the Goldwater and Castenada Store in Bisbee, leaving behind four people dead, including a pregnant woman. The vicious robbers included Daniel "Big Dan” Dowd, Comer W. "Red” Sample, Daniel "York” Kelly, William "Billy” Delaney and James "Tex” Howard.

Having heard that a $7,000 payroll for the Copper Queen Mine was held for safekeeping in the store, two of the men charged inside demanding the money, while the other three waited outside. However, to their disappointment, they discovered that the payroll had not yet arrived. Angered, they then took what money was in the safe (reports vary from $900 to $3,000) and robbed the staff and customers of any valuables.

In the meantime, the three outlaws waiting outside began a shooting spree, first aiming through the window and killing a customer named J.C. Tappenier. Hearing the shot, Deputy Sheriff Tom Smith cam running, and was immediately shot down by the bandits. A bullet gone wild entered a boarding house, killing a pregnant Annie Roberts. Another shot hit a man named J.A. Nolly as he stood outside his office. Yet another unknown man took a bullet in the leg as he was trying to run away from the shooting spree.

The whole affair lasted less than five minutes and with cash in hand and seemingly unperturbed, the outlaws left the town at a leisurely pace, evidently unworried about capture.

The town leaders wasted no time notifying Sheriff J.L. Ward in Tombstone by telegraph. Ward soon formed two posses, with himself leading one, and Deputy Sheriff William Daniels, leading another. When Daniels arrived in Bisbee he began to question its citizens, including John Heath, whose saloon was just down the street from the Goldwater-Castaneda Mercantile. Heath told Daniels that he knew the men involved and could probably help to lead then to outlaws. Though Daniels was apprehensive of Heath, due to his already having a reputation as an unsavory character, he also hoped to quickly apprehend the outlaws. With Heath at the lead, the posse found nothing and soon accused Heath of leading them on a false trail.

Heath returned to his saloon and the posse continued to search for the outlaws. Though it took several weeks, all five were found, two in Mexico, one in New Mexico, and the other two in Clifton, Arizona.

When questioned, some of the outlaws began to indicate that John Heath knew more about the crime than he should have. Soon, the authorities brought Heath in and began to question him. Under pressure, Heath "fessed” up to having prior knowledge of the crime and many believed that he probably master-minded the whole affair.

All were scheduled to be tried, but Heath requested a separate trial and was given it. Furious Bisbee citizens awaited the outcome of the outlaws involved in what had become known as the "Bisbee Massacre.” On Feburary 17th, the trial began for the five killers and two days later they were all sentenced to be hanged on March 8, 1884.

Heath’s trial began on February 20th, where he admitted to being the mastermind of the robbery, indicating that the others lacked the intelligence. However, he adamantly insisted that the killings were never a part of the plan and that he was in no way responsible for the actions of the other five men. A coward at heart, he even admitted that when he heard the shots being fired, he hid behind the bar of his own saloon. The next day, Heath was convicted of second degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery, and sentenced to life in the Yuma prison.

Though Heath was obviously relieved, the citizens of Bisbee were furious and determined to do something about it. Early on the morning of February 22nd, a mob of some 50 men, led by Mike Shaughnessy, descended upon the Tombstone jail and dragged Heath from his cell into the dusty street.

At the corner of First and Toughnut Streets, they looped a rope over the crossbeam of a telegraph pole, as Heath continually claimed his innocence. The vigilantes were not listening. In his last moments, he said: "I have faced death too many times to be disturbed when it actually comes." As the rope began to pull him skyward, he cried out one last request, "Don't mutilate my body or shoot me full of holes!" Public approval of the hanging was reflected in the verdict of the coroner's jury: "We the undersigned, a jury of inquest, find that John Heath came to his death from emphysema of the lungs--a disease common in high altitudes--which might have been caused by strangulation, self-inflicted or otherwise."

Though there is a marked grave today in Tombstone's Boot Hill for John Heath, records actually indicate that he was returned to Terrell, Texas and buried in the Oakland Cemetery by his family in an unmarked grave.

The other five killers' scheduled hanging for March 8th remained unchanged, soon taking on a carnival like atmosphere. Free tickets were issued for the event, but when Sheriff Ward ran out of them, an enterprising business man built bleachers around the gallows and began selling yet more tickets.

However, famous business woman, gold prospector, and spiritual caretaker, Nellie Cashman, objected adamantly to the circus that was surrounding the event. Outraged at the citizens’ behavior and feeling that no death should be "celebrated,” she soon befriended the five convicts, visiting them often and providing them with spiritual guidance. She pleaded with Sheriff Ward to place a curfew on the town during the time that the hangings were to take place. Ward conceded and the vast majority of interested onlookers were not allowed to watch the "event.” In the meantime, she and some friends had destroyed the bleachers that had been built. When the five men were standing on the gallows, reportedly Dan Dowd remarked that the multi-gallows were a "regular choking machine.” Unfortunately, he was right, because of the five men, only one died of a broken neck, the other four dying slowly of strangulation.

After they were executed, the men were buried in Tombstone's Boot Hill cemetery. Cashman also found out that there was a plan to rob the bodies from their graves for a medical school study. This, too, outraged the woman and she hired two prospectors to guard the graves for ten days, which were left undisturbed and remain at Boot Hill today."

From Wikipedia;

"Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton, killed in the O.K. Corral shootout, are buried in the town's Boot Hill cemetery (this is the "Old City Cemetery," used after 1883 only to bury outlaws and a few others). "Boot Hill" refers to the number of men who died with their boots on. Among a number of pioneer Boot Hill cemeteries in the Old West, Boot Hill in Tombstone is among the most well-known.[19] Marshal Fred White, killed by Curly Bill Brocius, is also among the approximately 300 people buried there. It had a separate Jewish cemetery, which is nearby. With a new city cemetery built elsewhere, the old cemetery stopped accepting new burials in about 1883 (save for very few exceptions) and fell into disrepair until the 1940s, when the city began to restore and preserve the graveyard.[19]

One of the most well known markers belongs to Lester Moore. He was a Wells, Fargo & Co. station agent in the Mexican border town of Naco, Arizona Territory. One afternoon Hank Dunstan appeared to claim a package due him. When he got it, he found it thoroughly mangled. The two men argued, and then both Moore and Dunstan drew their weapons. Dunstan got off four shots, hitting Moore in the chest with his .44 caliber revolver. Dunstan was mortally wounded with a hole through his ribs by the single shot Moore had squeezed off. Les Moore was buried in Boot Hill, and his famous tombstone epitaph remains an attraction in the cemetery:
HERE LIES LESTER MOORE, FOUR SLUGS FROM A 44, NO LES NO MORE"