To give you a little history Tombstone was established back in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin. It was one of the last boomtowns in the American Old West and prospered for several years during the silver bullion. The population grew from 100 to over 14,000 people in a little over seven years. The city is best known however for its gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Within two years the town had a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, ice cream parlor, 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls and several dancing halls and brothels. Even though the city was booming there were several conflicts that were brewing. The mining and townspeople were largely Republicans and the ranchers were Democrats. The city was only thirty miles from the Mexican border and several cows were stolen by a band of brothers knows as The Cowboys.
Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp arrived in December 1879 and the summer of 1880. The brothers had several conflicts with Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury and several other Cowboys members. The Cowboys constantly threatened the Earps and Doc Holliday until finally it escalated into the confrontation that is now the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
After this the city was nearly a ghost town and the only thing that saved it was the Cochise County seat until 1929. It is now mainly a tourist attraction.
We left our RV around 8:30 in the morning and decided to take the scenic route to get to Tombstone. Wow, what amazing views. One minute we were driving through the desert, than all of a sudden the cactus was gone and it was fields of what looked like hay, then it was green trees and then back to cactus. So different and so pretty. We arrived in Tombstone about 11:00 and decided to walk town to see what we wanted to do. We got to the far end and rode the shuttle bus which gave us a history of the town. We then ate lunch at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. They had a gentlemen that was up singing and the ladies were dressed in what would have been the normal attire for the 1800's. It was such fun.
At 2:00 we went to the O.K. Corral to see the famous shoot-out. We had purchased gun headphones for Garrett to wear as we weren't sure how he would react to the guns going off. It was an OK show, however it wasn't in the original location and was small compared to where it actually took place. We had brought Bailey with us and decided to make it a day after the gunfight. We can always go back and see the remaining things. We did however on the way out stop at Boothill Cemetery and took a look around. We then headed back home and decided to go to an Asian Buffet here in Tucson. Shockingly it was very good and we would definitely go back and eat again even though we normally don't eat at buffets.