Tombstone, Arizona

Tuesday, 2/28/18

We arrived in Benson, Arizona around noon and got all set-up at Valley Vista RV Resort. After a quick lunch we headed off to Tombstone to walk on the streets where the Earp Brothers and Doc Holiday once roamed, stepping back into the rough and toughdays of the wild west. In the 1880s, Tombstone was a booming mining town that brought a rush of prospectors and miners looking to strike it rich. It also became a magnet to thieves, card-sharks, murderers, and rustlers.

Founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin who discovered rich silver deposits, the town grew quickly. Within two years, it became an isolated metropolitan city with two banks, three newspapers. four churches, an opera house and even a bowling alley. But the thriving streets of Tombstone became wild and wicked with 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, several dancing halls with brothels.

The most famous event in Tombstone, Arizona’s long history was the famed “Gunfight at the OK Corral”, which didn’t actually happen at the corral, but in a vacant lot on Fremont Street near the OK Corral. On October 26, 1881, after years of feuding and mounting tensions members of the so-called “Cowboys” had a run-in with the “law and order” Earps; Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan with help from Wyatt’s friend Doc Holliday.

After years of feuding and mounting tensions, the “law and order” Earps and the “Cowboy” Clanton-McLaurys engage in their world-famous shoot-out near the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Both sides in the conflict were ostensibly looking for revenge for what they perceived as malicious attacks and insults, but on a larger level the conflict revolved around which side would control the fate of Tombstone and Cochise County.

That hot Arizona day, the Earp brothers—Wyatt; Virgil, the town marshal; and Morgan – along with their friend Doc Holliday, spotted a group of “Cowboys” Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne, at the other end of Fremont Street, standing in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral.

The Earps and Holliday went to arrest the lawbreakers. Virgil handed Holliday a shotgun to conceal under his coat. As the lawmen approached the lot, Sheriff John Behan told them he had disarmed the Cowboys. Wyatt and Virgil put away their pistols. But the Earps ignored the sheriff and moved ahead to confront their enemies. “You sons of bitches,” Wyatt Earp reportedly said, “you re looking for a fight and now you can have it.”

Moments later, the Earp crowd noticed that Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were armed. Tom McLaury may or may not have been armed, but he had a rifle within easy reach, in a scabbard on Frank’s horse. The two sides were a few feet away when Virgil shouted, “Boys throw up your hands. I want your guns!”

The question of which side actually drew their guns first is still debated today, but it’s believed that Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton in the chest at point-blank range, according to witnesses, Tom McLaury said “I’ve got you now, you son of a bitch.” at which Doc Holliday replied, “Blaze away, you’re a daisy if you have.” (“daisy” means the best or most marvelous. Kind of similar to saying that something is the cream of the crop.) Then Doc Holliday killed Tom McLaury with a blast from his double-barreled shotgun. Wyatt Earp shot Frank McLaury in the stomach, and the wounded man staggered out into the street but managed to pull his gun and return fire. Meanwhile, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran for their lives. The wounded Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton both managed to get off several shots before collapsing, and Virgil, Morgan, and Doc were all hit. But when the 24 seconds and 30 shot  gunfight was over, there was no doubt which side had triumphed: the Earps were bloodied but alive, while Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury were dead or dying. Sheriff Behan, who witnessed the entire shoot-out, charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. However, a month later the Tombstone justice of the peace found the men not guilty, ruling “the defendants were fully justified in committing these homicides.”

We visited the site where this famous shootout took place. (Publishing pictures of the site is prohibited without written permission.) The area where the gunfight took place is so much smaller that the movie and TV reenactments made it appear.

I think if it wasn’t for that famous gun fight Tombstone would have met the same fate as so many other mining towns did.

My wife took the tour of the “Bird Cage Theatre” which was a saloon, theater, gambling hall and brothel. It opened its doors on Christmas Day 1881 and ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year until closing its doors in 1889. This is one of the few locations that is original, right down to the bullet holes in the ceiling.

We also made a quick pit stop at the Tombstone Brewing Company for a flight. I enjoyed both the …IPA and the … so I grabbed a couple of 16ounce four packs to take back to the RV.

Before leaving we visited Tombstone’s Boot Hill Graveyard a wild west burial ground with over 250 graves that still harbors the old grave sites of towns people, those murdered or killed during gunfights as well as others that were hanged for crimes and at least one poor soul that was hanged even though he was innocent.

Boot Hill Graveyard is also the final resting place for the Cowboys shot and killed by Earp brothers and Doc Holliday during the “gunfight at the OK Corral” Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury.

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