But the old buildings have been given face-lifts, and a visitor wandering the historic district can buy everything from period clothing and jewelry to chaps, spurs and a saddle.
Stagecoaches transport passengers around town; horses are tied to hitching posts; reenactors carrying shotguns stroll the main street; and women costumed in bustiers and skimpy dresses step in and out of the saloons.
And the O. Corral hurls its three desperadoes into eternity each and every day. A cross between an amateur theater group and a civic organization, the Vigilantes donate proceeds from their shootouts and hangings to community projects.
Most Vigilantes sew their own costumes and strive for authenticity, researching patterns in catalogs and era magazines. They can also buy reproduction clothes at the Oriental Saloon, which features a boutique stocked with chiffon, cotton voile, silk crepe, taffeta, lace and enough feathers to fill an aviary. One of the attractions of Wild West frontier towns was the freedom they offered for shedding old identities and starting over.
Some of that license survives in Tombstone, and no one seems to enjoy it more than Kim Herrig, proprietress of the Crystal Palace Saloon.
So, silver mining continued in the area, the mine shafts went deeper and deeper. But, at the foot level, they struck the water table and the mines began to flood. The attempts to keep the water pumped out proved to be too expensive, and the towns residents began to move away.
It is estimated that during the s, the population had dwindled to approximately However, this once bustling mining town has grown popular as a place to visit an old west town full of history and evidence of a time long past. Its convenient location and mild, year-round climate makes it a great place to get a glimpse of that past. There is one place that still grabs our imaginations and interests today, Tombstone, Arizona.
Without his courage, tenacity, and vision, the area known as Tombstone would still be called Goose Flats. Ed Schieffelin wanted to explore the region near the former Chiricahua Reservation to the south. Using Camp Huachuca as a base, Ed trailed after several scouting parties, but this tactic failed to provide adequate time for prospecting. Soon he struck out alone, and each time he returned the soldiers asked him what he had found.
Ed would admit that he had not found anything and rebut that he would someday soon. This always tickled the soldiers, and they would reply that the only thing Ed would find in these hills was his tombstone. As their mining operation grew, so did the need for men. Soon a tent community sprang up, and when word got out about the silver in the area this village grew in to a metropolis almost overnight.
It was a perverse supply and demand scenario. On a cold, snowy and windy October 26, , the most famous gunfight in the American West took place between the two factions. For six more months hostilities would continue until Earp left the Territory in April of Wyatt Earp lived in Tombstone for 28 months.
Tombstone Baseball Team. It was very modern, sophisticated, and extremely wealthy. Telephones were installed in Tombstone in By , the City had two gas companies; three water companies; two ice companies; five ice cream parlours; fresh seafood was delivered daily from Baja, Mexico; west of the city was a track for horse racing and on the infield of the racetrack was a baseball diamond.
Tombstone had a baseball team from The first swimming pool in Arizona Territory was built at the north end of Fifth Street.
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