| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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Evelyn had found a recommendation for a motel that is more like a bed and breakfast. It is just a private attempt at a motel and is more like sleeping in someone's back room. It is furnished much like you would furnish a house. It is two blocks from the center of Tombstone.
As Evelyn says, Tombstone nicknamed itself 'The Town Too Tough To Die,' but at sundown it gives a darn good imitation of dying. What a sleepy little burg! There is one place to eat in town that we saw open. Their Mexican food was pretty good by New Jersey standards, not that that is saying much. They couldn't survive in a state with a Hispanic name with Mexican food that wasn't pretty good by New Jersey standards. We tried a local brand of soda, 'Doc Holiday' ('Double Barrel of Flavor' and 'A Real Blast'). (Note that the real Doc spelled his name with a double L.) The flavor was like Dr. Pepper.
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The room wasn't totally comfortable. To use the air conditioner you had to blow the curtains all over the place, making the room visible from the street, but some clever folding and tucking with the use of a paperclip I had brought solved the problem. You might not think it, but paperclips have a lot of uses. I put 25 of them on a half an index card and keep that in my pocket calendar. Many times they have been useful.
The room was actually pretty nice considering it was cheaper than a Motel 6 (considerably). It had a kitchenette, two wide beds, and a sort of bunkhouse feel but lots of furniture and a lot of room.
We went into town and ate at a restaurant called the Longhorn. I might have wanted to keep looking for the Brie or at least the Sharp Cheddar, but I doubt we'd have found it.
I should probably explain what the town of Tombstone did to itself. On both sides of the main drag the buildings are pretty much as they looked in 1881 when the gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place. (Uh-oh! I'm going to have to give more background info, aren't I?) Of course, the stores are all things like souvenirs, silver jewelry, etc. It is all tourist trap, of course. What do they have of genuine historical interest? Nothing that is free. They have the Arizona Territorial Museum. That is free and probably a nickel too expensive at that. It is a store front set up to look like the inside of a mine with various displays, none explained at all. Presumably we are looking at goods of the period, but also there are items present that are clearly not from the period. I do not remember ever seeing an exhibit that so over-rated itself by calling itself a museum.
Then there is the O.K. Corral itself. What can I tell you about the famous gunfight? First, if you have seen it dramatized in a film, don't believe what you saw. There have been a bunch of film versions including HOUR OF THE GUN and GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, both by John Sturges. There was John Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE and lots and lots of others. And no two even tell similar stories. That should tell you that at most one film can have gotten the story right. Experts agree that one film does not exist. The story just does not make for a good film. The high point of excitement is a two-minute gun battle towards the middle of the real story. It is probably the most famous gun battle of the violent West, but it settled very little. And the real story is fairly complex. Even now it is tough to assess blame. The real characters are painted in shades of gray. Wyatt Earp is a lousy choice for a hero. This story has no heroes or villains. It is a lot easier to invent a new story than to tell the original.
Let me tell you just what happened that one day. Previously the Clanton and McLaury families had been involved in activities on the mossy side of the law. The Earps had been attempting to enforce the law in the most brutal and vicious manner they could muster. There was a lot of bad blood between them.
On Tuesday, October 25, 1881, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were peacefully in town. Doc Holliday and Virgil Earp had both verbally abused Ike and Tom. Wyatt found McLaury and challenged him to fight. McLaury refused. Earp pulled out his gun and beat McLaury with it. A short time later Wyatt found Frank McLaury--Tom's brother--breaking a minor city ordinance. There are all kinds of conflicting accounts about what had already happened that day and what was about to happen. At least by one account Virgil and Morgan Earp found Ike Clanton and started to argue with him. Virgil pulled out a gun and slugged Clanton with it. They dragged Clanton to the courthouse and had him fined $25 for carrying concealed weapons. Tom McLaury entered the courtroom cussing out the Earps. Wyatt pistol-whipped him and threw him out. An hour later Wyatt got a message that Frank and Tom McLaury, Billy and Ike Clanton, and Billy Claiborne wanted to see the Earps at the O.K. Corral. The Earps and Doc Holliday went. There was a three-minute gunfight that left the McLaurys and Billy Clanton dead. Morgan and Virgil Earp were badly wounded. Doc Holliday was slightly wounded. The town sheriff arrested Wyatt and the Doc. Of course, there is a lot more to the story both before and after the gunfight, but it goes beyond the scope of this telling.
This one gunfight is probably the best known two minutes of the town's history. In general, the town was probably no more wild than most towns in the area. It just had its moments. We did see the famous corral, though actually the fight was not in the corral area; it was more in the back yard area that gave people a shortcut into the corral. They have nine dummies standing there looking like over-dramatic images of the gunfight participants. Press a button and there is a recorded description of the gunfight.
Also on the main road is the Bird Cage Theater. Notables like Caruso and Eddie Foy had played there. It was the center of entertainment for old Tombstone. Most of the entertainment seems to have come from drunken cowboys causing trouble. Once a production of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN had a specially trained bloodhound chasing little Eliza over the simulated ice floes. A well-meaning drunken cowpoke saved Eliza by shooting the bloodhound. The cowboy spent the night in jail and the next day offered both to pay for the dog and to give his saddle horse as part of the payment.
Of course, dogs weren't the only residents of the stage in danger. There was a bullet-catching act where a magician would have an assistant shoot blanks at him, then he would spit bullets out of his mouth as if he had caught them in his teeth, Stupid act for an audience like the one in Tombstone. Sure enough, one drunken cowboy tried to help with the act by shooting more bullets to be caught by the magician. Luckily a friend recognized that it was anti-social to shoot at people and deflected his hand. They still call attention to the bullet holes in the stage.
The building actually served more than one entertainment need at once. There were two rows of box seats on each side with curtains. For a price you could get one of the hostesses to sit and enjoy the show with you. For a bit more you could get her to close the curtains and provide her own entertainment. The boxes on the side were the reason the theater was called the Bird Cage Theater. Also, the claim is made that the theater was the inspiration for the song 'She Was Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage.' The museum is full of a lot of exhibits of dubious authenticity, like the curios of Pancho Villa. They may be real, of course, but they don't appear to be guaranteed so by anyone unbiased.
Other buildings to visit include the bar owned by Big Nose Kate. Kate went by more than one name. She was known as Big Nose Katie Elder or as Big Nose Katie Fisher. Under the Clantons' thumb, she testified that Doc Holliday had robbed a stage. Later she ended up as Holliday's mistress (some say wife). I have never seen the film THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and have wondered if the name is just a coincidence.
After that we went to Boot Hill. That is some distance from the center of town. I did sort of a double-take on the sign announcing Boot Hill which said 'Boot Hill Cemetery and Jewish Memorial.' The sign described more of what was inside but there was no further explanation of the 'Jewish Memorial.' While just about every other historic site you pay for, Boot Hill Cemetery and Jewish Memorial is free. You can get to it only by walking through a souvenir store, but that is fine by me. All the more so because the woman running the place appears to be Indian. I don't mean to be racist about this, but it is nice to see an Indian making a profit from all this. We did buy from her, getting a souvenir for our tchatchka table. We walked around Boot Hill, finding few familiar names but noting that all the Chinese were in one corner. There was an arrow to the Jewish Memorial. Our curiosity piqued, we walked a fair distance down the hill and there really was a memorial dedicated to Jews and Indians who have died of persecution. The memorial is only eight years old. I am not surprised that a Jewish memorial would show empathy for Indians. I just was surprised to see it on Boot Hill. (Not that Jews were unknown in Tombstone at the time of the Earps. Sheriff Jim Behan had no use for Wyatt Earp and a big part of it was a love triangle with a Jewish actress who came to town in 1879 and stayed. Josephine Sarah Marcus was loved by both Jim Behan and Wyatt Earp. It is not hard to see why. There is an extant photo of her. Standards of beauty change and pictures of women at the time almost invariably seem not at all attractive today. Josephine Sarah Marcus's picture still is attractive (not to say out-and-out sexy) in the 1990s. 'Josie' eventually married Wyatt.)
Most of the names were unfamiliar on Boot Hill. We did find the tombs of the McLaurys and Billy Clanton together in one corner. There was also a tombstone to 'John Dunlap killed by Jeff Milton.' This was 'Three-Fingered Jack' Dunlap, a bank and train robber. The evening of February 15, 1900, Three-Fingered Jack was one of five outlaws who tried to rob a train outside of Fairbank, Arizona, nine miles from Tombstone. They fired at express messenger Jeff Milton and shattered Milton's left arm. Milton was able to grab a shotgun and return fire. Jack was hit eleven times from one shot. The others managed to drag Dunlap away and put him in his saddle, but Jack apparently died anyway. Hence the grave we found. (But I love having the right reference book at the right time. The above info came from the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS, a nifty book by one Bill O'Neal.)
Following that we went to Bisbee. This was once the best known city in Arizona. It was the home of the Queen Mine. The mine yielded more than $2 billion in copper, gold, lead, silver, and zinc. After a walk around town, we took the mine tour. You take a mine train 1500 feet into the mine and get a lecture on what mining was like. There is a discussion of the various drills that were used, how dynamite was placed, and the bell codes that were used with the shaft elevator to tell the operator on top where to position the car. It was fairly informative.
After that we drove to Tucson. We checked into our motel. We went out for Arabic food (falafel, tahini, hoummous, etc.). Back at the motel we listened to the second Presidential debate and wrote until we got tired.
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| It was a real pleasure waking up and not having to pack up the car. |
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| Copyright © - "Mark R. Leeper" |
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