The Town Too Tough To Die - Tombstone

It's 1877 -- 121 years ago. Imagine you are Ed Schieffelin, a prospector visiting in the area of Camp (now, Fort) Huachuca in the east-facing foothills and flanks of the Huachuca Mountains in southeastern Arizona. Looking across the San Pedro River Valley to the east, you see a low mountain range which you think to be a promising source of silver. Undaunted by the ever-present Apaches who continuously tried to rid their homeland of the white man and warned by Camp Huachuca's Indian-fighter soldiers that the only thing you'll find would be your tombstone, you find a very rich silver strike, naming your first claim, "Tombstone," and another "Graveyard." Word spread quickly of the silver discovery and fabulous yields. More a prospector than a miner, Ed profitably sold his claims and moved on to prospect in the Klondike. He is buried in Tombstone.

By 1883, Tombstone was a booming mine town of 7,000 with an impressive infrastructure in place (including 110 saloons and numerous gambling houses and bordellos/cribs).In 1883, incredibly, a 36-mile underground 15-inch pipeline was constructed from the Huachuca Mountains across the San Pedro River Valley and under the river to provide water for the residents and mining operations. Today, it remains Tombstone's water supply!For about 100-years, Tombstone's mines have been closed (ground water flooded them) and the town is nothing more or less than an attractive tourist attraction. The residents, businesses and government have collaborated variously to restore, preserve and replace with replicas what Tombstone was in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Residents dress in period costumes and mingle with the tourists along Allen Street which is lined with boardwalk-like sidewalks and is blocked from vehicles except horse-drawn carriages and wagons carrying tourists. Saloon bouncers, gunslingers and reprebates roam the streets. Gunfights (using blanks!!) randomly breakout or are carefully staged (for an addmission fee of course). Tourists (and I) love it!! Original and restored bars and tours of bordellos (no live ladies apparent when I'm there!) do a lively business. Merchants must do OK as, year-after-year, I see the same ones happily relieving tourists of their $.

The courthouse is the original 1802 building and was the Chochise AZ County seat (now, it's in Bisbee to the south). Within are wonderful displays of period artifacts and history of Tombstone and its famous and infamous inhabitants. Near downtown Tombstone is Boot Hill. Good fun seeing the headstones of some of the town's colorful residents. Ore from Tombstone's mines was transported 10-or-so miles by wagon trains to Fairbanks and Charleston, respectively a railhead and a smelter. Those support towns next to the San Pedro River grew like weeds and flourished -- or became ghost towns -- based upon the health of Tombstone and productivity its mines. In 1882, Fairbanks had a larger population than San Francisco!