While I-10 races east over the mountains, our more scenic route, promoted by tourism authorities as the “Cochise Trail,” winds south on old US-80 through the Wild West town of Tombstone, “The Town too Tough to Die.” The route loops along the Mexican border before rejoining I-10 across the New Mexico border.
Though it’s just 22 miles south of the freeway, and regularly inundated by bikers, RVers, and busloads of tourists, the rough-and-ready mining town of Tombstone (pop. 1,504) has kept itself looking pretty much as it did back in the 1880s, when 10,000 miners called it home, and one of the more mythic events of the Wild West took place here: the shoot-out at the OK Corral.
Historians, and everyone in Tombstone, still debate the chain of events of October 26, 1881. Was Wyatt Earp a sharpshooting savior, out to make Tombstone safe for decent society? Or was he really a grandstanding cowboy whom history has romanticized? Decide for yourself after hearing all sides of the story. The OK Corral is still there, a block south of Fremont Street (old US-80), on Allen Street between 3rd and 4th Streets, with life-sized, black-leather-clad statues taking the places of Virgil and Wyatt Earp facing down the Clanton brothers. Nearby, in a fenced-off outdoor theater, gunslinging actors stage recreations of the shootout. To see any or all of this, you have to buy a ticket at the entertaining Historama (daily; $7.50; 520/457-3456), adjacent to the OK Corral.
The dead men, and many hundreds of others, ended up at Boot Hill Cemetery (daily; free), along the highway at the northwestern edge of town, where you can wander among 300 wooden grave markers inscribed with all manner of rhyming epitaphs. The Boot Hill Cemetery is the real thing, and the souvenirs in the large gift shop at the entrance are as wonderfully tacky as they come.
Though the OK Corral and Boot Hill are both fun, the best place to learn about Tombstone’s real, as opposed to mythic, history is at the Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park, at 3rd and Toughnut Streets. Built in 1882, this old courthouse building holds 12,000 square feet of artifacts documenting and describing the real Wild West.
Despite the huge numbers of people who descend upon Tombstone every day, and the gauntlet of T-shirt and knick-knack shops catering to them, the town is still a very appealing place to visit. Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner at Nellie Cashman’s (520/457-2212), off Toughnut at 117 S. 5th Street, Tombstone’s oldest eatery. Enjoy a cool drink at the truly historic Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, right at the center of things on Allen Street, which was named for, owned, and run by Doc Holliday’s brothel-keeper girlfriend. Places to stay are not extensive, nor very expensive: Try the centrally located Tombstone Motel ($50; 520/457-3478), on the main road at 502 E. Fremont Street.
Every summer, daily and every hour on the hour, historic gunfights are reenacted all around Tombstone, and during the third week in October, the whole town comes alive with a weekend of shoot-outs and parades during Helldorado Days.
