32 - Sunday, March 11, 1990 - North Shore News

TRAVEL

Colorful frontier past is
celebrated in Tombstone

JUST 20 minutes north of Bisbee is one of the most famous
towns.of the old west — Tombstone, Arizona.

The casual visitor to Tombstone
will never understand the place.
What you see is one thing — what
is really there is quite another.

I'd swear that the people in
Tombstone, given half a day to
remove a few shop window
displays and kick out the cars and
tourists, could turn the town
backwards a full century. And
they'd like to do it.

‘*‘Nothing’s changed,’’ I
remarked to my friend Gabe Brett,
a longtime Tombstone resident.
Our last visit was about eight years
ago.

“It isn’t going to, either,’’ she
replied.

It is mostly to do with the resi-
dents — they refuse to tear down
anything. Restoration is allowed
but only gingerly. What about de-
velopers?

Gabe looked at me as if I'd lost
my mind. ‘‘The town gets rid of
them. I don’t mean that the people
throw them out — the fown gets
tid of people it doesn’t like.”’

**Huh?”’

“Two years. The wrong people
never last two years. If you stay
two years you’ ll never leave.’’

There’s an air of mystery to the
real Tombstone.

xwk*ee

Ed Schieffelin was a prospector
back in the 1870s, and he was
darn sure there was silver to be
mined in the wilderness around
what is now Tombstone.

It was hardly a tourist attraction
in those days — if you didn’t die
of thirst or starve to death the In-
dian tribes were happy to help you
along to your reward. Spiders,
snakes and scorpions began to
iook quite friendly by comparison.

“All you’ find is your tomb-
stone,”’ he was warned.

So that’s what he named the
town, after he found all of the
above listed hosts, but silver on the
side as well. Old Ed must have had
a sense of humor, as did the first
newspaper publisher when he call-
ed his paper the ‘‘Epitaph.’*

Tombstone drew miners and all
the others waiting to cash in —
saloon keepers, madams, dance
hall girls, gunslingers and other
admirable inhabitants.

Unfortunately, not much
engineering know-how went into
the building of the mine tunnels —
they flooded permanently in 1934.
Even less structural skill was in-
volved in building the town — it’s
got quite a basement.

Aside from the criss-crossed
tunnels underneath — cave-ins are
possible any time — there are old
sewers (these can and do drop
through from time to time) and
even more tunnels allegedly built
by the Chinese linking up various
opium dens and Fan-Tan parlors.

hak

‘What’s there for today’s visitor?
Just about everything! I'll give you
a quick run-down. In many cases
admission is free.

First, the town isn't big. The
centre is three main streets running
east-west — Fremont, Allen and
Toughnut — crossed by numbered
streets, 3rd to 6th.

Don’t let the small size give you
the idea you can ‘‘see’’ Tormbstone
in a couple of hours. I refuse to
visit again without at least an
overnight stay.

The first stop you should make
is the Tombstone Historama — a
presentation narrated by Vincent
Price. It costs $1 and gives you a
good overview of the town. It’s

right next to the O.K. Corral at
3rd and Allen. You can also pick
up a map. .

O.K. Corral: Kept as it was, the
corral offers a re-enactment of the
famous gunfight on first and third
Sundays at 2 p.m.

The acting group is called the
“Wild Bunch’’ and is made up of
locals, not pros. Even if there’s no
show you can prowl through the
buildings. Admission: $1.

travel
wise

Barbara McCreadie

EA RENEE

Rose Tree Inn Museum, 4th and
Toughnut, $1. Take a look at the
biggest rose tree you’ll ever see,
plus a family museum. It must be
fantastic in bloom, but is 7,000
square feet of awesome even in
January.

Bird Cage Theatre, 6th and
Allen, $1.25. This is a Don’t miss!
The spiel at the front is free, but
pay your money and get in back.
No redecorating was done since it
closed, and not a heck of a lot
from the day it opened back in the
1880s.

Crystal Palace Saloon, Sth and
Allen, good watering hole. It’s
completely unchanged — do I have
to keep telling you that? I hope
Johnny Bencomo is still singing
there when you visit. He’s hard to
describe — but how about this? If
he offered to buy me a drink, I'd

go weak-kneed. If my daughter
brought him home, it would be
“Nellie, bar the door!’ As a
friend of Gabe’s, he sat with us for
a while. Gabe and I were weak-
kneed, while Brian was slightly
edgy.

Tombston: Epitaph, Sth be-
tween Fremont and Allen, free.
Original equipment and historical

papers.
week

There are many other spots to
visit in downtown Tombstone but
those are my favorites. Your little
map will show you where to look
for the Courthouse with its jail and
gallows, mine tours, stagecoach
tides, the Wells Fargo Museum
and General Store, Nellie
Cashman’s (not a word about her
now — she’s going to be a whole

article!)
wn

Boot Hill: On the hill overlook-
ing the town is this famous old
cemetery. Buy a guidebook for S50¢
before you go in — you'll enjoy
reading some of the circumstances
involved in the more abrupt inter-
ments.

“Hung by mistake’? is one of
the more colorful. ‘Killed by In-
dians,"” ‘‘Murdered,’’ ‘‘Shot by
Sheriff,” and ‘‘Stabbed by Gold
Doliar (another dance hall giri)’’
go along with more usual causes —
typhoid, pneumonia, poisoned
water, mine explosions and various
childhood diseases. Not too many
died of old age.

My favorite epitaph was ‘‘Lester
Moore: Here lies Lester Moore,
Four slugs from a .44. No Les, no
more.”’

Stop by the Victorian Antiques,
close to the cemetery. The antiques
are interesting and the acjoining
quilt shop has some of the most
beautiful handmade creations I've
seen. The prices about what you’d
expect if you know quilts.

sae

I’ve saved one of the best stops
for last. The Lucky Cuss restau-
rant is still going strong, and what
a rib dinner we had!

See Welk
Page 34

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