Saloons, Ghosts and Boot Hill Cemetary
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By GERRY BARKER
North Palm Beach Life Published February, 2019 TOMBSTONE_After the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and lunch at the O.K. Corral Cafe, we ambled down Allen Street toward another famous landmark, the Bird Cage Theatre. We learned (thank you, Wikipedia) that the theater opened on Dec. 26, 1881. Owners Lottie and Billy Hutchinson apparently aspired to offer wholesome family entertainment, but most of the Tombstone miners and cowboys weren't interested in spending their hard-earned money on that. It quickly expanded into a saloon, gambling, colorful acts and a brothel. The name, by the way, stems from the ladies suspended in "bird cages" from the ceiling. Touring it today is like a step back in history. Relics and artifacts have been carefully preserved, including bullet holes in the walls and the table in the basement where the world's longest continuous poker game was played 24 hours a day for eight years. Another thing about the Bird Cage: It's haunted. Tourists report the smell of whiskey and cigars, and others have seen the visages of some of the 26 people who died within its walls. No wonder it's been the focus of a number of paranormal investigators. Take the spooky night tour and see for yourself. As the mines closed and the population dwindled, the theater closed in 1892, only to reopen decades later as an historic tourist attraction. 
Not a happy ending for Lizette
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Some of the private boxes at the Bird Cage
The site of the poker game that never stopped
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The Tombstone Epitaph -- Still Reporting the News
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Down Fifth Street, off Allen, we wandered into the offices of The Tombstone Epitaph, "the oldest continuously published newspaper in Arizona," founded in 1880. Since we both had careers in the newspaper business, how could we not?
Inside is a combination newspaper office and museum, housing the "hot type" relics of publishing days long past. One of their main claims to fame is the story they ran on the O.K. Corral gunfight. Old West and Tombstone history is now a mainstream product for them. 
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A skeleton, left, mans this old linotype machine, which produced the stories in hot lead kept in
the trays stacked above. |
Silver Strike Winery
Just down the street from the O.K. Corral is the Silver Strike Winery. Their wines come from grapes grown locally, and come in many varieties. We stopped for a tasting and left with a bottle of their "TNT" as a memento. Wonder what the cowboys of the 1880s would think about attending a wine tasting?
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Tombstone Ghosts
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Boot Hill -- The End of the Trail
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Besides the O.K. Corral, Boot Hill is no doubt the other attraction most synonymous with Tombstone. Located on the outskirts of the Historic District, it's the final resting place for many felled by bullets or at the end of a rope.
This is where you'll find the graves of the cowboys gunned down at the O.K. Corral -- Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury. It was officially closed in 1886. Now it draws thousands of tourists, who pay $3 to tour the graves. 
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They say somewhere between 200
and 300 people are buried here. |
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'Here
Lies George Johnson Hanged by Mistake 1882 He Was Right We Was Wrong But We Strung Him Up And Now He's Gone' |
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The graves of O.K. Corral victims Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury
POST SCRIPT
When old meets new ... this stagecoach driver talks on his cell phone.