According to the venerable Tombstone historian Ben Traywick, the ever-present quest for Tombstone authenticity is something from which newly arrived residents frequently suffer. After awhile they will realize all Tombstone has ever been about is making money.
Some people just do it better than others. (See Part I)
Prospector Ed Schieffelin wanted to hunt for gold and silver in southern Arizona during the days of the Apache rebellion in the late 1870s. He hired on as a scout at Camp Huachuca, now Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, and did a little prospecting in his spare time.
After he started prospecting in an area known as Goose Flats, someone told him the only thing he was going to find was his tombstone. In 1879, Ed Schieffelin made one of the largest silver strikes in American history. The town that soon sprang up around his mines became known as Tombstone.
Within months of his strike, the little community of Tombstone had exploded into one of the largest towns in the Southwest - larger than Los Angeles. Tombstone was all about money. It attracted miners, gamblers, lawmen, outlaws, sinners, and saints. By 1880 the town had a number of restaurants: American, French, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and gourmet. There were several newspaper stands. There was a bookstore, a gymnasium, and a bowling alley.
The community was wealthy enough to attract some of the finest physicians in the country, several of whom opened competing hospitals. The two primary newspapers, the Epitaph and Nugget began one of the nations more infamous ‘newspaper wars’.
There were hotels - two of them extremely upscale. The saloons were more extravagant than San Francisco, with the townspeople extremely well dressed in the latest “Paris” fashions. There was even an ice skating rink!
Tombstone had everything in the world going for it, and then the mines began leaking water. Within a few years they flooded to the point where it was impossible for the expensive, imported pumps to even keep up with the seepage of water. The mines died. The town began to die.
The low point was the early 1960s when the decision was made to demolish the courthouse, now a national treasure. It was only the fortitude of a few people like Ben Traywick and stalwart business owners who kept the dying community alive.
Then came the movies Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. The wonder that was once Tombstone was rediscovered by people the world over. With the influx of new visitors came the demand for “authenticity”. The little town, once dying, began to experience the almost unknown feeling of the birth pain of new business and growth.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
That's "progress."