After a pleasant night at the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, we headed to Tombstone, AZ for the day.

Sign at entrance to cemetery

Our first stop was a favorite: Boot Hill Cemetery. Wandering through the cemetery and reading the epitaphs on the gravestones is fascinating. Nearly half of the graves are unknown and half of those that are known contained the remains of people shot, hung, lynched, stabbed, drowned or died by some other unnatural means. After a while one wonders if anyone ever died a natural death in Tombstone. There is a Tombstone Historical Association that is diligently attempting to identify and tell the stories of those buried in Boot Hill. They have published a small pamphlet with information about many of the identified grave sites. Many of the epitaphs on the graves are informative and some are quite sobering. Others are quite humorous (if you are into gallows humor). One of the more philosophical epitaphs read “As you pass by,  Remember that as you are, so once was I and as I am you soon will be. Remember me.”

After a fun time at Boot Hill, we went into the Historic District of Tombstone. It looks like any town that you see in an old western TV show or movie complete with dirt streets, boardwalk for sidewalks, and roof overhangs to shade the boardwalk. Our first stop was at a sweets shop for delicious Gelato. We then continued our tourist role and enjoyed the reincarnation of the shootout at the OK Corral.

Our final stop was the Old Courthouse which is now a museum, had a lot of interesting information about the history of Tombstone and mining in the territory along with many artifacts from the old mining days.

We topped off a fun day with the best BBQ ribs we have had in a long time. Following supper, we returned to Bisbee for a well earned rest. Tomorrow, we plan to rise early and take the Queen Mine tour before heading to Phoenix.