Helldorado days in Tombstone, AZ

We enjoyed ourselves in Tombstone yesterday - thought I'd share some pictures with all of you.

There were staged gunfights on Allen Street. Here a "bad guy" is getting ready to go down. When he hit the deck, one of his front-stuffer revolvers crossfired, and a chamber next to the barrel spewed fire. Wish I was fast enough to capture it, but it was interesting.



The volunteer modern-day Arizona Rangers were on duty keeping things under control. Here's a couple of them checking out a person of interest...



I don't know where they dug this guy up!



Another bar-room "incident" staged on Allen Street. And yes, she DID kick him THERE.



A lot of the locals went to great lengths to dress in 1880s period costumes. Here are some of them:



No visit to Tombstone would be complete without a visit to the Wyatt Earp house. It's the completely restored residence of the town's most famous resident, where he and his common law wife Mattie Blaylock stayed during the time of the OK Corral shootout. Here's a shot of Wyatt's statue. His house is just to the left.



Hope you enjoyed the pics!

John

PALADIN85020 said:

We enjoyed ourselves in Tombstone yesterday - thought I'd share some pictures with all of you.

There were staged gunfights on Allen Street. Here a "bad guy" is getting ready to go down. When he hit the deck, one of his front-stuffer revolvers crossfired, and a chamber next to the barrel spewed fire. Wish I was fast enough to capture it, but it was interesting.

John

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Didn't realize they wore dew rags back then!

Thank you! I was thinking the same thing.

Pirate/cowboy.

Hi, Paladin. How fun that must of been. A couple years ago my wife and I were watching a band, dancing ,and getting completely wasted at The Silver Palace (I think it's called that). The bar tender kid started spinning a fake Colt SAA. Not too good though. I asked to borrow it. And started twirling it around, tossing it from hand to hand. just like a little kid I know, but to do that in Tombstone, maybe in the exact spot where Luke Short, the Earps and Doc Holliday once hung out...I just couldn't resist. Around 3 in the morning I could still barely walk and went into town. It was empty and dark and i hoped to see some ghosts like you see on the history channel. Didn't see any. Thanks for stirring up those fun and fairly recent memories.

Wyatt Burp said:

Hi, Paladin. How fun that must of been. A couple years ago my wife and I were watching a band, dancing ,and getting completely wasted at The Silver Palace (I think it's called that). The bar tender kid started spinning a fake Colt SAA. Not too good though. I asked to borrow it. And started twirling it around, tossing it from hand to hand. just like a little kid I know, but to do that in Tombstone, maybe in the exact spot where Luke Short, the Earps and Doc Holliday once hung out...I just couldn't resist. Around 3 in the morning I could still barely walk and went into town. It was empty and dark and i hoped to see some ghosts like you see on the history channel. Didn't see any. Thanks for stirring up those fun and fairly recent memories.

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Probably you were in the Crystal Palace at 5th and Allen Streets. It's been completely restored, with an exact duplicate of the original bar. I've never mastered single action twirling; it sure is great to watch someone competent doing it, though. "Johnny Ringo" doing it in front of "Doc Holliday" in the movie Tombstone was a real treat. By the way, Wyatt Earp was in that saloon the night before the famous shootout in back of the OK Corral in 1881.

PALADIN85020 said:

Probably you were in the Crystal Palace at 5th and Allen Streets. It's been completely restored, with an exact duplicate of the original bar. I've never mastered single action twirling; it sure is great to watch someone competent doing it, though. "Johnny Ringo" doing it in front of "Doc Holliday" in the movie Tombstone was a real treat. By the way, Wyatt Earp was in that saloon the night before the famous shootout in back of the OK Corral in 1881.

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That's it. The Crystal Palace. We stayed at a hotel on fremont St. right across from that little hotel where Bat Masterson took Charlie Storms, before and after Luke Short shot him. I'm only moderately Ok at gun twirling with my left hand. Wasn't Spangenberg's gunshop originally across the street from where it is now?

John, do they have the staged gunfights and such every day there? One of these days I'm going to get there and see the sights! May not leave!

Wyatt Burp said:

That's it. The Crystal Palace. We stayed at a hotel on fremont St. right across from that little hotel where Bat Masterson took Charlie Storms, before and after Luke Short shot him. I'm only moderately Ok at gun twirling with my left hand. Wasn't Spangenberg's gunshop originally across the street from where it is now?

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I believe Spangenberg's was originally on the other side of the block from where it is now, facing West instead of East. The modern Spangenberg's is now Lefty's and their inventory of guns has been drastically depleted. The current owner won't stand the expense of stocking due to the recession. Another fine old tradition in Tombstone bites the dust.

gunlovingirl said:

John, do they have the staged gunfights and such every day there? One of these days I'm going to get there and see the sights! May not leave!

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Misty, yes, there are staged gunfights every day. There is also a resident "Wild West" show, with gunfights, roping, etc. So just about any day you would go, you'll see some action. But the annual "Helldorado Days" in mid-October is really the time to go. It's been going on since 1929. Allen Street, the main thoroughfare, has been restored to it's original dirt (mud on rainy days) condition. Some of the older buildings still retain their original timbers and poured glass windows, which you can identify by the wavy reflections from them. A lot of residents assume the identities of historical characters, and Doc Holliday is much in evidence every day, looking just like the original. I once asked him "Are you Doc Holliday?" and he replied, "Do I know you? Dodge City, perhaps?" He doesn't step out of character. Tombstone is an historical treasure house.

If you ever decide to make the trip, Misty, let me know. You might also want to visit Bisbee, about which I've written here often. It's just half an hour drive from Tombstone. Bisbee, an old mining community, looks just the same as it did a century ago. My grandfather rode shotgun on the Wells Fargo stage from Bisbee to Tombstone back around the turn of the 20th Century, so I have deep roots in that area. To give you some of the flavor, here's a twilight shot I took of Bisbee's Main Street last August. Every building in this picture has been there for at least a century.

Great photos and info, thanks. I am sure many of us will want to make that trip someday. Question--aside from the actors mentioned,
do you see much "civilian" open carry there or in other parts of AZ?
I haven't seen it around Phoenix, no surprise, but I wondered about the smaller towns and rural areas.

Where I live OC is the norn unless I go to the big city of Douglas. 5 miles from New Mexico and 50 miles from Old Mexico.

Douglas AZ first gun show in a bunch of years 10/31 and 11/1.

"nvgunner: Great photos and info, thanks. I am sure many of us will want to make that trip someday. Question--aside from the actors mentioned,
do you see much "civilian" open carry there or in other parts of AZ?"

I've never seen open carry other than the actors in Tombstone, or in Bisbee. I'm sure many such as myself carry concealed, but then that is infinitely harder to spot - that's the whole point of concealed carry, after all.