Historic Tombstone - "The Town Too Tough To Die" is a real 1880's town and Tombstone merchants take pride in keeping it as authentic as it was in the 1880's. Tombstone features well-known attractions like:
-----The O.K. Corral, where men brought their horses for shodding, etc., and to board. Even though the famous gunfight purportedly took place in the Corral, it actually took place in an empty lot behind the Corral.
-----the Bird Cage Theatre, which was the most famous honky-tonk in America between 1881 and 1889. The NY Times referred to it in 1882 as the wildest, wickedest nightspot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast. The Bird Cage was named for it's 14 birdcage crib compartments, with red velvet drapes & trimmings, that are self-suspended from the ceiling, overhanging the gambling casino and dance hall. It was in these compartments that the "ladies of the night" plied their trade --- giving rise to the refrain "she was only a bird in a gilded cage".
-----the Tombstone Epitaph, the newspaper which printed the story of the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral - we were given a copy.
-----the Crystal Palace Saloon - where we had lunch. It has beautiful original woodwork all around the bar which, in itself, is magnificent.
-----Big-Nose Kate's Saloon where Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson and Johnny Ringo gathered. Big-Nose Kate was Wyatt Earp's mistress. In 1881, Tombstone had 5000 inhabitants, 110 saloons, and 14 twenty-four hour gambling halls. It was in it's prime mining boom for silver.
