One Last Walk in Tombstone (For this Visit)

Sunday, December 6, 2015


We started the day with Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Tombstone.
(Side note: I have wonderful memories of attending mass was with my maternal grandparents at a church by the same name in Schaffer, MI.)

Inside this pretty little church.

Then we stopped for breakfast at the Longhorn Restaurant.

The original building, on this spot, burned in 1942.

We have ate at Big Nose Kate's Saloon a couple of times, decided to include Historic Plaque.

Tombstone's Christmas Tree.

Text of historical marker: Above)

OK Corral Livery & Feed
1880 

Montgomery and Benson's OK Corral was one of several stables that served Tombstone in the 1880's.  It had wagon sheds, stables and stalls and was two lots wide on Allen Street with a narrow entrance on Fremont Street. It has gained great notoriety due to countless books, publications and movies about the gunfight between the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday and the Clantons and McLaurys.  This incident last for mere seconds and left three dead and three wounded.  The Earps and Holliday were cleared on charges in the official hearing.  The OK Corral was in business for years after the Earps left Tombstone.  But with the influx of automobiles, use declined and by 1907 deterioration caused the adobe structure in the annex to collapse, killing three horses.  This deterioration continued and by 1951 restoration efforts began.  In 1958, the adobe building, 150 feet of stables and wagon sheds were rebuilt using the original plans to restore it.  The current complex contains the gunfight site as well as replicas of many of the original buildings.



Tom in front of  Oriental Saloon's Location.

Text of historical marker:
The Oriental Saloon was opened in 1880 by Milton Joyce and the gaming concessions run by Lou Rickenbaugh.  The Epitaph New described it as "the most elegantly furnished saloon this side of the Golden Gate."  Wyatt Earp bought a share of the gaming tables.  The Oriental became one of Tombstone's most notorious saloons due to several shooting deaths on the front walk.  It as also the scene of confrontations, one involving gunfire, between Milt Joyce and Doc Holliday and later with Virgil Earp.  The Oriental burned in the 1881 fire with the conflagration spreading so quickly Joyce was unable to save anything.  The building owners, Vizina and Cook, rebuilt quickly and the Oriental re-opened for business as usual.  Once again, the Oriental was threatened in the 1882 fire, but the firemen made a stand there and by keeping a steady stream of water on the building were able to keep the damages minor.  Joyce left Tombstone in 1884.  When state prohibition came to Tombstone in 1914 the Oriental became a drug store and remained so for a number of years.  Since then it has had many tenants and purposes but still stands in its original historic location.

Plaque on the street in front of Oriental Saloon.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church at Safford and 3rd Streets in Tombstone. It is the oldest Protestant church in Arizona.
The Gothic Rival Style church and bell tower were constructed in 1882.
The building was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1971.

A Plaque in front of the church left of the door reads:
St. Paul's Episcopal Church built on site in 1882
The first protestant church in Arizona Territory under the direction of Endicott Peabody who conducted the first services in this building on June 18, 1882. The structure is hand formed adobe brick, stuccoed in 1970 to protect the adobe. The ceiling and roof were constructed of timber haled in by ox carts from the Chiricahua Mountains and are still protecting this historic landmark. The stained glass windows, the pews, the altar rail are all the originals unchanged over the years. The light fixtures although now electrified are the originals that came off a clipper ship anchored in San Francisco, the piano dates from 1891 and the altar cross was donated in 1905. St. Paul's has never closed its doors and continues to serve the people of Tombstone and the surrounding area to this day.

The Wyatt Earp House

When I looked up information about this house it seems it is
not known for sure if Wyatt Earp ever actually lived here.
He did own the house.

The Tombstone Epitaph and Prospector founded May 1, 1880

Inside is a free museum that is
well worth visiting.

No matter what the angle the
reflections in the window made
it impossible to get a clear picture.

It is titled: Historic Site in Journalism
Text: On May 1, 1880, in the town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, one-time Apache Indian agent John Philip Clum pulled from a used Washington hand press the first copy of a weekly newspaper he call the Epitaph, writing that no tombstone was complete without one.
During Tombstone's turbulent silver boom years it alternated between a weekly and daily publication schedule. From 1891 until 1974 it was a weekly covering most of Cochise County, then became a internationally circulated monthly Journal of Western History - Arizona's oldest continuously published newspaper.
Marked this 15th day April, 1996, by the Society of Professional Journalists.

 "Don't name your paper [The Tombstone Epitaph]

That name will kill the paper within six months."

~John Wasson, editor, Arizona Citizen, May 1880