Perhaps the most famous town in the Wild West, Tombstone lies 22 miles south of I-10 on US-80, 67 miles southeast of Tucson. More than a century has passed since its mining days came to an end, but "The Town Too Tough to Die" clings to an afterlife as a tourist theme park. With its dusty streets, wooden sidewalks and swinging saloon doors, it's surprisingly unchanged. Most adults, however, have seen too many inauthentic replicas and movie re-creations for the real thing to retain much appeal, and so Tombstone is reduced to trying to divert kids with tacky dioramas and daily shoot-outs. The best time to visit is during Helldorado Days in late October, when the air is cooler and the sun less harsh, but the streets are full of gun-toting strangers acting out gun battles and stagecoach robberies. Tombstone only began life as a silver-boomtown in 1877, and by the end of the 1880s it was all but deserted again. However, on the day that gave it the notoriety that's kept it alive, its population stood at more than ten thousand. It was 2pm on October 26, 1881, when Doc Holliday , along with Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan (who all served as local sheriffs), confronted a band of suspected cattle rustlers, the Clantons, in the legendary Gunfight at the OK Corral . Within a few minutes, three of the suspects were dead. The Earps were accused of murder, but charges were eventually dropped. Hotels in Tombstone |
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