Cactus Flats Attractions Page

Cactus Flats Logo 1

Calendar of Events

Photo Gallery of Historical Tombstone

Tombstone History in a Nutshell

Tombstone 1880

Prospector Ed Schieffelin was told he would only find his tombstone in the San Pedro Valley. He named his first silver claim Tombstone. It became the name of the town when the town was incorporated in 1879. By the end of the century Tombstone was a silver-mining boomtown gone bust. Known as the "Town Too Tough to Die"—it survived two major fires, an earthquake, and a rising water table that flooded its mines—most of Tombstone's attractions are either on or within walking distance of Allen Street.

The OK Corral off Allen Street between Third and Fourth boosts press equipment from the Tombstone Epitaph, C.S. Fly's photography studio, and of course the corral where Wyatt Earp solidified his reputation as the fastest gun in the West. The October 1881 gunfight is reenacted at 2 p.m. every day on Allen Street. Other scheduled shoot-outs take place mornings and afternoons near Fifth and Toughnut streets.

The Crystal Palace Saloon, built in 1879 on the corner of Fifth and Allen, is worth a visit just to see the huge ornate mahogany bar, behind which as many as five bartenders stood daily duty. Big Nose Kate's Saloon was once the Grand Hotel, an original building built in 1881. The Bird Cage Theater on Sixth and Allen, an 1881 dance hall, gambling house, saloon and brothel, also contains the gold-trimmed Black Moriah hearse that transported the losing team at the OK Corral shoot-out to Boot Hill Cemetery. The cemetery, which lies on the north edge of town, contains more than 276 graves, most of them the unmarked graves of gunslingers and hanging/lynching victims. Graves that are marked carry entertaining messages.

April, May, and August offer crowd-pleasing attractions. The Tombstone Rose festival in mid-April honors Nellie Cashman (the mining camp's great humanitarian), other Tombstone's pioneer families, and the sweet-scented blooming of the world's largest rose tree, planted from a slip sent from Scotland to comfort a homesick bride in the spring of 1885. On Memorial Day weekend (last weekend in May), Wyatt Earp Days honors the West's most famous lawman. Downtown activities include staged gunfights and brawls, a chili cook-off, hangings, an 1880s fashion show, street entertainment, dances, and more. And over Labor Day weekend (first weekend in September), gunfighter groups from throughout the U.S. gather in Tombstone to perform. Activities include a most-authentic costume contest and parade.