Tombstone- The Town Too Tough To Die

Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday. Just a few of the names associated with a town perhaps more known for the deaths that happened here than for the lives that were lived out. "The town too tough to die" is how they promote themselves these days. And while we found some excellent shops, a great cafe (O.K. Cafe- home of the buffalo burger) and some enterprising businesses, we also found many an empty building, store hours that had been cut back to weekend only during season, and some shops that were more dead than alive. Clearly the economy has hurt the town. We would still like to get back into town to see the gun fight at the O.K Corral. And we will certainly go into the silver mine that starts just off main street and actually develops UNDER the town of Tombstone. It was a slow day in town: a fifty fifty mix of tourists and characters in the costume of the time. We had a leisurely self guided tour. The history of the place seemed to come to life in the gentle desert breeze that blew through town. Certainly the history of the place will never die.

The silver mine in town still has veins of silver, and other important minerals as well, including some used to make gun powder....but like other "mines" and mining operations we have visited- there is sometimes more opportunity in mining the tourists than in mining the minerals.

The slide show that follows will provide a glimpse of the images around town. We were delighted to see a modern Bank of America offering full service in the old bank building. Thanks to them for allowing "us customer-type gunslingers" to photograph the inside of the bank. Very neat.