land cruise 2015: Gun fight at the OK Corral, Tombstone, AZ

March 11, 2016

After our morning well below ground level at the Queen Mine, and, following a huge and delicious lunch at the Bisbee Breakfast Club, we headed for Tombstone, AZ. Here is why the town has such a strange and ghoulish name: Ed Schieffelin was briefly a scout for the US Army headquartered at Camp Huachuca. Schieffelin frequently searched the wilderness looking for valuable ore samples. At the Santa Rita mines in nearby Santa Cruz Valley, three superintendents had been killed by Indians. When friend and fellow Army Scout Al Sieber learned what Schieffelin was up to, he is quoted as telling him, "The only rock you will find out there will be your own tombstone. Another account reported Schieffelin's friends told him, "Better take your coffin with you; you will find your tombstone there, and nothing else.

Tombstone is the very famous home of the OK corral. And, wouldn't you know it, when we arrived, a gun fight was taking place...

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second gunfight between an outlaw group of cowboys and lawmen that is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of theAmerican Wild West. The gunfight took place on Wednesday, October 26, 1881. It was the result of a long-simmering feud between Cowboys Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McClaury, and opposing lawmen: town Marshal Virgil Earp, Special Policeman Morgan Earp, Special Policeman Wyatt Earp and temporary policeman Doc Holliday. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton, who had repeatedly threatened to kill the Earps, claimed he was unarmed and ran from the fight along with Billy Claiborne. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed. The fight has come to represent a period in American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws, largely unopposed by law enforcement, who were spread thin over vast territories, leaving some areas unprotected. Interestingly, one of the major issues was the open carrying of firearms by the outlaws...

Bad guys

Good guy


Dead bad guys


Upset bad guy

After escaping the OK corral unharmed, we viewed a very well done movie/multimedia presentation recounting the town's history. Following that, we wandered through the town, where a late 1800s feel is maintained, especially on the main streets.