Too Tough To Die

Here's a pretty iconic image and I'm sure you can all name the participants walking down the street in Tombstone.  It really wasn't like this in the old days.  Thanks to movies, we have romanticized the days of old in the West.

Ya'll know where I am .... the town too tough to die, and honestly you have to believe that when you look at it today.

This is the Bird Cage Theatre after it's heyday.  The uppity upper class went to the Schieffelin Theatre, while the miners and prostitutes headed over to the Bird Cage.

It was named so because of the overhead cribs where the girls used to gather cash and silver from the miners.  Some "gentlemen" even had their own spaces reserved just for them, including Wyatt Earp, or so they say.  The ladies plied their miners with champagne and kisses, among other things, to rid them of their money.

In 1889 the place was shut down for good and locked up tight with everything intact.  It sat for 50 years before being opened again in 1934 with 140 bullet holes in the walls and ceiling.

Eddie Foy made it even MORE famous when he wrote the song Girl In A Gilded Cage because that's what he thought the "girls" that worked there looked like.  I'm not so sure about that, but here she still stands today.  For $14 you can tour the inside and see remnants of the Old West.  

Many of the items I have seen seem to be missing.  I'm not sure if they have been stolen or sold to keep the place open.  Some original pictures still survive, as does the piano that came around the horn.  

It was definitely a bustling town in it's time.  

Originally built mostly of wood, Tombstone burned down on a few occasions.  The big fire of 1881 from a cigar meeting up with a whiskey barrel, took out most of the town, but that didn't keep the people down.  As long as the silver held out in the mines, the town rebuilt.  Miners were paid about $4 a day working 10 hours days.  That equated to about $168,000 a week in miners wages, so you can imagine the miners had money to burn.

In May of 1882, a Chinese laundry fire took out the Grand Hotel, causing residents to dynamite buildings in order to stop the flames.  By March of 1883, 16 saloons had been rebuilt.

Of corse everyone knows about the big gunfight at the OK corral between the Republicans (no joke), namely the Sheriff and capitalists in town and the Democrats (nope, not kidding) who were the Southern cowboys stealing everything they could get their hands on.  

That famous scene did not actually happen AT the OK Corral, but behind it in an empty lot.  Here however, is a picture of the REAL Corral where cowboys kept their horses while in town.  This has since been enclosed so no one can see the gunfight show they put on without paying first.

I have to say I'm surprised at the width of the streets in this town.  Most did not have the wide expanse this town provides.  

Unfortunately I can't tell the name of this building, although it does resemble the Crystal Palace of today.  Here's the stagecoach of old dropping off it's passengers.

The stagecoach of today is a little different.  You can take this ride around town for a fee (I've no idea how much it is) and listen to the driver regale you with stories.

Here's one of the original buildings, the Crystal Palace.  The Tribolet brothers from Switzerland built a butcher shop on one corner and brought in a German who built the Golden Eagle Brewery Company.  It burned down in the 1882 fire, but was rebuilt by Wehrfritz and renamed the Crystal Palace Saloon.  It's claim to fame was a goldfish pond.  No joke.

By 1885-86, the mines were dug so deep they started filling up with water.  That was pretty much the death knell for Tombstone.  Even with a huge new pump, it never recovered.  A fire put an end to the pumping and the silver magnates gave up the ghost. 

In 1887 Tombstone suffered another defeat when an earthquake hit in Sonora Mexico.  People moved out immediately, with the population going from 10,000 to 1,800.  In an effort to keep it going, the proprietor used some ingenious marketing ploys.  He had a raffle for a White sewing machine.  

After changing ownership, they even began a new game called Keno.  By 1893, it was closed.  In 1902, a big boom was predicted, so several of the saloons were reopened along with an ordinance that women were not allowed in or near any saloon, either as a guest or an employee.  By 1907, prostitution and gambling were outlawed, so it reinvented itself as a theatre.

  

In 1923, Helldorado was invented to bring in crowds, but only soda could be served.  Slowly but surely over the next several years as the population plummeted to 822, the people resurrected Tombstone to what you see today, even after the great stock market crash.

Although it looks quite different an has had many new owners, it's still in business as the Crystal Palace Saloon.  It was rebuilt to be an authentic replica of it's original 1882 self.

So that's your history lesson for today.  There's more to come just because I fell in love with this town many moons ago and can't seem to let it go.  I AM happy to report it was booming yesterday, full to the brim with tourists.  Tombstone is just too tough to die.