tombstone Arizona

Christmas comes to Tombstone Arizona, the town to tough to die.

I went to Tombstone yesterday to made sure my property was still there, it was. Then I walked around town for little while and took some pictures. I didn't stay long because I've been to Tombstone many many times and there's hardly anything I haven't seen or taken a picture of at least once. Not much changes in a town whose sole reason for existing is to give tourists a taste of the past, and especially the one thing in the world that it's famous for, the shootout at the Okay Corral.

The biggest change I can see since first visiting there is several years ago they closed a few blocks of the main Street, named Allen Street, to motor vehicles and parking. Before during the busy season there was a line of cars parked on both sides of the street, and cars driving down the street trying to find a place to park which made taking interesting pictures of the old buildings impossible.

After the movie "Tombstone" was made and became wildly popular the town of Tombstone suddenly became the place where tourists wanted to be so the town had to make some changes. Contrary to what some people people think the movie was not filmed in Tombstone but in an outdoor movie set near the town of Benson called the Old Tucson Studios Mescal location. It appears that shutting down an entire town for weeks is way too expensive so fake Western towns are much cheaper and easier to use.

But the success of the movie caused the town of Tombstone to change their approach to tourism and try for a more authentic look by covering the paved main street with dirt and closing it to traffic. To me this was the best thing they could do because now cars don't block up your view of the buildings which the tourists come to see. Stagecoaches and horses are still allowed on Allen Street.

Today was a lazy Sunday with me doing nothing more than hooking up the Arctic Fox to the truck and preparing to leave tomorrow morning. I'm thinking I will stop at the Tucson Fairgrounds and see if they can find a spot for me to stay for a week or so. Later this week they're having something called a "dog agility competition" at the fairgrounds, which sounds like it might be fun to watch and may even produce a snapshot or two. But if that doesn't work out I'll just boondock in a casino parking lot somewhere in the Tucson area.

                                  theboondork

Some cowboys from the Clanton ranch hanging around Big Nose Kate's, And those Clanton boys have bad news on them like ugly on a moose.

The 3:15 to Tucson leaving right on time.

Some local cowboys, bellies full of rotgut whiskey, looking for trouble outside the Oriental saloon, and if you're looking for trouble, Tombstone is the place to find it.