Exploring the old west

Friday, March 25

I'm not much of an early riser unless I need to be, and even then it's a push. So, deciding to eat breakfast out, we drove to Denny's in Sierra Vista where we knew breakfast is served all day.

From there we drove to Tombstone, AZ, home of many legendary stories of the old west, and the subject of many Hollywood movies: Gunfight at the OK Corral, Tombstone, and others. Nicknamed “The Town Too Tough To Die,” the only reason Tombstone seems to survive today is because of its history and tourism. We watched the Historama, a multi-media presentation narrated by actor Vincent Price (undoubtedly made many years ago) in a building next to the OK Corral where Wyatt Earp and his brothers along with “Doc” Holladay shot it out with the Clantons in a form of vigilante justice back in 1885 or so. Electing not to watch the gunfight re-enactment, we did tour the museum, looking at the old saddles, buggies and buckboards of the day. A blacksmith shop was open with a smithy raised on an Idaho ranch making various items of iron for tourists. While I watched, the smithy finished up a “Rockin' L” brand for a woman from Oregon. Each brand he makes gets burned into the wood-paneled wall before delivery to the buyer.

Our next stop in Tombstone was at the Tombstone Epitaph, the town newspaper, still in production quarterly and offered by subscription for anyone wanting to be kept apprised of news from the Old West. We toured the print museum housed in the same building and collected our two complementary copies of the Epitaph. Shirts for sale were imprinted with the phrase: “Tombstone, where before breakfast everyone reads their own epitaph.”

From Tombstone we drove the 25 or so miles S to Bisbee, another surprise discovery for us. I only knew this town as the other home of mystery author J.A. Jance. What I didn't know was that Bisbee was the home of the Copper Queen Mine and is built in a canyon sitting, if not literally then figuratively, above the mine itself. Time only allowed us to tour the mining museum and briefly at that. Next to Tombstone, Bisbee looks like a boom town, although much of its commerce is based on tourism as well. The mine is no longer in production. But, in it's heyday, over two million pounds and a billion dollars worth of around 320 different minerals were taken from the mines beneath Bisbee and the Copper Queen Mine. Among them of course were copper, as well as silver and gold.

A stop at a landmark is never complete without a visit to the gift shop, and that's where we met a young woman who shared that one of the minerals removed from the mines around Bisbee is named after her father who worked the mines. It's called Graemite (Gaelic spelling of Graham), and was determined by those who make such decisions to be a new mineral, never before seen.

It was a great day of discovery and diversion. I love watching birds, as does Duffy, and we both enjoy exploring history. Tomorrow morning will be filled with much older history than either Tombstone or Bisbee.

Until next time,

Pam