Thursday, April 4, 2013

Bullets Were Flying

Tombstone, AZ  High 84  Low 56

I took so many pictures it has taken me awhile to sort through them.

Is there anybody out there who doesn’t know about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral? Well, just in case -

OK-Corral

This gunfight took place about 3:00 pm on Wednesday, October 26,1881 in Tombstone, AZ. The gunfight only lasted about 30 seconds and involved:

The outlaws: Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and his brother Frank McLaury, and

The lawmen: Virgil Earp, and his brothers Morgan and Wyatt Earp, along with Doc Holliday.

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Cowboys: Ike Clanton, brother of Billy Clanton, and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight unharmed.

All three outlaws were killed while Doc Holliday, Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded. Only Wyatt came out of it unscathed.

Allen Street

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Nobody knows for sure what exactly prompted the gunfight or who shot first. The only thing historians can agree upon is that rustling and alcohol were involved. The gunfight was relatively unknown to the rest of America until 1931 when Stuart Lake published his fictionalized biography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. After the movie, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, was released in 1957, the people in America became enthralled with the story.

Love this picture of the reflection of the stagecoach.

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Actually, Jim and I didn’t go to the O.K. Corral because we had been there before. And one time is enough. Dianna wanted to go so Jim and I just wandered and people watched. She agrees – one time is enough. It’s very loud. They use real guns with blanks. And the acting is cheesy – at least in my opinion.

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We took the stagecoach tour which was fun. It gives you some fun facts about some of the houses around the town and some history of other people involved with Tombstone.

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Buster and Barney

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For those of you who have never been here, I want you to know that everything has a cost. The gunfight is $10. The stagecoach ride is $10, the tour at the Birdcage is $10, the rosebush is $5, and so on. Tombstone is a tourist town and their survival depends on tourists spending money. Lots of people don’t like these kinds of tourist places but I enjoyed sitting on the bench on Allen Street and imagining the cowboys, the horses, the ladies of the evening, the miners, and life in the old west.

This picture is for Sassy.

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Wells Fargo Express building

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Jim just can’t resist those older modes of transportation

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I am going to make this into two posts because I just have too many pictures to show you.

17 comments:

  1. We visited Tombstone but didn't do any of the touristy stuff. But, if I would have seen the stagecoach ride, I think we would have done that. That would have been a blast!

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  2. I didn't think I knew why that took place and now I know no one else did either.. lol

    yeah, I think the stagecoach ride would have been fun... I don't do touristy traveling either but on occasion have in off seasons. fun to people watch

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  3. We love everything about all of Cochise County including Tombstone. I especially like to do what you did. Sit on the bench and "people watch"

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  4. We just wandered. We had a fun lunch at the saloon.

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  5. You're so right about Tombstone being a tourist place, but so fun anyway.

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  6. We didn't do any of the touristy things when we were there and.... 2 years later, I wish we had.

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  7. Jep, we've been there, done that. Nice enough and there is some real history behind it all.

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  8. I LOVE Tombstone. We did the stagecoach ride and the OK Corral and loved every minute. The acting is a bit campy but the guy who played Doc Holiday was REALLY good. There were quite a few characters to "people watch" too. I also enjoyed imaging what life must have been like back in the day.

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  9. Sometimes you just have to do some of those touristy things.

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  10. Good thing they use blanks in the show, because if they used real bullets, it would be kind of hard to find new actors every day... ;c)

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  11. Glad you didn't charge us for reading LOL
    Looks like you had alot of fun in the old west.

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  12. Tombstone is on the to do list.....looks like fun to me! Thanks for the info...

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  13. Thanks for bringing back some great memories of our 2 visits to Tombstone. Great photos!

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  14. Sometimes I take so many photos I don't have time to go through all of them. I need many rainy days for that. So, if I need to blog, just a few will do it.

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  15. Hold the phones here !! I rode the bike into Tombstone on at least two visits - maybe more. I don't recall seeing that Harley Store ?? Or maybe I did and it's that OLD-zimers kicking in again. I'm gonna have to go back and check my Blog post from two or more years ago.

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Thanks for visiting today. I look forward to reading your comments. Have a beautiful day.