Today we did the touristy thing and went down to Tombstone, AZ, which was about 22 miles south of the RV park. I’m glad that it was pretty empty with no crowds and easy parking. Right across the street was the OK Corral where the shootout happened. We paid the $10 for the live action show which was pretty entertaining. (And loud)
Our ticket also got us into a multimedia presentation on the history of Tombstone. It still is a real town and not simply a tourist attraction with schools, Dollar General stores, and a number of RV parks. The “historic” part of the town with the dirt streets and wooden sidewalks was closed to normal traffic and there were a lot of saloons and gift shops galore.
We had heard from some other RVers that Big Nose Kate was a good place for lunch. It was crowded but we were there right in the middle of lunch. But only needed to wait five minutes to be seated. There was live entertainment and the wait staff were all dressed the part. I had an overstuffed Reuben sandwich and it was fabulous and overstuffed with corned beef.
In one of the museums, there was a map of the area and I was surprised to see a town called Fairbanks a short distance to the west of Tombstone. I hadn’t heard of that before but it also showed up in the multimedia presentation as well.
After walking through town, we walked to the Tombstone Cemetery. But it wasn’t the one we were looking for. We walked back to the car and drove to Boothill Cemetery which was the one we were looking for. These were graves from the 1800s with a large number of “Unknown” and violent deaths. Life was hard in those days.
The OK Corral had quite a few old buckboard wagons, surreys and buggies. The sign mentioned that “buggies” were fast and got their name from all of the smashed bug carcasses on the front. This horse ride was there but I wasn’t sure it was functional.
You could get a stage coach ride through town but it didn’t look anywhere near as interesting as the one in Knott’s Berry Farm. Last year, we didn’t visit Tombstone as I thought it was a pure tourist trap. It is touristy but did have a lot of historical information and I’d recommend visiting. If for no other reason than to have lunch.
And, finally, a reminder of why we are here in AZ instead of AK.
Buggies, so that's where the name came from....thanks.
ReplyDeleteI looked at google maps sat view of Fairbanks, AZ....nothing remains of the town, looks like someone's home is there, that's it.
I thought that the “buggy” name was interesting as the buggy looked just like a surry but didn’t have a back seat.
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