b'OLD WEST LEGENDSTombstone, Arizona TerritoryBy Dakota LivesayT he Old West was full of wild towns but none was like the one that started as a mining claim in 1877. And it continues to this day as a monument to the wild days of the boomtowns.In the summer of 1877, Ed Schieffelin was prospecting the hills in the southeast portion of the Arizona Territory when he came across a vein of rich silver ore in a plateau called Goose Flats. Previously, because of marauding Apache Indians in that area, some soldiers had told Schieffelin all he would be able to find would be his tombstone. What Schieffelin found was an area that ended up producing $30 million in silver. On September 3, 1877, he recorded his claim, jokingly naming it the Tombstone Mine.When the word got out of the silver strike, buildingsTough Nut Mine, a claim of the original Tombstone Mine, produced rich started springing up overnight but Tombstone wassilver ore, discovered by Ed Schieffelindifferent. By the end of 1877, the heyday of the cattle towns was all but over. Texas Rangers were chasinghalf of those houses of ill repute. When Cochisea mercantile town with silver mining its core reason all the bad guys out of Texas. And Pat Garrett wasCounty was formed, Tombstone was selected asfor existence. Still, there were enough cowboys wrapping up things in New Mexico. So, Tombstonethe county seat. Tombstone wasnt a rustic frontieraround to create enough havoc that even President became the last hurrah for many a desperado. Withtown. It had restaurants with menus rivaling those ofChester Arthur threatened to send the military to a town of miners, claim jumpers, con artists, soiledthe best eastern restaurants. The town had runningbring law and order to the town.doves, gunmen, and gamblers, it wasnt surprisingwater, telegraph, telephone service, and even that there seemed to be at least one killing a day.refrigeration with ice cream parlors. Being semi-isolated in a mostly desert area, water The Tombstone Epitaph reported these killings in awas a problem. This, along with the fact the town special column called Deaths Doings. Western movies show the streets populated withwas constructed entirely of wood that quickly cowboys carrying pistols on their hips. This is farbecame dry kindling, and in 1881 and 1882 Wells Spicer in an early letter said that Tombstonefrom the truth. Tombstone wasnt a cowboy town.Tombstone had disastrous fires.had two dance halls, a dozen gambling places, andAnd Tombstone had an ordinance prohibiting guns more than 20 saloons. But, he wrote, Still there iswithin the city limits. The streets were populatedIn 1886, with the silver veins running out and hope, for I know of two Bibles in town. with businessmen from the East in suits who werewater flooding the mines, the population began to investing in the mines. And the saloons wereshrink. But, in the spirit of a town too tough to die, Three years after Schieffelin filed his claim;populated by miners. The rumbling of ore wagonsTombstone, Arizona remains today the number Tombstone had about five hundred buildings, withtraveling to and from the mines was a constantone place where Old West enthusiasts want to go to more than a hundred selling hard liquor, and aboutreminder that as wild as Tombstone was, it was stillexperience the history of our American West. 12 October 2021'