Tombstone Arizona Ghost Tramp

Tombstone, Arizona..."The town too tough to die"

Part I

Our Tombstone Ghost Tramping is an on-going adventure.  We love Tombstone and frequently go there to relax and enjoy stepping back in time.  Tombstone is a favorite tourist destination in Arizona and rightfully so!

There is no place like it!

The drive to Tombstone is a pleasant one.  The desert hills, lonely and still make the mind wander back in time to thoughts of the first cowboys riding across these dusty hills in search of silver, wealth, and whiskey!

A brief (if that is possible) history of Tombstone, Arizona

Tombstone is a historic western city located in Cochise County, Arizona.  It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West.

Tombstone was founded in 1877 by a prospector named Ed Schieffelin.  Ed was on a scouting expedition against the Chiricahua Apaches.  During his time in the Arizona desert, he would venture out "looking for rocks" ignoring warnings from fellow soldiers about the dangers.  They would tell him "Ed, the only stone you will find out there will be your tombstone."  Ed did find his stone and it was silver.  He filed a claim and named his first mine "The Tombstone."  

Word spread about his mine and the silver beneath the desert and soon prospectors followed as well as cowboys, homesteaders, gunmen, and business people.  By 1879 a town site was laid out near the mines and was named "Tombstone" after Ed's first claim.

Ed Schieffelin

The town was established on a mesa above the Tough Nut Mine.

Tough Nut Mine

The mines produced $40 to 85 million in silver bullion.  The population grew from 100 to 14,00 in less than seven years.  Within two years of its founding, Tombstone had a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, an ice cream parlor, 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, numerous dance halls and brothels, an opera house, a theater, hotels, the Eagle Brewery, Chinese, French, Italian and Mexican restaurants and one of the first public swimming pools in Arizona.

                                 

Site of O K Coral

Schieffelin Hall

Tombstone Parade

Later years, when Tombstone was all but deserted

There are several "well know" spots in Tombstone.  We will break these down in parts, as there is so much history one blog post won't due it justice.

Our first stop is:

a well know place then and now, the Bird Cage Theater.  

The Bird Cage opened its doors Christmas Day 1881 and ran 24/7 365 days a year.  It was owned by Lottie and William Hutchinson, who originally wanted to present family shows.  The economics of Tombstone did not support their aspirations and soon the theater began offering entertainment that appealed to the rough mining crowd.  

The Bird Cage became a saloon, theater, gambling hall and brothel.  It was named for the cage style crib compartments suspended from the ceiling.  It was in these bird cages that the ladies of the evening or "soiled doves" would entertain their customers.  There is also a story that these "bird cages" inspired the 1900 song, "Bird in a Gilded Cage" by Arthur J. Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer.  The chorus is this:

She's only a bird in a gilded cage,

A beautiful sight to see,

You may think she's happy and free from care,

She's not, thought she seems to be,

'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,

For youth cannot mate with age,

And her beauty was sold,

For an old man's gold,

She's a bird in a gilded cage.

Legend has it that no self-respecting woman in town would walk on the same side of the street as the Bird Cage Theater.  

The New York Times reported, "the Bird Cage Theater is the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin and the Barbary Coast."  Some 26 lives were taken at the Bird Cage. Evidence of the "wicked" Bird Cage history can still be seen in the 140 bullet holes in the walls and ceiling. 

Within the walls of the Bird Cage sat Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Johnny Ringo.  The poker table below was where one of the longest running poker games was played.

It sat 7 players and the minimum buy-in was $1,000.00 dollars. It was played around the clock for 8 years, 5 months and 3 days.  During those 8 years some $10 million dollars changed hands. 

The Bird Cage stage

Under the theater.  Home to more gambling and "special rooms" for ladies of the night.

It was here that Wyatt Earp had his affair with Josephine Sarah Marcus who "worked" at the Bird Cage as a singer and dancer.  

The Bird Cage closed its doors in 1889.  Its original contents were left inside for three decades.  In 1934 the Hunley Family purchased and reopened the Bird Cage Theater as a tourist attraction keeping all of the original fixtures and furnishings in place.  It stands as a museum today and offers tours. They also have "ghost tours" which I will post at the end of our Tombstone blog series.  It is one of the most haunted places in Tombstone.  

We give the Bird Cage Theater a BIG ghost rating!!

The Bird Cage has been featured in the paranormal investigation shows Ghost Hunters in 2006,

Ghost Adventures in 2009 and 2015, Ghost Lab in 2009, and Fact or Faked:  Paranormal Files

in 2011.