The Town Too Tough to Die

Gunfight at the OK corral

We left Apache Junction, AZ on Monday, February 1st and headed to our first 2 night stopover in Wilcox, AZ. We found the place easily as our GPS led us right to it. It was definitely secluded - out behind someone's storage shed facing wide open desert. 

It was an hour and a half from Tombstone, AZ so we took a day trip there.

Tombstone has been nicknamed "The town too tough to die." Many movies have used this historic town for on location shooting. A radio broadcast from Feb. 14, 2010, explains the history of the fight between the Earp brothers and Billy Clanton and his gang. The transcript is a very interesting read and you can find it here.

We'd been there before about 20 years ago and nothing seems to have changed. But then, I suppose, that's the point of a historic old western town - being to keep it as much like it was when Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were alive. There were cowboy shootouts, old time saloons with names like Big Nose Kate's Saloon and Doc Holliday's Saloon, and a show at the Crystal Palace Saloon. Most of the town was dog friendly, which was nice not to have to leave them in the truck.

Big Nose Kate was a real person, by the way. According to Wikipedia: "Mary Katherine Honory-Cummings (born as Maria Izabella Magdolna Honory, November 9, 1849 - November 2, 1940), also known as Big Nose Kate, was a Hungarian-born American prostitute, and longtime companion and common-law wife of Old West gunfighter Doc Holliday."