Things I knew about Tombstone before arriving:
1.) It was a wild town.
2.) There was a doc who lived there named Holladay who for some unknown reason wanted to be people's Huckleberry
3.) It was in Arizona.
Things I now know about Tombstone after my arrival:
1.) The citizens have not preserved the gravestones very well....instead they are handwritten in.
Somehow this doesn't look authentic.
2.) There are actors in Tombstone, they reenact the shootout at the OK Corral several times a day. In addition to these actors, there are many, many people who are dressed like these actors but are NOT actors. I'm sure this confuses young children.
3.) They celebrate "Helldorado Days" because instead of people finding their Eldorado of riches there, they found menial jobs like washing dishes...thus Helldorado stuck.
4.) The buildings are all original and its very cool to see a real "Wild West" town. Some of the facades are fake though, you can thank those who don't think that preservation is important until the national register of historical places decides to rescind their designations.
5.) The Birdcage Theatre is still standing and is located at the south end of town. I can only imagine the debauchery that used to go on in there. A lady of the night charged $1,000 in the 1880's. What is that in today's dollars? About 33k. I would have liked to have seen the rest of the Birdcage, but they wanted to charge for a tour. Since we were in Arizona and not Europe, I passed.
All in all, Tombstone is a very cool town. I probably would have liked it a little better had I polished up on my history prior to the visit, but now after watching Tombstone probably 5 or 6 times since, (Brandon is in love) I can now picture in my head Kurt Russell as he says "Tell 'em I'm coming and Hell's coming with me!"
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