Tombstone is in Southern Arizona in Cochise County. Tombstone is the perfect place to stay and learn about the old west.
I like to think of myself as a bit of a history buff. If you like old westerns and ever seen the movie "Tombstone", you have to make a trip to Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone is about 20 minutes from Sierra Vista were I live and about an hour and a half south of Tucson. While it has become somewhat touristy, it is less so than many of the other western towns where history was made.
Tombstone has a very famous history with the gunfight at the OK Corral between the Earps and the Clantons (Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp along with Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLowery) in 1881. But the town began when a man named Ed Schieffelin came to Camp Huachuca with soldiers and left to begin prospecting in the area. He was told he would probably find his tombstone instead of silver. When he filed his first claim in 1877, he named it Tombstone. Once word went out about the rich lodes in the Tombstone area, the town was given this as its name. Mining boomed in Tombstone for seven years until rising underground water caused operations to cease. The famous Wyatt Earp gunbattle in the OK Corral was an indication of the lawlessness and violence that took place in Tombstone in its heyday. More information about the history of Tombstone may be found at the city website http://www.cityoftombstone.com/. The city slogan came to be after the town survived the depression and the moving of the county seat to nearby Bisbee during the 1930's.
Some other great websites about Tombstone:
http://www.clantongang.com/oldwest/tombmap.htm
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/tombstone
Statistics & Facts
The population of Tombstone is approximately 1,504 (2000).
The approximate number of families is 708 (1990).
The amount of land area in Tombstone is 11.139 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0 sq kilometers.
The distance from Tombstone to Washington DC is 1990 miles. The distance to the Arizona state capital is 174 miles. (as the crow flies)
Tombstone is positioned 31.71 degrees north of the equator and 110.06 degrees west of the prime meridian.
Tombstone elevation is 4.540 feet above sea level.
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