Welcome to my Tombstone gallery. The digital pastel painting above was done by me and based on one of the photos in this section. The photos below were reduced to an old sephia look to evoke the spirit of the time.

Tombstone, AZ is a facinating place to visit. It was of course the site of the famous O.K. Corral gunfight that left Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury dead at the hands of the Earp brothers (Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan) and John "Doc" Holliday. This old mining town developed a reputation as a violent place and every day reenactments of famous gunfights are staged there (in my gallery I have photos depicting the Six Gun City reenactment as well as the O.K. Corral reenactment which is staged very close to the real historical site). One interesting location in town is the Bird Cage Theater which saw the deaths of 26 people in the space of about 8 years. It was a dangerous building and over 140 bullet holes in the interior attest to that. The building was used as a theater, gambling hall, brothel, and dance hall. In its basement the longest poker game in western history was played. It was a perpetual game that lasted for eight years and five months. The NY Times referred to the Bird Cage as the "wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast." Some photos of the interior have been included in this gallery in addition to the staged reenactments.

Three great books I have read and recommend include "And Die in the West" by Paula Mitchell Marks (perhaps the best analysis of the O.K. Corral fight ever written), "Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend" by Casey Tefertiller, and "Desert Honkytonk: The Story of Tombstone's Bird Cage Theatre" by Roger A. Bruns.

Originally I wasn't going to include this directory in my Southwest area since I didn't feel that reenactments fit but I changed my mind.

All images taken with a Digital Rebel XT with various L lenses.

Favorite images from my various Southwest Trips can be found at:
Favorite Images From Various Southwest Trips