Tombstone
Our next stop would be the Tombstone Motel in Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone has long been a bucket list destination for us, because of the sheer volume of awesome Old West history that has come out of this area. And yes, this desire was partially fed by the terrific 1993 Western of the same name which is a viewing staple in our household. Spoiler alert: the actual town is just as awesome as the movie.
Tombstone was founded in 1877 by a man named Ed Schieffelin who discovered silver in the area. At one time, Tombstone was one of the fastest growing towns in the country with a population at least 15,000 and possibly up to 20,000 people. Nowadays, Tombstone is mostly a tourist destination with part of the town restored to its Old West Glory Days. The main area of the historic district is blocked off to automobile traffic and can even be explored by foot, stagecoach and horse, much like it was back in the 1880’s. We took the opportunity on that beautiful, slightly breezy night to walk around the town briefly, enjoying the atmosphere and the holiday lights and decorations. At some point when things aren’t closed down due to the holidays, we’d like to come back to take a ghost tour and definitely experience the stagecoach ride as well!
The next morning we woke up early and sat outside our room to enjoy the sun rising above the mountainous desert landscape. At that point, it also started to rain and a little while later, a double rainbow appeared above the motel. It was a beautiful and unusual sight, considering how little rain the area normally gets.
We then walked a couple of blocks to the main area of Old Tombstone. It was quite cold, windy and rainy but none of that dampened our awe at just being able to explore this place. We walked by the Oriental Saloon, the Birdcage Theater, Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and the O.K. Corral, site of the infamous shootout between the Cowboys on one side and Town Marshal Virgil Earp, his brothers Wyatt and Morgan and Doc Holliday on the other.
Boothill Graveyard
After a wet but wonderful morning exploring the almost empty Christmas Eve day streets of Tombstone, we headed over to Boothill Graveyard, historical cemetery of Tombstone and final resting place for some of the area’s most infamous outlaws and Western legends.
We spent quite a bit of time exploring Boothill in the rain. Apparently the cemetery fell into disrepair after a newer cemetery was built so many of the markers, although originally located have been carefully recreated.
Historic Pioneer Cemetery in Willcox
Our next stop was what we like to call a “bonus grave”. While chatting with the very friendly folks that run the Boothill Gift Shop, we were informed that the youngest Earp brother, Warren was buried only about 50 miles north and east of Tombstone. His grave was located just outside of the town of Willcox, Arizona, in the Historic Pioneer Cemetery.
When we arrived at the cemetery, which featured absolutely stunning scenery and a really out in the middle of nowhere location (which was a definite plus), it started raining even harder. Not exactly something we expected in visiting the desert, but then again we are from the Midwest so we’re old hats at inclement weather. The cemetery was pretty overgrown and appeared to be really old but that only added to the mystique in a positive way. Earp’s grave was towards the back and very prominent. We spent as much time as we could at this really interesting place before we had to take refuge in the car.
Phoenix
It was then time to head for our next destination in Mesa, just outside of Phoenix. We drove through some pretty country around Tucson and continued to head north. We spent a rainy, record-breaking Christmas Eve visiting with our friend Amy, who moved to Arizona from Minnesota a few years ago. It was great to see her and hang out for a while.
Lake Havasu City
The next day was Christmas Day. Our destination for the day would be Lake Havasu City, on the border of Arizona and California.
The road out to Lake Havasu was very scenic. Lots of rocks, hills and unusual desert beauty. Once we got into town, we stopped at our friend Paul’s house. Paul and his wife Cheryl are more Minnesota natives that escaped the cold weather to live among the charms of the desert. After visiting and having some pizza, we made a quick stop by one of the biggest area attractions, the London Bridge.
The London Bridge in Lake Havasu City is the original London Bridge that once spanned the River Thames in London, England. In 1968, the bridge was sold to real estate developer Robert P. McCulloch who founded Lake Havasu City on the shores of Lake Havasu as a planned community. The current bridge structure featured the original exterior granite of the bridge in England plus reinforced concrete. You can drive or walk over the Bridge. The whole area is very picturesque and again, because it was a holiday and close to nightfall, it was relatively calm and peaceful in the area.
Upon leaving Lake Havasu City we headed to our motel in Kingman, Arizona to rest and prepare for the following day’s Grand adventures . . .
Whats up this is kind of of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi
My wife usually does the coding for the website but she and one of our dogs were run over by a delivery truck on March 1st 2022. She died on March 8th. I usually do the Photo stuff and Shelli did all the coding.
I guess I will be relearning how to keep this site up myself.
Dan