Wild West

Currently in Buckeye, AZ
Then on to Cottonwood/Grand Canyon and Southern California


Johnny grew up on old Westerns.  So a visit to Tombstone, AZ and  Old Tucson were definitely in order for us.  One is a real town and one is just a movie set, but both are set up for tourists to enjoy.

Tombstone is famous for the gunfight at the OK Corral involving Wyatt Earp, his brothers and their longtime enemies, the Cowboys.

The gunfight is reenacted several times a day in Tombstone.  It's kinda corny.

But we also learned a lot about the history of Tombstone as a silver mining town.  The population grew as mining progressed but once the mines hit the water table and flooded, the mining stopped and people left.  The town reinvented itself for tourists.
Another famous place is the Birdcage Theater.  It was a saloon and dancehall.  You can take a tour of it today.  It was a raucous place!

Currently, the rest of the town is shops and restaurants.  There is a Courthouse that is now a museum, although we didn't go in.   You still see a smattering of the people who live in Tombstone and enjoy the downtown area.  These horses were hitched at a restaurant.

We met these fine gentlemen at the bar of the Crystal Palace.  The older man in the red jacket was a horse wrangler for John Wayne's horses during his movie making years.  The man looking away from the camera is from Wisconsin and lives in Tombstone now!

We also took a quick peek at Boothill Cemetery on the way out of town.  Most people buried here died in the late 1800's and many graves are marked "unknown".  The McLaury brothers died in the OK Corral gun fight and are buried here.  Other graves tell stories of accidents, illness and fights that show just how hard life was in the West at that time.

It was a day mixed with fun and a little learning.

On another day we went to Old Tucson, a movie studio built in 1939 in the Tucson Mountains.  Johnny had seen most of the movies that were made there so our visit had a lot more meaning for him.  We started by walking around the museum that had many artifacts from all the movies and television shows, like Little House on the Prairie, made here.

We took a couple of tours - this one was about the life of the cowboy on a cattle drive.  It focused on the chuck wagon and the role of the cook (who was also medic, disciplinarian, and advisor).

On another tour we were told that the Blacksmith shop and the structure to the left were the 2 oldest buildings in Old Tucson.  The studio did experience a fire in the early 1990's, but these buildings were spared.  The other structure is a gift shop now, but was John Wayne's barn in "El Dorado", among many other films.

Here is the backside of that barn that was used in many movies.  They would just make small changes, such as signs, and be ready to go!

We saw a movie being filmed!  It was for a Spanish language TV show. But overall, the Old Tucson Studio sets don't get much use anymore.

This train was refurbished after its useful life was over and then went on to appear in over 400 movies and TV shows.  By the way, those mountains in the background are real!

Below is the front of the ranch from High Chaparrel (lower left) with the Golden Gate Mountain in the background.  This area is hardly used at all anymore.

One last historical note: I mentioned before that Tucson was inhabited by the Tohono O'odham tribe.  This same tribe was tapped to build the studio buildings in 1939.  In 40 days they built 50 structures from adobe bricks.  Some of them also appeared in the movie "Arizona".  This is a memorial at Old Tucson that honors their contribution to the success of that movie.