Return with me now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear..

(Note: Aol sent me a list of e-mails I have missed, I am going thru what they say is recovered mail)

Those were the words I heard just as soon as the radio warmed up at 5 o'clock MWF. I loved Cowboys and the Lone Ranger was one on the radio.

(That is me behind Wyatt.)

When we started looking for places to see, one of the top places was… Tombstone, AZ, the location of the famous OK Corral Shootout. I did not know we would find so many very interesting places in the same area.

The sign and the statue of the Buffalo on duty out side the Fort.

Interstate 10 to Benson and turn South.  We chose Fort Huachuca (waa-CHEW-ka), at Sierra Vista. This happened to be a very famous place, especially for my Black friends, because it was the home of the Buffalo Soldier.  They have a good museum on base, where I bought my friend Majors, a Buffalo Soldier Statue.  I always called him the Buffalo Soldier. It was just a cross some small mts to Tombstone. What a town. Stooped in history of the Earps, Doc Holiday, the cowboys and the Epitaph. The Bird Cage Saloon still stands. (Most well known cat house and  gambling parlor).

Sherry in the Bird Cage, the openings outlined by the red curtains were the ‘ladies’ bird cages.

Me ‘n the Earps and Doc Holloday.

They have a reenactment of the Shootout and it is very interesting. The Old courthouse is still there and the pertinent records are on display. The Earps were registered Republicans and the Cowboys were Democrats. I never realized that politics played a big part in the early West.

There are many Ghost Towns around Tombstone.  I am believing that Tombstone would have also died if not for the history of the Earps.

Poker table and cards the way it was left at the close of the longest Poker game in history, (8 yrs  10 million dollars changing hands)Lillian Russell, Eddie Foy, Sr., Lotta Crabtree and Lillie Langtry. In 1882, Fatima allegedly performed her belly-dancing routine at the Bird Cage Theatre.

The shoot out took place behind the OK Corral, in a very small alley. When the smoke cleared Wyatt was the only one standing. Everyone was wounded, and three outlaw cowboys were dead.

Doc Holloday & Big Nose Kate had a room on the alley at the Photographers office.

Boot Hill is still there with the original markers. Copies of the Epitaph for those faithful days are available in reprint.

Strange happenings, Doc Holliday was there with his lady friend, Big nose Kate. The Earps were there with their wives or mistresses.  Wyatt’s first wife died early in his life. At Tombstone he left his common law wife Celia for Josephine, one of the active ladies of the Birdcage.  They stayed together until his death in 1929. What a colorful career, outlaw, lawman and every thing in between.

There is so much History in this area, a cowboy buff can just ‘have a cow’, he be so happy.

Later we will give more detail and visit more places.

Thanks for coming by the Log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.

—Dame Edna Everage

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1929 Studebaker, the year Wyatt Earp Died.