OUTLAW SITES TO SEE DESCRIPTIONS

Tour the Courthouse containing antiques and artifacts concerning the history of Tombstone and Cochise County, then tour the town with its boot hill and numerous museums, including the infamous O.K. Corral.

The Tombstone Courthouse was built in 1882 after Cochise County split off from Pima County in 1881. Tombstone was chosen as the county seat because it was the largest town in the county with a population of 8-10,000 people. The building served as the Cochise County Courthouse until 1929 when the county seat was moved to Bisbee where it remains today. Some of the most notorious criminal cases were tried in the courthouse during Arizona's territorial period.

In 1959, after many years of non-use, the courthouse was placed in the state park system as a historical site. The state then restored and opened it as a State Historic Park. The courthouse presently houses a multitude of displays of past life in Cochise County including ranching, mining and gambling. The professional staff at Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park provides visitors with fact-based interpretations of the history of the area. The park is the only publicly-owned museum in the town of Tombstone.

$2.00 per person; $1.00 ages 12-17.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

BEGIN YOUR TOMBSTONE TOUR HERE "A must see orientation for visitors . . ." Witness the dramatic events that made Tombstone famous: the silver boom, the great fire, the O.K. Corral^® gunfight, the assassination of Morgan Earp, and more. Actor Vincent Price narrates this exciting multimedia history of Tombstone from Geronimo's Apaches to modern times. Show every 30 minutes, 9:30a.m. to 4:30p.m. Admission (kids under 6 free)

The Rose Tree Inn Museum has the most amazing sight you will see. The Guinness Book of World Records confirms yearly that the world's largest rosebush is located at the Rose Tree Inn Museum in Tombstone. The Lady Banksia rosebush covers nearly 8,600 square feet and looks more like a tree than a bush. It is quite impressive.

The plant's beginning started with a cutting sent from Scotland in 1885, as a wedding gift. Since then the rose tree has filled the air with the fragrance of white blossoms. The best time to make a visit is during the spring when it is covered with blooms. Not only will visitors see this remarkable rose tree, but visitors will also tour a historic adobe home that has antiques and displays describing the town. The museum also has a large collection of locks that is unique.

VISIT THE OLD WEST'S MOST FAMOUS NEWSPAPER

• Visit the free 1880s newspaper museum displaying vintage newspapers and printing equipment.
• Read the original 1881 reports of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral^®.
• See how newspapers were printed in the 1880s.
  
  Open Daily 9:30a.m. to 5p.m. Free Admission.

To receive a reprint of The Tombstone Epitaph's actual 1881 reports of the O.K. Corral^® Gunfight and Wyatt Earp murder trial, send $2.00 (includes S&H) to: The Tombstone Epitaph, P.O. Box 1880, Tombstone, AZ 85638.

The Crystal Palace of today is the Crystal Palace of yesterday, of a day when life in Tombstone, Arizona was a crazy kaleidoscope of culture and chaos, of good and evil, of battles and Bibles, a colorful and romantic reminder typical of America's last untamed frontier.

Mingle with historic characters, local aristocrats and lovely ladies at the finest saloon in in the Southwest.  The legendary "Doc Holliday" teaches a visitor the favored game of Faro (left). 

Wyatt Earp" (Hugh O'Brian look alike) takes your order from behind the towns most glamorous and historically accurate bar.

The Bird Cage was named for the 14 Bird Cage Cribs that were suspended from the ceiling overhanging the gambling casino and dance hall.  It was the most famous honky-tonk in America between 1881 and 1889.  The building and contents are original and it is in good shape after all these years as it stood boarded up for 50 years. In 1934 it became a Historic Landmark of the American West.   The "ladies of the night" piled their trade in the Bird Cages.  You may have heard the song "she's only a bird in a gilded cage" which was a very popular song.  Did not know what that referred to until we came here.  The Bird Cages have their original drapes and trimmings. The Bird Cage was open for 9 years, night and day, until it closed in 1889.  There were 16 gunfights and the ceiling has over 140 bullet holes. On stage every night were the can-can dancers.  Many entertainer came here such as Eddie Foy, Lotta Crabtree, Sarah Bernhart, and Enrico Caruso among others.

Walking down Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona, the self-proclaimed "town too tough to die," it isn't hard to squint your eyes and imagine how the town must have looked back in the glory days of the old west. Near one end of the stree, you will find the famous Bird Cage Theater, standing much as it did over 100 years ago. In the 1880s it was not only a theater, but also served as a saloon, gambling hall and brothel. It was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - even on holidays. The New York Times called it, "the wildest, roughest, wickedest honky tonk between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast." That statement was well deserved, since the Bird Cage was the scene for twenty-six deaths during its eight years of business.

Today the floor of the Bird Cage has been converted into a museum, but the theater's namesake - the famous "bird cages" where ladies of the night sold pleasures to cowboys and miners - are still intact. You can see their red curtains in this photo. The old song, "She's only a bird in a gilded cage" by Arthur J. Lamb was written for the "tainted angels" of the Bird Cage Theater. Today, though, a visitor can walk through the museum-floor and soak in the history of this wonderful old place. Historic figures such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson once walked on these very floorboards.

The stage and original curtain are still intact, and while touring the theater one can walk through the backstage area. This theater and its famous stage has been portrayed in almost every telling of the Wyatt Earp and "Gunfight at the OK Corral" saga. Two entertaining versions are "Wyatt Earp" starring Kevin Costner, and "Tombstone" starring Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton, and Val Kilmer (who should have won an Oscar).

The Bird Cage closed its doors in 1889, but it has not been silent. The sounds of laughing, yelling, and music have been reported to pour out of the theater at night. Visitors during the day have smelled fresh scents of cigar smoke and the sharp odor of whiskey, even though neither are allowed there now, nor have been for many years past. Testimonies by tourists and Bird Cage employees recount sightings of people wearing period clothing from the 1800s, and in particular, a man in black wearing a visor walking has been witnessed walking across the stage. Some of the sounds seem to come from the balconies above the main floor.

Walking down into the basement of the theater, the modern-day visitor is allowed to visit the rooms that held a perpetual high-stakes poker game. Rooms off of the poker room were where the higher priced ladies entertained their gentlemen guests. This particular area has been a focal point of supernatural activity, where it seems some of the 1880s guests of the Bird Cage may still frequent. The longest card game here was said to have lasted 24 hours a day for eight years, five months, and three days, so perhaps some of the players haven't finished their game. It's no wonder that the Bird Cage's past reverberates throughout these walls. Between the main floor and the downstairs rooms, it saw just under 20 gunfights and 26 deaths - 140 bullet holes in the ceiling and walls stand witness to these events.