Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ

13 Nov; 2017;  Benson, AZ

Tombstone, AZ - site of the famous 'shootout at the OK Corral'

Since I was close, I had to take a side trip to Tombstone.  Unfortunately, it's mostly a theme park these days.  The OK Corral is fenced in and you have to buy a ticket to see the Corral and a 're-enactment of the shootout.

While there are remains of the original buildings, they tend to be buried in blocks of touristy, theme park stuff (gift shops, bars, restaurants).

Wagons and trolleys give tours of the downtown area

Mini-operas of 'shoot-outs' happen every few minutes on main street

Cochise County Museum

The only attraction I was really interested in was the county museum.  It was really interesting and covered the whole Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday historical context.

Some original Tombstone buildings survive

Bisbee, AZ

The focus in Bisbee was the mining - silver and copper - that fueled growth in this area of AZ in the late 1800's.  Bisbee is in the mountains so it reminded my a lot of San Francisco - all up and down with lots of steep steps, narrow alleyways and houses perched on hillsides.  While Bisbee was also quite commercial, it had less of a theme-park atmosphere and more of a town that kept it's heritage alive while moving forward into the future.  I liked that there was live music in the city park when I was there and in many of the restaurants.

Copper Queen Hotel

Brewery