Tombstone

In the middle of October, our family, as well as Mamaw and Ryan and Amanda’s family, went out west on a big family vacation. On the seventh day of our exciting vacation, one of the places we stopped, was Tombstone, Arizona. There we would see the famous gun fight at the OK Corral! Everyone was exited! We packed up all our bags and loaded them into the car and headed off! We wanted to get to Tombstone early, to get tickets before they sold out. The Cox family came later after they changed the oil on their van.

Tombstone is a small town in Arizona with lots of old buildings and museums. We got there early, so we started walking and looking inside the gift shops and stores. 

At one store, there was a man working on leather. He made all kinds of amazing things. He made leather vests, and holster belts, and lots of other articles out of leather. Some of the stores we did not go into, we just looked through the windows. In one window we investigated, we saw a very fancy saddle and holster belt. It was fun looking in all the windows. Behind the store where we bought the tickets, there was a section where there were horse buggies that you could climb into. 

There was also a spot where you could sift for fools’ gold, or cool rocks. We all had a wonderful time.

Finally, it was time to head off to the famous OK Corral! Merrily we headed to our seats and sat down and waited, delighted for the show to begin. The gun fight was the Cowboys against the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday. The actors reenacted the gun fight as it happened in the past. I really liked the costumes they had on, and they had real guns. After the show was over, we all took our pictures with the actors. On our way out, one of the actors gave me a bullet! That was exiting.

We all loaded into the vehicles, and we headed off to Boot Hill. Boot Hill is on a little slope northwest of Tombstone. It was called Boot Hill because lots of gun slingers, and ordinary people died violently, “with their boots on.” There are three hundred people buried there. When we arrived, we headed toward the old cemetery. It cost six dollars for each adult. Kids were free! Before we entered the cemetery, we received a little pamphlet that told us where to start and told how the person died. We got to see the graves where Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury were buried. It was neat to see the graves of the men who were in the O.K corral gun fight.

After we looked around for a while, it was time to head to our next stop. We had a thrilling time! My favorite things were watching the gun fight and walking through Boot Hill. It was also fun to walk through all the gift shops, and to see all the remarkable things for sale. I hope to go to Tombstone, Arizona again someday.

~ Jonah