The Town Too Tough To Die

  Well, I guess I will take a little break from blogging about travels on Indian Reservations. I was getting a little burned out on it. I will return to it another time.
  Right now, I want to write about one of Arizona's most well known tourist attractions. The town of Tombstone is one of the most famous towns of Wild West lore in the world, if not the most famous.
  Everyone knows about the Earp Brothers;  Wyatt, Virgil, Warren and Morgan and Doc Holliday, who followed Wyatt Earp around everywhere he went. The Clanton and McLawry Brothers, who fought the Earps and Doc Holliday in the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, are also well known  names that are associated with the legend and lore of Tombstone. Today, Tombstone's economic mainstay is tourism and its rich Wild West history. It is one of the most famous towns in the world.
  In the late 1870s, Ed Schieffelin, who once worked as an Army Scout,  was prospecting in the area that later became western Cochise County. He spent quite a bit of time in this area, even though the Chiricahua Apaches  had posed a big danger to anyone who dared venture into this area. After taking a short break from his prospecting work, he spent some time at Fort Huachuca to rest.  He told several friends what he had been doing and one of the friends, after hearing about Schieffelin's plans, said to him "Better take your coffin with you, you will find your tombstone there and nothing else." One of the soldiers said "The only rock you will find will be your
tombstone!"   Schieffelin ignored everbody's warning and headed back out into the high desert of southeastern Arizona Territory to continue looking for mineral riches. His first discovery came in the late summer of 1877 and he quickly filed a claim on his discovery and named the mine the Lucky Cuss. Shortly thereafter, a hastily built canvas and matchstick town called Watervale developed near the Lucky Cuss Mine, but it was really more of a mining camp than a town and was in a poor location . Almost immediately, plans were made to build a permanent town on a flat area nearby called Goose Flats. After a townsite company was formed, lots were sold for $5 each and they were immediately snatched up by people who wanted to partake in the mining wealth.While the permanent town was taking shape, two more silver veins were discovered and the subsequent mines that evolved were named the Tombstone and the Tough Nut. The first mine's name was a direct reference to what the two friends at Fort Huachuca had told Ed Schieffelin two years earlier and the second mine's name was in reference to the fact that someone had told  Schieffelin "You are a tough nut to crack!" The permanent town of Tombstone was born in March of 1879 and this is the town that is now famous the world over.