Being Transported Back in Time in Tombstone, Arizona, U.S.A.

A Western theme restaurant in Benson

After the seminar in Phoenix, we headed to southern Arizona to learn more about the history and culture of a frontier town called Tombstone.












On our way there, we stopped at a restaurant in Benson for some local food.

We tried Chimichungas for the first time

The restaurant was like a page out of a western movie all decorated in a cowboy theme.








But the menu offered a good selection of Mexican food.

We had Mexican dishes before but never tried an item called Chimichungas
 which was what we ordered.

Landmark Lookout Inn, Tombstone

It was about a three hour drive from Phoenix before we checked into the Lookout Inn in Tombstone at around 9p.m.

The Lookout Inn at Night

The innkeeper told us that many shops were closed downtown, but some bars would still be open.

Patio of the Lookout Inn Restaurant 

We wished we could have got in town a little earlier.

We had breakfast in the Lookout Inn dining room

We drove downtown and walked around the main streets in the dark for a short time as all the shops were closed except for a few eateries.

Reenactment of gun fights in the era past on the street of Tombstone

Tombstone used to be a frontier wild wild west lawless town with gunfights taking place frequently in bars and on the street.

Tombstone Main Street

At the height of the mining boom, it boosted a population of  around 18,000 people with about two thousand women registered and obtained licenses as ladies of the night.

The longest operating restaurant in the town of Tombstone since the 1800's

However, with a serious earthquake and the mining industry gone, the population of Tombstone declined to around 1,400 people.










Today, Tombstone is a small community, a well preserved town from the 1800's with many of the original buildings  still in existence.

City Hall, Tombstone, Arizona

Namely: the Tombstone City Hall, Court House, Arizona's oldest Protestant church (with the house of ill repute at the back ), various shops, restaurants and bars decorated in the original western style proudly lining on both sides of  Allen street.

Tombstone - A well preserved western town , Arizona,  U.S.A.

The whole western scene reminded us of the Hollywood movie set of the John Wayne cowboy movies we saw so often when we were kids.

The historic street of Tombstone is blocked off for performances about the wild west days 

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Tombstone

Since it was Sunday, we attended the Sunday Service at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church - the oldest Protestant church in Arizona.

The nice folks thee gave us a tour of the church afterwards and explained its interesting history to us.

Original stained glass windows inside the church

The church was built in 1882 with only $5000.00 raised by a 25 year old young man - Endicott Peabody.

The church was built of Adobe bricks

The light fixtures, from the 1870\s whaling ship. the stained glass windows, the pews and most of the other furniture are original.


The church was built with a unique kind of bricks - the adobe bricks, made with straws and earth with a mud mortar.
An interesting way of building construction!









The Tombstone historic downtown street was quite a wide street and part of it was blocked off on the day we visited. There were performances and reenactments on the street.

Reenactments of poker game and shootings on Allen Street 

We paid $8.00 each to watch the gun fights reenactments in one of the stores and learned about three real stories and the coluorful characters who were gunslingers, got into fights over minor incidents such as poker games, some insignificant arguments and a shirt from New York.

Many of these people did not hesitate to pull out their guns and eventually were shot in some bars.

A window on the wall of the Big Nose Kate Restaurant

We  had our lunch at the Big Nose Kate Restaurant.  Kate was the girlfriend of Doc Holiday, a friend of the sheriff, one of the four guys who faced off the villains, the rogue cowboys.

The serving staff was all dressed in costumes of the time

The restaurant was packed with patrons, many of whom donned their cowboys hats and shirts while live country music was sung from the front.

Big Nose Kate Restaurant - Tombstone, Arizona

We had our lunch at the bar counter and a character dressed in costume of the bygone era appeared from nowhere.













I asked for permission to take a picture and the friendly waitress volunteered to do the job for us.

















As we were leaving, Linda, a really friendly lady sitting beside us at the church where we attended the Sunday service, recognized us.

We started yelping away and exchanging information about each other.

We talked as if we were long lost friend. Linda introduced us to her friend and her husband and we must have talked for half and hour and having a great laugh.

It was really fun meeting interesting and friendly people during our travel. We enjoyed it!

We were told that Tombstone is the number two tourist attraction in Arizona, second to the Grand Canyon.

It was really fun to be transported back in time for a day and learned about all the crazy things that happened in the 1800's.

However, I am glad I did not live in that era when anybody could just pull out a gun and start shooting and got away with it!

R.T.
Tombstone, Arizona
U.S.A.