Tombstone is a city inCochise County,Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 byprospectorEd Schieffelin in what was thenPima County,Arizona Territory. It became one of the lastboomtowns in theAmerican frontier. The town grew significantly into the mid-1880s as the localmines produced $40 to $85 million in silverbullion, the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years. It is best known as the site of theGunfight at the O.K. Corral and draws most of its revenue from tourism. The city had a permanent population of 1,308, according to the2020 census.[3]
The town was established on Goose Flats, amesa above the Goodenough Mine. Within two years of its founding, although far distant from any othermetropolitan area, Tombstone had a bowling alley, four churches, anice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice-cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerousdance halls andbrothels. All of these businesses were situated among and atop many silver mines. The gentlemen and ladies of Tombstone attended operas presented by visiting acting troupes at theSchieffelin Hall opera house, while theminers andcowboys saw shows at theBird Cage Theatre and brothel.
Under the surface were tensions that grew into deadly conflict. The mining capitalists and the townspeople were largelyRepublicans from theNorthern states. Many of the ranchers (some of whom—like theClantons—were alsorustlers or other criminal varieties) wereConfederate sympathizers andDemocrats. The booming city was only 30 miles (48 km) from the U.S.–Mexico border and was an open market forcattle stolen from ranches inSonora, Mexico, by a loosely organized band ofoutlaws known asThe Cowboys. The Earp brothers—Wyatt,Virgil andMorgan—as well asDoc Holliday, arrived in December 1879 and mid-1880. The Earps had ongoing conflicts with CowboysIke andBilly Clanton,Frank andTom McLaury, andBilly Claiborne. The Cowboys repeatedly threatened the Earps over many months until the conflict escalated into a shootout on October 26, 1881. The historic gunfight is often portrayed as occurring at theO.K. Corral, though it actually occurred a short distance away in an empty lot on Fremont Street.
In the mid-1880s, the silver mines penetrated the water table and the mining companies made significant investments in specialized pumps. A fire in 1886 destroyed the Grand Centralhoist and thepumping plant, and it was deemed unprofitable to rebuild the costly pumps. The city nearly became aghost town, saved only because it was the Cochise Countyseat until 1929. The city's population dwindled to a low of 646 in 1910, but grew to 1,380 by 2010.[4] Tombstone has frequently been noted on lists ofunusual place names.[5]
Tombstone in 1881 byC. S. FlyEd Schieffelin in Tombstone in 1880
Ed Schieffelin was briefly a scout for the U. S. Army headquartered atCamp Huachuca. Schieffelin frequently searched the wilderness looking for valuable ore samples. At the Santa Rita mines in nearby Santa Cruz Valley, three superintendents had been killed by Native Americans. When friend and fellow Army ScoutAl Sieber learned what Schieffelin was up to, he is quoted as telling him, "The only rock you will find out there will be your owntombstone",[7] or, according to an earlier version of the story, "Better take your coffin with you; you will find your tombstone there, and nothing else."[8][9]
In 1877, Schieffelin usedBrunckow's Cabin as a base of operations to survey the country. After many months, while working the hills east of theSan Pedro River, he found pieces ofsilver ore in a dry wash[10] on a high plateau called Goose Flats.[11] It took him several more months to find the source. When he located the vein, he estimated it to be fifty feet long and twelve inches wide.[12] Schieffelin took on a partner named William Griffith who financed the filing of the claim in return for a later claim for himself. Griffith filed Schieffelin's first claim, which was named Tombstone, on September 3, 1877.[10][13] Another account says the first claim was called Graveyard "because it proved worthless and for no other reason."[14]
When the first claims were filed, the initial settlement of tents and wooden shacks was located at Watervale, near the Lucky Cuss mine, with a population of about 100.[15] The Goodenough Mine strike occurred shortly after. Former Territorial GovernorAnson P. K. Safford offered financial backing for a share of the mining claims, and Schieffelin, his brother Al, and their partner Richard Gird formed the Tombstone Mining and Milling Company and built astamp mill near the San Pedro River, about 8 miles (13 km) away. As the mill was being built, U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor Solon M. Allis finished surveying the new town's site in March 1879.[16] The tents and shacks near the Lucky Cuss were moved to the new town site on Goose Flats, amesa above the Goodenough Mine at 4,539 feet (1,383 m) above sea level and large enough to hold a growing town. Lots were immediately sold on Allen Street for $5.00 each. The town soon had some 40 cabins and about 100 residents. At the town's founding in March 1879, it took its name from Schieffelin's initial mining claim. By fall 1879, a few thousand hardy souls were living in a canvas and matchstick camp perched amidst the richest silver strike in the Arizona Territory.[15]
WhenCochise County was formed from the eastern portion of Pima County on February 1, 1881, Tombstone became the newcounty seat.Telegraph service to the town was established that same month. In early March 1880, the Schieffelins' Tombstone Mining and Milling Company which owned the original Goodenough Mine and the nearby Tough Nut Mine (among others), was sold to investors fromPhiladelphia.[17] Two months later, it was reported that the Tough Nut Mine was working a vein of silver ore 90 feet (27 m) across that assayed at $170 per ton, with some ore assaying at $22,000 a ton.[17]
On September 9, 1880, the richly appointed Grand Hotel was opened, adorned with fine oil paintings, thick Brussels carpets, toilet stands, elegant chandeliers, silk-covered furniture, walnut furniture, and a kitchen with hot and cold running water.[18] At the height of the silver mining boom, when the population was about 10,000, the city was host to Kelly's Wine House, featuring 26 varieties of wine imported from Europe, a beer imported fromColorado named "Coors", cigars, a bowling alley, and many other amenities common to large cities.
Panorama of Tombstone in 1909 from the upper floor of the Cochise County courthouse on 3rd and Tough Nut St. At the center, Third St. is to the left and Tough Nut St. is to the right.
Tombstone sheriff and constituents, an illustration from the March 1884 edition ofHarper's New Monthly Magazine[8]: 497 Map of southeastern Cochise County, including Tucson and Tombstone, in 1880
Under the surface were other tensions aggravating the simmering distrust. Most of the Cowboys wereConfederate sympathizers andDemocrats from Southern states, especially Texas. The mine and business owners, miners, townspeople and city lawmen including the Earps were largelyRepublicans from theNorthern states. There was also the fundamental conflict over resources and land, with traditional, Southern-style "small government"agrarianism of the rural Cowboys contrasted to Northern-style "big-government" development.[19]
In the early 1880s, smuggling andtheft of cattle, alcohol, and tobacco across the U.S./Mexico border about 30 miles (48 km) from Tombstone were common. The Mexican government taxed these items heavily and smugglers earned a handsome profit by sneaking these products across the border. The illegal cross-border smuggling contributed to the lawlessness of the region. Many of these crimes were carried out by outlaw elements labeled "Cow-boys", a loosely organized band of friends and acquaintances who teamed up for various crimes and came to each other's aid. TheSan Francisco Examiner wrote in an editorial, "Cowboys [are] the most reckless class of outlaws in that wild country...infinitely worse than the ordinary robber."[20] At that time during the 1880s in Cochise County it was an insult to call a legitimate cattleman a "Cowboy". Legitimate cowmen were referred to as cattle herders or ranchers.[21] The Cowboys were nonetheless welcome in town because of their free-spending habits, but shootings were common.
Near Drew's Station, just outsideContention City, the stage was attacked. Eli "Budd" Philpot, a popular and well-known driver. and a passenger named Peter Roerig riding in the reardickey seat were both shot and killed. Deputy U.S. MarshalVirgil Earp, with his temporary deputies and brothersWyatt Earp andMorgan Earp, pursued the Cowboys suspected of the murders. That set off a chain of events that culminated, on October 26, 1881, in a gunfight in a vacant lot owned by photographerC. S. Fly near, but not in or at, the O.K. Corral, during which the lawmen andDoc Holliday killedTom McLaury,Frank McLaury, andBilly Clanton.
The gunfight was the result of a personal, family, and political feud. Two months later, on the evening of December 28, 1881,Virgil Earp was ambushed and seriously wounded on the streets of Tombstone by hidden assailants shooting from the second story of an unfinished building. Although identified, the suspects provided witnesses who supplied alibis, and the men were not prosecuted. On March 18, 1882, whileMorgan Earp was playing billiards at 10 p.m. at Campbell & Hatch in Allen Street—in the heart of Tombstone's still-current downtown—he was killed by a shot through a window that struck his spine, as Wyatt looked on. Once again, the assailants were named but escaped arrest due to legal technicalities. Wyatt Earp concluded that official justice was out of reach. Armed with warrants obtained via the U. S. Marshal's Office, he led aposse of US deputy marshals on what became known as theEarp Vendetta Ride, pursuing and killing four of the men they held responsible.[23]
Much of the Cowboy-related crime subsided after the Earp family left Arizona in early 1882, following the attempted murder of Tombstone Marshal Virgil Earp on December 28, 1881, and the murder of Deputy Marshal Morgan Earp on March 18, 1882.John Slaughter was elected Cochise County Sheriff in 1886 and served two terms. He hiredBurt Alvord, who as a 15-year-old boy had witnessed the shootout between the Earps and Cowboys. Alford served very effectively for three years until he began to drink heavily and associate with outlaws, as had Earp-era County Sheriff Johnny Behan, a close friend and constant protector of the law-breaking Clanton family and their friends.[24]
Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton, killed in the O.K. Corral shootout, are among those buried in the town's Boothill Graveyard. Of the number of pioneerBoot Hill cemeteries in theOld West, so named because most of those buried in them had "died with their boots on", Boothill in Tombstone is one of the best-known.[25]
Tombstone boomed, but founderEd Schieffelin was more interested inprospecting than owning a mine. Ed was one-third partners with his brother Al Schieffelin and Richard Gird. There were several hundred mining claims near Tombstone, although the most productive were immediately south of town. These included the Goodenough, Toughnut, Contention, Grand Central, Lucky Cuss, Emerald, and Silver Thread. Due to the lack of readily available water near town, mills were built along the San Pedro River about 9 miles (14 km) away, leading to the establishment of several small mill towns, including Charleston, Contention City, and Fairbank.[26]
Schieffelin left Tombstone to find more ore and when he returned four months later,[27] Gird had lined up buyers for their interest in the Contention claim, which they sold for $10,000. It would later yield millions in silver. They sold a half-interest in the Lucky Cuss, and the other half turned into a steady stream of money. Al and Ed Schieffelin later sold their two-thirds interest in the Tough Nut for $1 million, and sometime later Gird sold his one-third interest for the same amount.[28]: 20
Entrance to the Tough Nut Mine
There are widely varying estimates of the value of gold and silver mined during the course of Tombstone's history. The Tombstone mines produced 32 million troy ounces (1,000 metric tons) of silver, more than any other mining district in Arizona.[29] In 1883, writer Patrick Hamilton estimated that during the first four years of activity the mines produced about US$25,000,000 (approximately $844 million today). Other estimates include US$40[11] to US$85 million[30] (about $1.4 billion to $2.97 billion today). Renewed mining is planned for the area.[31]
One of the byproducts of the vast riches being produced, lawsuits became very prevalent. Between 1880 and 1885 the courts were clogged with many cases, often about land claims and properties. As a result,lawyers began to settle in Tombstone and became even wealthier than the miners and those who financed the mining. In addition, because many of the lawsuits required expert analysis of the underground, many geologists and engineers found employment in Tombstone and settled there. In the end, a thorough mapping of the area was completed by experts which resulted in maps documenting Tombstone's mining claims better than any other mining district of the West.[32]
Mining was an easy task at Tombstone in the early days, ore being rich and close to the surface. One man could pull out ore equal to what three men produced elsewhere.[33] Some residents of Tombstone became quite wealthy and spent considerable money during its boom years. Tombstone's first newspaper, theNugget, was established in the fall of 1879.The Tombstone Epitaph was founded on May 1, 1880. As the fastest growingboomtown in the American Southwest, the silver industry and attendant wealth attracted many professionals and merchants who brought their wives and families. With them came churches and ministers. They brought aVictorian sensibility and became the town's elite. Many citizens of Tombstone dressed well, and up-to-date fashion could be seen in this growing mining town.[34] Visitors expressed their amazement at the quality and diversity of products that were readily available in the area. The men who worked the mines were largely European immigrants. The Chinese did the town's laundry and provided other services. TheCowboys ran the countryside andstole cattle from haciendas across the international border inSonora, Mexico.
When the railroad was not built into Tombstone as had been planned, the increasingly sophisticated city of Tombstone remained relatively isolated, deep in a Federal territory that was largely an unpopulated desert and wilderness. Tombstone and its surrounding countryside also became known as one of the deadliest regions in the West. Water was hauled in until the Huachuca Water Company, funded in part by investors like Dr.George E. Goodfellow, built a 23-mile-long (37 km) pipeline from theHuachuca Mountains in 1881. No sooner was a pipeline completed than Tombstone's silver mines struck water.[15]
By mid-1881, the town had fancy restaurants, Vogan's Bowling Alley,[35] four churches—Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist[15]—an ice house, a school, theSchieffelin Hall opera house, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls,[36][37] several Chinese restaurants, French, two Italian, numerous Mexican, several upscale "Continental" establishments, and many "home cooking" hot spots including Nellie Cashman's famous Rush House and numerous brothels all situated among and on top of a number of dirty, hardscrabble mines.[38] The Arizona Telephone Company began installing poles and lines for the city's first telephone service on March 15, 1881.[39]
Investors from the northeastern United States bought many of the leading mining operations. The mining itself was carried out by immigrants from Europe, chieflyCornwall,Ireland, andGermany.[40] Chinese and Mexican labor provided services including laundry, construction, restaurants, and hotels, but immigrant labor provoked backlash; an "Anti-Chinese League" was formed in the 1880s to boycott Chinese businesses and workers.[41][42]
The mines and stamping mills ran three shifts.[15] Miners were paid union wages of $4.00 per day working six 10-hour shifts per week. The roughly 6,000 men working in Tombstone generated more than $168,000 a week (around $5,669,400 today) in income.[43] The mostly young, single, male population spent their hard-earned cash on Allen Street, the major commercial center, open 24 hours a day.
The respectable folks saw traveling theater shows atSchieffelin Hall, opened on June 8, 1881. On December 25, 1881, theBird Cage Theatre opened on Allen Street, offering the miners and cowboys their kind of bawdy entertainment. One of the prime entertainments at the Bird Cage Theatre wasCornish wrestling competitions, with the results being regularly published in the UK.[44]
In 1882,The New York Times reported that "the Bird Cage Theatre is the wildest, wickedest night spot betweenBasin Street and theBarbary Coast."[45] The Bird Cage remained open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year until it closed its doors in 1889.[46] Respectable women stayed on the north side of Allen Street. The prostitutes worked the saloons on the south side and in the southeast quarter of the town, as far as possible from the proper residential section north of Fremont Street.[15]
By late 1881, Tombstone had more than 7,000 citizens, excluding all Chinese, Mexicans, women, and children residents. At the height of the town's boom, the official population reached about 10,000, with several thousand more uncounted.[15] In 1882, the Cochise County Courthouse was built at a cost around $45,000.[46]
After the May 25, 1882, fire, the only remnant of theO.K. Corral was its sign. The blaze destroyed most of the western half of the business district.Re-construction of Fly's Studio and entrance to OK Corral
Due to poor building practices and poor fire protection common to boomtown construction, Tombstone was hit by two major fires. On June 22, 1881, the first fire destroyed the 66 businesses making up the eastern half of the business district. The fire began when a lit cigar ignited a barrel of whiskey in the Arcade Saloon.[47][48]
On May 25, 1882, another, more destructive fire started in a Chinese laundry on Fifth Street between Toughnut and Allen Streets. It destroyed the Grand Hotel and the Tivoli Saloon before it jumped Fremont Street, destroying more than 100 businesses and most of the business district. Lacking enough water to put out the flames, buildings in the fire's path were dynamited to deny the fire fuel. Total damages were estimated to be $700,000, far more than the estimated $250,000 insurance coverage, but rebuilding started right away, nonetheless.[48][49]
In March 1883, along one short stretch of Allen Street, drinking establishments were available in two of the principal hotels, Eagle Brewery, Cancan Chop-House, French Rotisserie, Alhambra, Maison Dore, City of Paris, Brown's Saloon, Fashion Saloon, Miners' Home, Kelly's Wine-House, the Grotto, the Tivoli, and two more unnamed saloons.[50]
The Tough Nut Mine first experienced seepage in 1880. In March 1881, the Sulphuret Mine struck water at 520 feet (160 m). A year later, in March 1882, miners in a new shaft of the Grand Central Mine hit water at 620 feet (190 m). The flow was not at first large enough to stop work, but experienced miners thought the water flow would increase, and it did. Soon, constant pumping with a 4-inch (100 mm) pump was insufficient. The silver ore deposits they sought were soon under water.[49]
Several mine managers traveled toSan Francisco and met with the principal owners of the Contention Mine. They talked about options for draining the mines, and found the only system available for pumping water out of mines below 400 feet (120 m) was theCornish engine, which had been used at theComstock Lode in the 1870s.[49] They bought and installed the huge Cornish engines in the Contention and Grand Central mines. By mid-February 1884, the engines were removing 576,000 US gallons (2,180,000 L; 480,000 imp gal) of water every 24 hours. The city merchants celebrated the continued success of mining and the transfer of funds to their businesses.[49] The Contention and the Grand Central found that their pumps were draining the mining district, benefiting other mines as well, but the other companies refused to pay a proportion of the expense.[51]
On May 26, 1886, the Grand Central hoist and pumping plant burned. The fire was so intense that the metal components of the Cornish engine melted and warped. The headworks of the main mine shaft were also destroyed. Shortly afterward, the price of silver slid to 90 cents an ounce. The mines that remained operational laid off workers. Individuals who had thought about leaving Tombstone when themine flooding started now took action. The price of silver briefly recovered for a while and a few mines began producing again, but never at the level reached in the early 1880s.[49]
The U.S. census recorded fewer than 1,900 residents in 1890 and fewer than 700 residents in 1900. Tombstone was saved from becoming aghost town partly because it remained the Cochise County seat until 1929, when county residents voted to move county offices to nearbyBisbee. The classic Cochise County Courthouse and adjacent gallows yard in Tombstone are preserved as a museum.
A covered board sidewalk was on 5th Street, just north of Allen Street, in May 1940. Jack Crabtree's Livery Stable and the San Jose Lodging House is on the left.
Town life was rather quiet in the 1930s and 1940s, but the town received renewed interest in the 1950s and 1960s due to portrayals in comics, movies, television, and film.[52] Currently,tourism and western memorabilia are the main commercial enterprises; a July 2005CNN article noted that Tombstone receives approximately 450,000 tourist visitors each year. This is about 300 tourists/year for each permanent resident. In contrast to its heyday, when it featured saloons open 24 hours and numerous houses of prostitution, Tombstone is now a staid community with few businesses open late. Tombstone and surrounding areas have a variety of lodging options, restaurants, and attractions. The town is located near other historic sites of interest, including Bisbee and theSan Pedro Riparian area.[citation needed] Tombstone is a short drive away fromSierra Vista, which is considered the shopping hub of Cochise County.[53]
East Allen Street is the center of Tombstone's tourist attractions, featuring three blocks of shaded boardwalks lined with gift shops, saloons, and eateries. Allen Street's historic district is closed to motor traffic from 3rd Street, the location of the city park andOK Corral, to 6th Street, where the Bird Cage Theatre is located. Additional sites of interest can be found throughout the city, even out onHighway 80, whereBoothill Cemetery is found.[54]
Performance events help preserve the town's Wild West image and expose it to new visitors. The historic O.K. Corral has been preserved, but is now surrounded by a wall. Fremont Street (modern Arizona Highway 80), where portions of the gunfight took place, is open to the public.Mannequins are used to depict the location of the participants as recorded by Wyatt Earp. Visitors may pay to see a re-enactment of the gunfight.Helldorado Days, Tombstone's oldest festival,[55] celebrates the community's wild days of the 1880s.
Tombstone Redemption, a fan event celebrating theRed Dead video game series, was held in Tombstone on July 29–30, 2023, with an estimated 10,000 attendees, including fourteen cast members from the series. Tombstone was redressed to resemble the in-game Blackwater.[56][57][58] The event moved toDeadwood, South Dakota, in 2024,[59] and is set to return to Tombstone from October 31 to November 2, 2025.[citation needed]
According toGuinness, the world's largest rosebush was planted in Tombstone in 1885 and still flourishes in the city's sunny climate. TheLady Banksia rose originated in Scotland. Mary Gee was the wife of mining engineer Henry Gee, who worked for the Vizina Mining Co. Mary's family sent the homesick bride a box of rooted cuttings from her home country. She planted one of the roses by the patio of the Vizina Mining Company's boarding house, the first adobe building in town, located at 4th and Toughnut Streets across from the later site of the railroad depot. Henry and she lived in the boarding house when they first arrived in Tombstone.[60][61]
The building was later renamed the Cochise House Hotel, and from 1909 to 1936, it was known as the Arcade Hotel. By the 1930s, the rosebush had grown to shade the entire patio and became a popular site for tourists. The hotel was later renamed the Rose Tree Inn and then the Rose Tree Inn Museum. The museum curator tells visitors that all Banksia roses growing in the U.S. today are descendants of the Tombstone rose.[60]
In 1940, the Lady Banksia rose covered about 4,000 sq ft (370 m2).[62] As of 2014[update], the rosebush covered more than 8,000 sq ft (740 m2) of the roof and garden trellis of the inn, and has a 12 ft (3.7 m) circumference trunk. The rosebush is walled off, and the inn charges admission to view it.[61]
A pair of huge rose "trees" of more than 5 ft (1.5 m) in circumference, also planted in the 1880s, shade a 2,500 sq ft (230 m2) courtyard at Tombstone's historicSacred Heart Church.
TheTombstone Historic District is aNational Historic Landmark District. The town's focus on tourism has threatened the town's designation as a National Historic Landmark District, a designation it earned in 1961 as "one of the best preserved specimens of the ruggedfrontier town of the 1870s and '80s". In 2004, theNational Park Service declared that Tombstone's historic designation was threatened, and asked the community to develop an appropriatestewardship program.[63]
Cochise County Courthouse in Tombstone, Arizona, before it was restored. It remained vacant from 1931 through 1955, when it was redeveloped as a museum.
The National Park Service noted inappropriate alterations to the district included:
Placing "historic" dates on new buildings
Failing to distinguish new construction from historic structures
Covering authentic historic elevations with inappropriate materials
Replacing historic features instead of repairing them
Replacing missing historic features with conjectural and unsubstantiated materials
Building incompatible additions to existing historic structures and new incompatible buildings within the historic district
Using illuminated signage, including blinking lights surrounding historic signs
Installing hitching rails and Spanish tile-covered store porches when such architectural features never existed within Tombstone
Historical buildings includeSchieffelin Hall, the opera house built by Al Schieffelin in 1881, and the Cochise County Courthouse. The courthouse was largely unused and then vacant after the county seat was moved to Bisbee. An attempt was made to turn it into hotel in the 1940s, and when that failed it stood empty until 1955. The Tombstone Restoration Commission acquired the courthouse and developed it as a historical museum that opened in 1959. It features exhibits and thousands of artifacts documenting Tombstone's past.[64]
The Crystal Palace Saloon, including its 45 feet (14 m) long mahogany bar, was rebuilt based on photographs of the original saloon was restored in May 1964 to its 1881 condition. This included large Victorian ceiling lamps and the inlaid‐patterned wood floor.[65]
The silver-bearing Tombstone Hills around the city are caused by a local intrusion ofporphyry through a limestone capping.[15] When actively mined, the silver vein of argentiferousgalena (silver-bearing lead ore) was large and well defined. The silver and lead were easily milled and smelted. The lead content sometimes was as much as 50% of the ore, andassays proved the silver content ran as high as $105.00 per ton in 1881 dollars.[67]
The underlyingbasement rocks are fine-grained Pinal schist, which is intruded bygneissic granite. The outcrop is in a small area south of the principal mines. The overlyingPaleozoicquartzite andlimestones rocks lie on anunconformity with a total thickness ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 ft (1,200 to 1,500 m), and contains 2,500 to 3,500 ft (760 to 1,070 m) ofMississippian Escabrosa limestone and theNaco Formation limestone ofPennsylvanian age in the upper formations.[68]
Overlying the Naco limestone is an unconformableMesozoic series ofconglomerate, thick-bedded quartzites andshales, with two or threelenses of soft, bluish-gray limestone. Into these formations intruded large bodies ofquartz monzonite and bydikes of quartz monzonite-porphyry anddiorite-porphyry. Structuralfaulting occurs throughout the district, especially immediately south of Tombstone, where thestrata are closely folded.[69]
Tombstone District ores have been produced geologically in three or more ways. They may have been formed in argentiferous (silver-bearing)lead sulfide containing spotty amounts of copper and zinc. These deposits are usually deeply oxidized and enriched by irregular replacement bodies along mineralizedfissure zones andanticlinal rolls cut byPaleozoic andMesozoicsedimentary formations. Ore bodies are often closely associated with newer cross-cutting intrusive dikes oflaramide. Ore deposits were formed bybase metal mineralization occurring with oxidation found in fault and fracture zones in laramide volcanics and quartzlatite porphyry intrusives. Silver ore also occurred inmanganese oxides with some argentiferous deposits in lenticular or pipe-like replacement bodies along fracture and fault zones, usually in Pennsylvanian-Permian ageNaco Group limestones.[68][69]
Tombstone has a typical Arizonasemiarid climate (KöppenBSk/BSh) with three basic seasons. Winter, from October to March, features mild to warm days and chilly nights, with minima falling to under 32 °F (0 °C) on 28.4 nights, although snowfall is almost unknown, with the median being zero and the heaviest monthly fall being 14.0 inches (35.56 cm) in January 1916, of which 12.0 inches (30.48 cm) fell on January 16. The coldest temperature record in Tombstone has been 3 °F (−16.1 °C) on December 8, 1978.[citation needed]
The summer season from April to June is extremely dry and gradually heats up – the hottest temperature on record being 112 °F (44.4 °C) on July 4, 1989 – beforethe monsoon season from July to September brings the heaviest rainfall, averaging 7.71 inches (195.8 mm) out of an annual total of 13.22 in (335.8 mm). The wettest month has been July 2008, when 11.53 in (292.9 mm) fell[70] and 15 days had at least 0.04 in (1.0 mm) of rainfall – though the record for the most such days in a month stands at 18, in July 1930. Since 1893, the wettest calendar year has been 1905, with 27.84 in (707.1 mm) and the driest was 1924, with 7.36 in (186.9 mm).[70]
Climate data for Tombstone, Arizona, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1893–present
Tombstone city, Arizona – Racial composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of the census[77] of 2000, 1,504 people, 694 households, and 419 families resided in the city. The population density was 349.8 inhabitants per square mile (135.1/km2). The 839 housing units had an average density of 195.1 per square mile (75.3/km2). Theracial makeup of the city was 87.4% White, 0.6% African American, 1.0% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 8.2% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races; 24.1% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Of the 694 households, 20.2% had children under 18 living with them, 47.6% were married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were not families. About 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.3% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.73.
In the city, the age distribution of the population was 19.3% under 18, 4.9% from 18 to 24, 19.9% from 25 to 44, 32.5% from 45 to 64, and 23.3% who were 65 or older. The median age was 49 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 91.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,571, and for a family was $33,750. Males had a median income of $26,923 versus $18,846 for females. Theper capita income for the city was $15,447. About 13.0% of families and 17.4% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 22.6% of those under 18 and 13.1% of those 65 or over.[78] In 2010, the total population was 1,380.
Tombstone Unified School District serves Tombstone. The district schools in Tombstone are Walter J. Meyer Elementary School and Tombstone High School.[79][80] Tombstone is within theCochise Technology District, which assists in the development of career and technical education programs for high-school students.[81]
During the 1880s, Tombstone had a population of about 500 people of Chinese descent. One of the most prominent members of Tombstone's Chinese community was Sing Choy (or Ah Chum), a woman popularly nicknamed "China Mary". Her role as a community leader included operating a store, controlling opium dens and gambling, and securing jobs for Chinese laborers in the White community.[83][84][85][86]
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