Where the Old West Still Lives

The Old West-rip-roaring, gunfighting, whiskey-drinking half-wild cowboys, even wilder Indians, and fortune-seeking gamblers-its gone...but far from forgotten. Thanks, in part, to those few Western communities that have survived, and even flourished. Here the spirit of the Old West still kicks up its heels.

Three of Arizona's thriving Old West towns are Jerome, Bisbee, and Tombstone, each with its own special collection of historic buildings and museums.

The hillside community of Jerome, thirty-three miles northeast of Prescott on U.S. Route 89A, has a setting nothing less than dramatic. Old homes, hotels, restaurants, and saloons perch up on the thirtythree degree slope of Cleopatra Hill, looking over the Verde Valley, the red rocks of Sedona, and the distant San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

From 1876, when mining began, to 1953, when the last shaft closed, Jerome produced 800 million dollars in copper, gold, and silver.

Like most of its sister communities, Jerome could be a wild, roaring town. At the height of production, the population rose to 15,000. When mining operations closed down, only 100 people remained. The task of fanning what spark remained fell to the Jerome Historical Society.

(BELOW AND RIGHT) Tombstone, "the town too tough to die," comes to life every October during Helldorado Days with staged shoot-outs, hangings, and more. James Kidd photo/James Tallon photo.

(BOTTOM, RIGHT) The near-ghost town of Oatman. Where gold miners once frolicked, now wild burros wander. James Cowlin photo Today Jerome's roster of residents numbers 450 names. Merchants keep the town going with art galleries, gift shops, restaurants, and bars along Main Street.

Many old buildings survive, including parts of the Little Daisy Hotel, built in 1918 and, once, one of the fine hotels in the West; the Powder Box Church, made from old mine timbers and dynamite boxes; and the Sliding Jail, which has plunged 300 feet. Blame the instability on the Verde Fault and eighty miles of collapsing mine tunnels underneath the town.

Mining equipment is displayed in the Jerome Historical Society's Mine Museum, operating in what once was the Fashion Saloon, and in the Jerome State Park, formerly mine owner James S. Douglas's mansion.

Quiet, picturesque, Victorian Bisbee nestles in the folds of the Mule Mountains, ninety-five miles southeast of Tucson on U.S. Route 80. It once reigned as the brawling 'queen of the mining camps." Saloons and gambling notorious gunslingers as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and others. On October 27, 1881, the Clanton and McLowry brothers opposed the Earps and Holliday in the West's most famous showdown at the OK Corral. Today the OK Corral is a big attraction. Browse the stables and the yard and relive the gun fight...then go down the street and

OLD WEST STILL LIVES

(THIS PAGE) The lonely beadframe of the Black Hawk Mine watches over Oatman, once center of a multimillion-dollar gold strike. The government forced its closing during World War II. Now this lively ghost supports shops and restaurants open on weekends. Louis F. De Serio photo (OPPOSITE PAGE) Clinging to the steep slope of Cleopatra Hill, Jerome, once the 15,000 population, copper-rich redoubt of Central Arizona, today is home for a small colony of artisans and retirees who are restoring many of the Victorian homes and shops. Jerry Jacka photos

text continued from page 38 dens from Bisbee's rowdier times still stand in the old Brewery Gulch section of town. Bisbee grew up around the Copper Queen Mine, developed in 1877. When it closed in 1975, over two billion dollars worth of copper had been torn out of the Earth. The mine now is open only to guided tours. Experiencing its dark, echoing tunnels, 1800 feet into the mountain, is like taking a step back in time. Visitors are decked out in standard miner's gear: slicker, hard hat, and battery pack light. The tour closes with a ride back to daylight on an authentic mine train. For a touch of nostalgia, visit the eightythree-year-old Copper Queen Hotel. Built in 1902 and still operating, it is decorated much as it was in its youth; the Pythian Castle, a Knights of Pythias lodge of 1904 vintage and a striking landmark from Bisbee's past; and the Muheim Building, an early and extremely active brokerage house. For more of Bisbee's colorful past, there's a Mining and Historical Museum run by the Bisbee Council on the Arts and Humanities located at the old General Office Building of the Phelps Dodge Corporation, and a museum on Main Street operated by the Bisbee Restoration and Historical Association, Inc. Tombstone, sixty-nine miles southeast of Tucson, straddles, U. S. Route 80. Ed Schieffelin in 1877 went prospecting in what was then dangerous Apache country, where, said his friends, he would only find his tombstone. He struck silver instead and named one of his mines The Tombstone. "The town too tough to die," which grew up around Schieffelin's diggings, was rowdy and violent. With three shifts in the mines, something was always going on. Tombstone also was the home of such have a drink at the Crystal Palace Saloon where the Earps, themselves, lifted a glass more than a century ago. Built in 1879, it was, and still is, one of the fancier saloons in the West. Check out the Birdcage Theater, once a gambling house and showplace where ladies in feathered costumes hung in cages over the casino tables. Nearby, the Wells Fargo Museum, yester day a stagecoach stop for gold and silver en route to San Fransico, now is filled with Old West memorabilia. Then wind up at Boot Hill where many of the West's bad guys and good guys are buried. Not as well known as Jerome, Bisbee, or Tombstone but with its own share of Old West romance, is Oatman, thirty-three miles southwest of Kingman on U. S. Route 66. Oatman today is a quiet little town set on the west side of the Black Mountains. It served as a backdrop for several films, including How the West Was Won, Foxfire, and Edge of Eternity. The first mineral claim was filed in 1902. Mining continued until 1942. Within those forty years, thirty-six million dollars in gold was recovered. The town was named in honor of Olive Oatman, a white captive of the Apaches and Mohaves in 1851. In its time, Oatman was a center for business and social activities. At its population peak, over 10,000 miners and their families lived there; but during World War II, when government orders closed the mines, the town nearly died. Only a handful of stubborn citizens kept Oatman alive. Today the population is near 300, not counting the wild burros that roam the streets. Interesting places to visit in Oatman Pioneer Arizona, twenty-five miles north of Phoenix on Interstate 17 (exit at Pioneer Road), is composed of around two dozen buildings, some of which have been trucked from original sites all over Arizona while others are reconstructions. Guides in period dress demonstrate blacksmithing, tin crafting, and weaving. Rawhide is located on Scottsdale Road, include the old Lee Lumber Company building with its attractive false front; the Glory Hole Antique Shop, a drugstore in the 1930s, before that a saloon called the Mission Inn; and the Oatman Hotel, where Hollywood screen stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard honeymooned after their wedding in Kingman in March, 1939. The hotel has been converted into a museum.

four miles north of Bell Road in Scottsdale. Reconstructed buildings are complete with authentic tools, wagons, and furnishings. Various craftsmen demonstrate their talents, and gunfights are staged occasionally during the evenings. Rawhide also has a museum of many Old West relics.

A look back to our rugged past-that's what these towns are about. They provide a history that can be seen and touched. The color and the romance of the Old West lives on, preserved in these small communities. Come and experience it.

Selected Reading Arizona's Best Ghost Towns, by Philip Varney. (See review page 46.) Ghost Towns of the West, by Lambert Florin, Promontory Press, New York, 1970.

Ghosts of the Adobe Walls, by Nell Murbarger, Westernlore Press, Los Angeles, 1964.

Ghost Towns and Historical Haunts in Arizona, by Thelma Heatwole, Golden West Publishers, Phoenix, 1981.

Former Arizona Highways intern Allison Hodges is an English major at Scripps College in Claremont, California, and at present is studying at the University of London's Westfield College.

Two other Arizona places which are not real towns but accurate reconstructions of late nineteenth century frontier communi-ties are: Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum and Rawhide.