GREAT WEEKENDS

great weekends Friendly Locals, Saloons, and Shoot-outs Help Visitors Recall Tombstone's Old West Days

In a town known worldwide for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, some lines scratched in the dirt immediately caught our attention. It wasn't high noon. The sheriff of Tombstone wasn't about to face off against some tipsy gunslinger who had crossed the line from rowdy be-havior into lawlessness. While the clip-clop of hoofs from the horses pulling a stagecoach filled with tourists and the jan-gle of spurs from passing "cowboys" could easily be heard, it was the echoes of a rake that resonated. The rake marks in the dirt between the boardwalk near Big Nose Kate's Saloon and the main street itself made a statement about the pride that's evident among the residents, shopkeepers, and saloon operators in "The Town Too Tough to Die." Everyone, it seems, makes an effort to "clean up" Tombstone these days. Sixshooters may be reserved for gun shop displays and Wild West reenactments, but "policing" the town isn't limited to peace officers.

Tombstone's immaculate. And, surprisingly, given its history and the event on which it hangs its cowboy hat, the town has somehow avoided becoming "too turista." For every requisite shop featuring T-shirts and postcards, there's an authentic saloon, well-organized museum, or interesting shop to capture a visitor's attention. There's also an infectious spirit that inevitably turns even the most seasoned traveler into a lover of Old West lore. Any visit to Tomb-stone must start at the downtown Visitors and Information Center at the corner of Allen and Fourth streets, because you should not tour Tombstone without a map. That's where my friend Susan and I began our own transformations from admittedly somewhat cynical day-trippers into touts for Tombstone. Yes, we eventually ended up riding in a stagecoach through the town, attending a "shootout" at Six-Gun City, and tossing back beers at Big Nose Kate's as a country songbird provided entertainment. While relaxing at Kate's, I recalled that TV's Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'Brien, bellied up to the bar here with fellow actors Bruce Boxleitner, Don Meredith, and Paul Brinegar during the filming of the TV movie "Return to Tombstone" a few years ago. For the record, though, Tombstone owes its existence to mining not gunplay. Despite warnings from friends that all he would find would be his own tombstone, founding father Ed Schieffelin prospected the area in 1877 and struck silver. The rush was on. By 1881 the population had swelled to 10,000. If our stagecoach driver is to be believed, Toughnut Street alone boasted some 120 saloons and the nearby hills, some 100 miles of tunnels and shafts. These days the saloons can be found on Allen Street. The Crystal Palace stands across the intersection from the Visitors and Information Center.

More than $37 million in silver was extracted by the time the boom ended eight years after it started, but not before the Arizona Legislature established Tombstone as the county seat of Cochise County (which it remained until 1929 when Bisbee captured the crown). The Tombstone Courthouse now a state historic park built in 1882 at a cost of nearly $50,000, serves as the centerpiece for learning about Tombstone's heyday. Visitors can tour the two-sto-ry brick building that housed the sheriff's office from 1882-1929, viewing exhibits as di-verse as ore cars and mining equipment, a dress worn by Tombstone schoolteacher Mrs. Estel Maxon in 1884, and the gallows erected in a side yard. With the drive from Phoenix to Tombstone taking us less than four hours and less than a tank of gas, it was fascinating to learn that in 1878 the 60-mile stagecoach run between Tomb-stone and Tucson cost $10 and took 17 hours.

(THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM BELOW) Crystal Palace saloon. RICHARD MAACK Lou Ann Marshall at G.F. Spangenberg's Pioneer Gunshop. KERRICK JAMES Grave markers at Boothill. RICHARD MAACK The "Tombstone Cowboys" at Helldorado Amphitheatre. Tombstone Stage Lines. BOTH BY KERRICK JAMES And speaking of time, Tomb-stone isn't a town that should be toured in a hurry. It's best to mosey along, stopping to read the signage along the way whether it be the "We Speak Friendly" invitation to enter the Medicine Bow Trading Com-pany or the historical marker outside the Bird Cage Theatre that reads "Curly Bill Brocius killed Marshal Fred White here on Oct. 20, 1880."

It seemed to us that the "We Speak Friendly" proclamation applied to the entire town. Clerks routinely and warmly referred us to other shops along the way as we mined the main drag and side streets for antique good-ies and other interesting items to bring home.

The Medicine Bow Trading Company, for instance, featured imported pewter flasks and pewter cigar cases from England, ranging in price from $30 to $65, as well as band-collar period shirts. The Territorial Book Trader offered 37 different books on Tombstone and its famous 19th-century residents, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

With more than a dozen restaurants in the roughly 20-square-block downtown, Tombstone doesn't lack for places to tie on the feedbag, either, and no place has more exotic fare than the cozy O.K. Cafe. A buffalo head mounted on a wall provides a shaggy clue, too. At the O.K. Cafe, you can graze on a buffalo burger or similar sandwiches made from ostrich or emu meat.

"A lot of people come in here specifically for that," said manager Doug Crouch. "The majority, 99 percent, usually end up liking one of the three."

Thank you, but the home-made vegetable beef soup at least I think it was beef was tasty and satisfying for me.

Nonetheless, the O.K. Cafe stakes its reputation on its troika of tender Wyoming buffalo and Arizona ostrich and emu. The ostrich comes from Will-cox and the emu from Hua-chuca City.

We were in Tombstone on a day trip, but there's a fair choice of places to spend the

night, including motels and a bed and breakfast where you can get married if you want to. Advance reservations are a good idea, though.

Just up Allen Street from the O.K. Cafe is the actual O.K. Corral, which stages gunfight reenactments daily, while around the corner is G.F. Spangenberg's Pioneer Gunshop, a rustic store filled with firearms and cutlery. "We like to say we catered the gunfight at the O.K. Corral," said owner Jim Marshall, who reopened the gun shop in the mid-1990s, some 65 years after the original closed. "We try to be as authentic as possible and give visitors a taste of what a gun shop was like in Tombstone in 1880." Visitors do more browsing than buying. He estimated that only "one in a thousand buys guns.

Marshall explained that prior to the famous gunfight on October 26, 1881, Sheriff Virgil Earp had seen "cowboys" Ike and Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury in the gun shop filling their cartridge belts, and Earp had admonished them for allowing one of their horses on the boardwalk.

"That's why Virgil was checking it out," he said. "That's when he went and told Wyatt they were in town and had their guns with them." Guns were prohibited inside city limits. The rest is history, as reported by the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper, which maintains a museum-office and sells reprints of its most famous edition. Nowadays the sounds of gunfire are commonplace in Tombstone, but the bullets are blanks. Stubble-faced hombres, "lawmen" with stars upon their chests, and "loose ladies" roam the streets inviting visitors to attend the popular reenactments. Stagecoaches rumble along a one-mile circuit with driver-narrators hitting the town's high points. One of the most interesting stops is at the Rose Tree Museum, where the "world's largest rose tree," a 114-year-old white Lady Banksia, sprawls over 8,000 square feet and blooms profusely (around Easter). To visit the notorious Boothill Cemetery, though, you'll have to get off the stage and drive yourself there on the north edge of town, which just about everybody does, if only to read the sometimes whimsical grave markers. The highlight of the year is the Helldorado Days celebration, set for October 15-17 this year. Started in 1929 to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Tombstone, Helldorado Days now features a parade, carnival, street entertainment, a fashion show, and gunfight reenactments. Hotel rooms, I was told, are hard to come by in October because of the event's popularity. Which is why we showed up there in September.

Tombstone survives thanks to its colorful history and prospers because of the enthusiasm of those who live and work there. Rake marks in the dirt tell the story as much as any mock gun battle.

Next time maybe I will have the ostrich for lunch.

WHEN YOU GO

LOCATION: 181 miles southeast of Phoenix; 70 miles southeast of Tucson.

WEATHER: Average temperature in September: high, 86° F.; low, 60°.

TELEPHONE NUMBERS: All are in area code 520, except toll-free 800 series.

LODGING: There are more than a dozen motels and bed and breakfast inns in Tombstone. Priscilla's Bed & Breakfast occupies a historic Victorian house, 101 N. Third, 457-3844. Victoria's Bed & Breakfast and Wedding Chapel, 211 E. Toughnut St., 457-3677, sits in the shadow of the gallows next door to the courthouse. Also, there's the Best Western Lookout Lodge, Highway 80 West, 457-2223 or (877) OK-CORRAL.

RESTAURANTS: Family fare is the rule with more than a dozen restaurants serving up home cooking and Mexican food along with hamburgers and pizza. The O.K. Cafe, 220 E. Allen, 457-3980, is open from 7 A.M. to 2 P.M. daily. Big Nose Kate's Saloon, originally the Cosmopolitan Hotel, hosted Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate and the McLaurys and Clantons the night before the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. Located at 417 E. Allen St., 457-3107. The Crystal Palace saloon, the most famous drinking establishment in town, has been serving cold ones since 1879 at 420 E. Allen St., 457-3611. For snacks, watch for a downtown landmark, The Popcorn Wagon, on Allen Street between Fourth and Fifth streets.

ATTRACTIONS: Too numerous to mention all of them. The Bird Cage Theatre, 517 E. Allen St., 457-3421, is a historic landmark, complete with bullet holes. Old West firearms and movie memorabilia can be seen at the Cowboy Museum, 30 Fulton St., 457-3794, located just east of Boothill Cemetery. The O.K. Corral, 308 W. Allen St., 457-3456, recounts the most famous episode in Tombstone's history. For the ghosts and graves of Tombstone's notorious past, stop at Boothill Graveyard & Gift Shop, Boothill, 457-9344. Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park, 219 E. Toughnut St., 457-3311, provides a comprehensive overview of the city's history. The Medicine Bow Trading Company, 509 E. Allen St., 457-3805, stocks 1880s' period clothing and custom Western accoutrements. The Territorial Book Trader, 401 E. Allen St., 457-3170, offers historical Western books and Tombstone 1877 Prospecting Company products. Don't miss G.F. Spangenberg's Pioneer Gun Shop, 17 S. Fourth St., 457-9229, and the Rose Tree Museum & Bookstore, 116 S. Fourth St., 457-3326.

EVENTS: The Helldorado Days Celebration, October 15-17, brings the Wild West back to Tombstone for a weekend with gunfight reenactments on the hour, a parade, chili cookoff, and other activities.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Tombstone Chamber of Commerce, Allen Street, P.O. Box 280, Tombstone, AZ 85638; 457-3929 or (888) 457-3929.