Tombstone : A Town too Tough to Die

Guns blaze and bodies hit the dust in staged gunfights and barroom brawls. We're here in Tombstone Arizona.  And so are all of the bad boys that live by the gun.  Let's see there was Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, the McLaury's and the Clantons.  In fact the Clanton had a family reunion here just last week. They came from all over the states, to  relive the actions of their gun slinging relatives.  In tombstone there's a legend where the final arbiter of every dispute was the six-gun.   Wyatt Earp who was something of a  tough character himself paid tribute to Doc Holliday by saying "He was the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, fastest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever saw," 

 

 And as today's bad boys have women followers or groupies as they are called now, so did the bad boys of yesteryear. They had the gaudy dancehall girls and the happy hookers or street walkers or known to many truckers today as parking lot lizards. Get the point.

 

When we were there two days ago, we ran into that rowdy Calamity Jane, Big Nose Kate and Annie Oakley, with the reputation for daring horsemanship and skill as a rifle shot.  Calamity Jane was in her usual drunken condition, cussing, spitting, smoking, a women who dresses as a man, is a great marksman and horseman.  Calamity was as tough as any man with a few extra attributes. She also was thrown out of many a town for shooting up the saloon.

 

Big Nose Kate was a dance hall girl and prostitute, was attractive, but it is said she had a prominent nose.  She and Doc Holliday had an on again, off again relationship. She is said to have been tough, stubborn and a temper that matched Doc's.  She helped Doc escape from jail one time and he was forever grateful to her.  They traveled  together for years making money, his with his gambling and her using her womanly charms.

 

No visit to Tombstone would not be complete with a visit to Big Nose Kate's Saloon.  The sign on the wall said of Kate, " The gal that loved Doc Holliday - and everyone else too."  We had lunch there, took a few pictures and left before the next gun fight!