Tombstone Traveler

Strike Two: The Search for Hard-to-Find Graves

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:16:00 +0000

Mattie Earp (aka Celia Ann Blaylock)

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, I’m trying to put together a travel guide for those who want to visit key places related to the famous Tombstone gunfight. A large portion of this book so far is made up of the final resting places of those involved. Somewhat easy, you might think, with the information available on the interwebs and the widespread use of GPS technology. You would be correct, if the information online was correct in the first place and/or said GPS was working. Which has been the case twice in my travels.

I was in Arizona last year for my “day” job and tried to find Mattie Earp’s grave. Mattie, more formally known as Celia Ann Blaylock, was Wyatt Earp’s common-law wife during their stays in Dodge City and Tombstone. At some point in 1881, Wyatt began a relationship with Josephine Marcus, who some believe was an actress and dancer. After the crippling of Virgil Earp and the assassination of Morgan Earp, Mattie traveled to Colton, CA with the other Earp women. When it became apparent that Wyatt would never send for her, Mattie returned to Arizona, this time in Pinal City. Pinal City was apparently already in decline from its days as a silver boomtown. Mattie would take her own life in 1888 after consuming a lethal amount of laudanum (an opiate) and alcohol.

Mattie is buried in an unattended burial ground about 3 miles from present day Superior. Finding her grave proved to be difficult as directions found online were confusing. The area is deserted except for some sort of quarry and a utility substation. The few people I saw on the dirt roads looked at me and my rented Dodge Charger and shook their heads. In the end, collapsing daylight and my fears of damaging said Charger conspired against me and my pursuit. Mattie will have to wait longer for my visit.

My second swing-and-a-miss occurred about 2 weeks ago in Oregon. Virgil Earp, the real lawman among his brothers, would continue his law enforcement career despite losing use of his left arm in the assassination attempt. After stints as a town marshall, saloonkeeper, miner and rancher, he and his wife Allie settled in Goldfield, Nevada where he became a deputy sheriff. Virgil died there in 1905 after a 6-month battle with pneumonia at the age of 62. His daughter from his first marriage, Nellie Bohn, requested that Virgil be buried in River View Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.

I had planned on arriving in Portland early enough to visit the cemetery, get help from the main office if necessary, and photograph Virgil’s grave before sundown. However, as is often the case, my connection through San Francisco was delayed and I arrived shortly after River View’s office had closed. No problem, I thought, as I had GPS coordinates and my trusty iPhone in case I needed it. Of course, the GPS coordinates I got from findagrave.com were incorrect as Virgil’s grave was nowhere to be found near said coordinates. The rest of my trip was completely occupied by my day job, and I had to leave Portland sans photos.

All other attempts to gather photos and GPS coordinates for my book have thus far been successful. My only real must-haves left at this writing are Doc Holliday’s childhood home in Georgia, his grave in Colorado, the site of Curly Bill’s demise (not in Iron Springs, as previously thought), and if possible, the site of the Guadalupe Canyon massacre. Oh, and Wyatt and Josie’s grave in Colma, California…which is odd because it’s the location closest to where I live. Go figure.

Wyatt Earp Days 2010

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:14:41 +0000

Wyatt Earp Days

For better or worse, I live in California, not Arizona. But my “day job” involves a good deal of travel, so I usually visit Tombstone when my job requires me to go to Arizona. I was fortunate to be working in Tucson this last Memorial Day weekend and had time to take in the Wyatt Earp Days festival in Tombstone.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It’s my knowledge that, even today, opinions in Tombstone are still divided as to whether or not Wyatt Earp and company were on the right side of the law. There are those who believe that the Earps and Doc Holliday were honestly trying to disarm the McLaurys and Clantons with one or more of the “cow-boys” drawing first; and there are just as many who believe the McLaurys and Billy Clanton had their hands raised in the air in surrender when Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday began firing. So it was my preconception that Wyatt Earp Days would be a muted affair at best, catering only to the casual tourists (Helldorado is apparently the biggest annual festival in Tombstone, held in October).

I actually arrived in Tucson a day before the Wyatt Earp festival began and drove the 45+ minute drive to Tombstone. I was somewhat taken aback by how few tourists there were at 2pm on a Thursday before the holiday weekend. For the first time in about a dozen visits, I was able to find a table at the popular Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (which is at the site of the Grand Hotel, a favorite stop for the Cow-boy faction during Tombstone’s heyday).

Tombstone fashion show

It looked like my original preconception might prove to be true, until I returned 3 days later with the festival in full swing. Sidewalks were packed with tourists, happy participants in period garb, local authors signing and selling their wares in one of the bookstores, about 8 tents set up in the middle of Allen Street for a chili cook-off, a dunk tank manned by kids from Tombstone High School’s cheerleader and athletic squads, the Lions Club of Tombstone selling raffle tickets and T-shirts, and of course street performers re-enacting gunfights and barroom brawls.

The controversy over Wyatt Earp is not likely to abate anytime soon, but his notoriety (if not popularity) is still worthy of Tombstone’s attentions.

PS – From the “Didn’t Get the Memo” department: One gentleman came dressed as the Lone Ranger. Texas is that-a-way, pard.

Of Tribbles & Tombstone: The Star Trek-OK Corral Connection

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:53:35 +0000

My fascination with the famous gunfight in Tombstone did not begin with a book or western movie…it began with an episode of Star Trek, of all things.

In the original series episode titled “Spectre of the Gun”, the crew of the Enterprise encounters (of course) a strange alien species that doesn’t take kindly to Kirk and company trespassing in their corner of the universe. 5 members of the crew (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty & Chekov) are transformed by the offended species into the “Cow-boy” faction (Ike Clanton, Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Billy Clanton and Billy Claiborne, respectively) in 1881 Tombstone. The aliens (“Melkotians”) use Kirk’s memories to recreate the scenario and place the crew in the losing side of the fight as punishment for their transgression. Chekov, as Claiborne, is shot and believed killed by Morgan Earp hours before the gunfight, cluing Spock into the fact that events aren’t happening as history dictates (Claiborne was not killed prior to or during the famous shootout) and that they are experiencing a shared illusion in their minds. Spock uses his “Vulcan mind meld” on each remaining crew member to remove any doubts regarding the illusion (specifically, the bullets from the Earps’ guns). The Earps and Holliday start firing on the crew at the OK Corral, with no effect. Kirk approaches Wyatt and takes him down, draws his gun, thinks better of it, and tosses the gun away. The Melkotians, impressed by Kirk’s civility in not killing Wyatt, return the crew (with Chekov) to the bridge of the Enterprise and agree to diplomatic relations with Starfleet.

The funny thing is that the writers were careful enough to point out that Billy Claiborne didn’t die in the famous gunfight, but put Kirk in Ike’s role (Ike also survived the gunfight, having not been armed and hightailing it out of there). They also placed the time of the fight at 5pm…the actual fight took place at about 2:30pm.

I watched this episode in elementary school in the 70s (reruns) and was always curious about Tombstone and the shootout. It wasn’t until 2006 that I finally had the chance to visit Tombstone and indulge my interests. I haven’t stopped since.

Another interesting sidenote: the late DeForest Kelley, most famous for playing Dr. McCoy, portrayed Morgan Earp in the 1957 film Wells Spicer was born in the same town as Wyatt Earp and was either cousin to the Earp brothers or related by marriage. Juicy stuff, seeing that Spicer was the justice of the peace that presided over the preliminary trial that would determine if the three “fighting” Earps (Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan) and Doc Holliday would stand trial for first degree murder following the infamous “Shootout at the OK Corral”. Juicy stuff, if it was a true story.

Lynn R. Bailey, a prolific author who specializes in 19th century southern Arizona history, examined Spicer’s life in detail in A Tale of the “Unkilled”: The Life, Times, and Writings of Wells W. Spicer (Westernlore Press, 1999). According to Bailey, Spicer was born in Chemung, New York (not in Monmouth, Illinois, birthplace of Wyatt Earp). The Spicers eventually moved to Iowa and were there when the Earps briefly lived there, but were separated by over 120 miles (the Spicers lived in Tipton; the Earps in Pella). Spicer’s only known wife, Abbie (née Gilbert), is not known to be related to the Earps.

Additionally, in the court documents that survived time and vandalism as well as accounts from the two primary newspapers in town (the Tombstone Epitaph and the Tombstone Nugget), the prosecution team never asked Spicer to recuse himself from the case. If Wells Spicer was indeed related to the Earps, it seems unlikely that that fact would be lost among the citizens of Tombstone, much less the folks that were trying to hang the Earps and Holliday.