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    Arizona Oddities: Land of Anomalies & Tamales
    Arizona Oddities: Land of Anomalies & Tamales
    Arizona Oddities: Land of Anomalies & Tamales
    Ebook203 pages4 hours

    Arizona Oddities: Land of Anomalies & Tamales

    By Marshall Trimble

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    About this ebook

    Arizona has stories as peculiar as its stunning landscapes. The Lost Dutchman's rumored cache of gold sparked a legendary feud. Kidnapping victim Larcena Pennington Page survived two weeks alone in the wilderness, and her first request upon rescue was for a chaw of tobacco. Discover how the town of Why got its name, how the government built a lake that needed mowing and how wild camels ended up in North America. Author Marshall Trimble unearths these and other amusing anomalies, outstanding obscurities and compelling curiosities in the state's history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMay 20, 2019
    ISBN9781439665602
    Arizona Oddities: Land of Anomalies & Tamales

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      Book preview

      Arizona Oddities - Marshall Trimble

      1

      TOMBSTONE BEYOND THE

      O.K. CORRAL

      A few years ago, I was standing on a street corner in Tombstone when a gentleman and his family approached me and asked if I knew anything about the town. I replied, A little. How can I help you?

      We were told the next gunfight isn’t for another forty-five minutes. Is there anything else we can do while we’re waiting?

      I told him about the wonderful tour of the old Good Enough Mine located beneath the town and the fascinating presentation of the history of Tombstone’s rich silver mines.

      He gave me a puzzled look and asked, "Did they have mining in Tombstone?"

      I thought about replying, Not really, they just had gunfights in the street every forty-five minutes.

      But I’m always patient and kind to tourists, so I gave him a short history of Ed Schieffelin and his storied discovery of silver in the hills south of town.

      His response provided the inspiration for this story. You see, nine out of ten of the early inhabitants were quiet and respectable homebodies. It was the noisy 10 percent that kept the double doors swinging all night, the glasses clinking and the poker chips changing hands.

      In 1880, Tombstone attorney Wells Spicer wrote:

      The town is not altogether lost, even if there is a population of 1,500 people with two dance houses, a dozen gambling places, over twenty saloons and more than five hundred gamblers. Still there is hope; for I know of two Bibles in town, and I have one of them (borrowed).

      Ed Schieffelin was a down-on-his-luck prospector until he struck it rich in 1877. The soldiers had told him that all he would find in the dangerous Apache country would be his own tombstone. So he named the town that sprang up around his mine Tombstone. Public domain.

      In June 1880, Philip M. Thurmond walked around the newly formed mining camp of Tombstone and asked for the vital statistics of every person he could find. Acting on a federally mandated census, Thurmond tabulated 2,170 residents from all over the globe: Germany, Ireland, England, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Spain, Japan, China and South America were represented. Tombstone had become a cosmopolitan little city.

      By mid-1881, there were several fancy restaurants, including Chinese, Italian and Mexican; upscale Continental establishments; and many home cooking hot spots, such as Nellie Cashman’s famous Russ House, where an evening meal cost fifty cents—breakfast and lunch less.

      Sherry Monahan, in her book A Taste of Tombstone, noted:

      French food was trendy in the town. There was a French restaurant where extravagant French food was served. Even the menus were in French. Also on the menu was fresh fish and shellfish, oysters and lobster brought in from Baltimore and California. A gourmet might even order oyster under glass.

      Tombstone could afford to serve the very best wines and liquors. Kelly’s Wine Bar had twenty-six brands imported from Europe. Believe it or not, the gin fizz toddy was a favorite in Tombstone.

      Imagine Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday bellying up to the bar and saying Barkeep, we’ll have a gin fizz toddy.

      Other establishments included a bowling alley, an icehouse, a school, an opera house, two banks, three newspapers and an ice cream parlor. In addition to those establishments were 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls and numerous brothels. All were located around and on top of rich deposits of silver lodes worth millions of dollars.

      There were several butcher shops in town, as beef was a big part of the miners’ diets. In an effort to thwart cattle rustlers and protect ranchers, the territory enacted a law on February 12, 1881, regulating the butcher business, holding butchers responsible for keeping records describing the animal, age, weight, brand and the name of the seller—and holding the hide for inspection for ten days from the slaughter date. A man convicted of cattle theft could spend one to ten years in the territorial pen.

      The Arizona Telephone Company began installing poles and lines for the city’s first telephone service on March 15, 1881. It didn’t happen, but it is plausible that when Wyatt Earp passed the Oriental Saloon on his way to the Gunfight near the O.K. Corral the bartender could have stepped through the swinging doors and said, Mr. Earp, telephone call for you!

      During the 1880s, Tombstone had a population of about five hundred Chinese. The best-known resident was a lady named Sing Choy, but she was better known as China Mary. The Chinese often adopted white names such as Mary or John. An astute businesswoman, she became the absolute ruler or godfather to the Chinese community. She ran a store, controlled the opium dens and gambling and secured jobs for Chinese laborers in the

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