Boothill Graveyard (Tombstone, Arizona)
| Boothill Graveyard | |
|---|---|
 Boothill Graveyard | |
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| Details | |
| Established | 1878 |
| Location | Tombstone, Arizona[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 31°43′12″N110°04′13″W/ 31.7200580°N 110.0702618°W |
| No.of interments | At least 250 |
| Website | official website– managed by the City of Tombstonehttps://cityoftombstoneaz.gov |
| Part of a series of the |
| Cities, towns and CDPs in Arizona with lists and images of historic properties, forts, cemeteries or historic districts |
|---|
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Boothill Graveyardis a small graveyard of at least 250 interments located inTombstone,Cochise County, Arizona.[2]Also known as the "Old City Cemetery", the graveyard was used after 1883 only to bury outlaws and a few others. It had a separate Jewish cemetery, which is nearby.[3]
"Boot Hill" refers to the number of men who died with their boots on. Among a number of pioneerBoot Hillcemeteries in theOld West,Tombstone is among the best-known, and it is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.[3]
History
[edit]Originally called Boothill Cemetery, the graveyard was founded in 1878.[4]After a new city cemetery was built elsewhere, the old cemetery stopped accepting new burials in about 1883 (save for very few exceptions) and fell into disrepair until the 1940s, when the city began to restore and preserve it.[3]
Notable interments and grave markers
[edit]
- MarshalFred White,[5]killed byCurly Bill Brociuson October 30, 1880.
- Tom McLaury,Frank McLaury,andBilly Clanton,killed in theO.K. Corral shootouton October 26, 1881.[6]
- Dan "Big Dan" Dowd, Omer W. "Red" Sample, James "Tex" Howard, William E. "Billy" Delaney, and Daniel "York" Kelly, perpetrators of theBisbee massacre,legally hanged on March 28, 1884.[7]John Heath, accused of organizing the robbery leading to the massacre, has a grave marker nearby but his body was actually returned to his hometown inTerrell, Texas.
- Jack Dunlopaka "Three Fingered Jack"[5]died of wounds on February 24, 1900, after an attempted holdup.[8]
- China Mary a.k.a. Mrs. Ah Lum.[9]According toTrue West MagazineChina Mary managed a well-stocked general store where she dealt in both American and Chinese goods. Mary was also a money lender and she used her own judgment to determine borrower's credibility. When Mary died of heart failure in 1906, the town folks had a large turnout for her service. She was buried in Tombstone's Boothill Cemetery.[10]
- John Slaughter Swain, former slave of Judge Slaughter, who became a cowboy and notable multi-decade resident of the town and one of the last burials in the graveyard.
Notable grave markers but fictitious burials
[edit]In order to attract tourists, some of the Boot Hill grave sites are falsely marked, and fictitious claims of burials have been made by the cemetery's various operators over the years.[citation needed]
- Lester Moore, with the famous epitaph "Here lies Lester Moore, Four slugs from a.44, No Les No more."[11]Lester Moore was purportedly aWells, Fargo & Co.station agent in the border town ofNacowho died in a shootout with Hank Dunstan over a mangled package.[4]There was never anyone named Lester Moore who was killed in Arizona Territory,[12]and there is no evidence to indicate where Dunstan (who also died in the purported shootout) was buried.[4]
- John Heath, accused of organizing the robbery that led to the 1883Bisbee massacre,has a grave marker near the grave of the five perpetrators of the massacre.[13]John Heath was arrested and convicted, and was later removed by a mob from the Tombstone jail and lynched on February 22, 1884.[14]However, he was not buried in Boothill Cemetery; his body was returned to his estranged wife inTerrell, Texas,and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery.
- Thomas Harper is another badman supposedly buried in Boothill Cemetery.[15]He was a friend ofCurly Bill Brociusand was hanged for murder by SheriffBob PaulinTucsonon July 8, 1881.[16]Harper was buried in Tucson, not in Tombstone.
- Federico Duran, spelled as "Fiderico Doran" on the grave marker, who was claimed to have been killed by SheriffJohn Slaughterafter the Agua Zarca train robbery in 1888. In fact, Duran and train robberJack Taylorwere executed by firing squad inGuaymas, Mexicoin December 1889.[17]Slaughter had nothing to do with their deaths and Duran was not buried in Tombstone.
Images of notable graves
[edit]The following are the images of some of the notable graves in the historic Boothill Graveyard.
Notable graves
-
The graves ofBilly Clanton,Frank McLauryandTom McLaury. -
China Mary -
Dan Dowd -
Bill Delaney -
Dan Kelley -
Tex Howard -
Omer W. "Red" Sample
References
[edit]- ^U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Boothill Graveyard
- ^Weiser, Kathy (March 2013)."Tombstone Arizona Vintage Photograph – Boot Hill".RetrievedJanuary 8,2014.
- ^abc"Tombstone's Boot Hill".LegendsofAmerica.com.RetrievedMay 25,2011.
- ^abc"Tombstone's Cemetery: Boothill".History Magazine. June 12, 2006. Archived fromthe originalon October 5, 2012.RetrievedMay 6,2011.
- ^abTombstone Chamber of Commerce
- ^Gunfight at the OK Corral,Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
- ^Bisbee Massacre Hanging,Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
- ^"The Copper era".Arizona State Library.Clifton, Graham County, Ariz:Library of Congress.March 1, 1900. p. 4.RetrievedOctober 27,2019– viaChronicling America:Historic American Newspapers.
- ^True West Magazine
- ^Shueh, Sam; Chen, Eric (December 2006)."Chinese Residents in Tombstone".Tombstone Times.RetrievedOctober 27,2019.
- ^Lester Moore,Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
- ^"The American Cowboy Chronicles: Fake Graves in Tombstone's Boothill".Archived fromthe originalon January 26, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 26,2020.
- ^John Heath,Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
- ^The Austin Weekly Statesman,February 28, 1884, Page 7, Image 7
- ^Thomas Harper,Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
- ^Wilson, R. Michael (2010).Legal Executions in the Western Territories, 1847–1911: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 18.ISBN978-0-7864-4825-8.
- ^Boessenecker, John(2012).When Law Was in the Holster: The Frontier Life of Bob Paul.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 367.ISBN978-0-8061-4285-2.
Further reading
[edit]- Britz, Kevin (2003). "'Boot Hill Burlesque': The Frontier Cemetery as Tourist Attraction in Tombstone, Arizona, and Dodge City, Kansas ".Journal of Arizona History.44(3). Arizona Historical Society: 211–242.ASINB00E428MGY.ISSN0021-9053.JSTOR41696788.
- Moulton, Heather L.; Tatterson, Susan (2020). "Boothill Cemetery – Established 1878".Graveyards of the Wild West – Arizona.America Through Time (Fonthill Media). pp. 36–49.ISBN978-1634992275.