Luckily, our local tour guide, personal friend…. Zeke, knows this whole area like the back-of-his-hand!
Zeke and Trapper (yea, nobody in their circles go by their given name – seems as all of them have nicknames – maybe I need a nickname?) were upfront in the truck chatting away and Zeke was pointing out landmarks and mountains to us. Interesting, very interesting.
Now if you remember my excitement and surprise when we arrived in Luckenbach, TX (Luckenbach story here), I’ll have to say the excitement level was the same in Tombstone and I had researched this place, unlike Luckenbach and it was exactly like I expected – with one surprise!
We arrived and Zeke gave us Tips and Pointers. A lot of Tombstone is straight-up tourist attractions but we were there to just wander around and walk on land that many had walked on before us.
The Smithsonian version of Tombstone and some of it still stands/remains. You might recognize some of the places from these photo’s below of our day at Tombstone.
The part I found most interesting was The Shaft! The Shaft is located UNDER Big Nose Kate bar & grill. You enter through the restaurant (which is SUPER busy) and if you don’t know where you’re going hire our guide – wait – no – he’s not for hire. 😉 Anyway, you can walk in and follow that large sign or just ask.
The story is fascinating! This guy was the janitor and he lived in the cellar, I’ll call it. Do you see The Shaft sign in the photo? And do you see the gold railing about midway of photo? That’s where you go down into the cellar – there’s a gift shop down there – hang a hard left and you’ll see the “Shaft” Amazing!
The Shaft was amazing to look at. These were his bunk quarters. I guess he was nocturnal, like me, and needed a hobby????
We both wondered what he did with all the dirt/stone whatever. He was trying to tap into the silver vein in this area and I never learned if he did or not. I think so, because some ghost hunters say you can see a ghost in here at night watching over their stash. Unknowns are all over the desert!
Thank you Zeke for pointing out so many places for us to visit while you were relaxing with your friends at Tombstone. We had a great time here.
The ride home took us a whole different way because our tour guide doesn’t like seeing the same thing twice; which made perfect sense out here! We had a great trip home, down towards Nogales and then back north to Tucscon! The scenery out here makes me wish I still had my motorcycle! I’d be riding these roads a lot!
Tomorrow – back to real life for all of us!