Like many places in the Old West with a history full of violence, the city of Toomstone is one of America's most famous ghost towns. In addition, it is reputed to be the most damned place in Arizona. The streets of Toomstone are visited by ghosts who replay the circumstances of their tragic death over and over again.
All America is known for the cattle farm “O. K. Corral "near Toomstone, where on October 26, 1881, the brothers Earp and" Doc "Holliday settled accounts with the Ike Clanton gang in the famous shootout. Then, as a result of a thirty-second shootout, three bandits remained on the ground. This fleeting proactive fire has become a must for cowboy films, and Toomstone, with its classic Wild West interiors, is a permanent set. Many Western stars have starred here, from Bert Lancaster and Ronald Reagan to Clint Eastwood and Kurt Russell.
Time has made everyone equal. Both the Earp brothers and the bandits they killed rest in the local Booth Hill cemetery. On the neighboring graves there are very remarkable epitaphs: "Margaret Gold Dollar", "Lester Moore is buried here with four 44-caliber bullets", "Joe Lucky Hanged by mistake. Forgive us, Joe "…
The graveyards of the Wild West are very instructive places. You can read the era from them. After all, the pioneers rarely lived here until old age. One in five miners died of silicosis, tuberculosis, or an accident. Epidemics raged. Many died violent deaths as a result of saloon squabbles, from bullets by bandits or on the ropes of lynch ships, and whites were hanged with the same zeal as blacks.
It should be noted that Boot Hill is a slang name for churchyards in the Far West. In the 19th century, this was the common name for the cemeteries for gunfighters and for those "who died in boots," that is, a violent death. In addition, such burials included those who died in a strange city without funds for a decent burial. There are more than two dozen such cemeteries in the United States.
It is also home to the spirit of the long-deceased Marshal Fred White, who was accidentally shot in 1880 by the cowboy Curly Billy Brosius. White is the first Marshal Toomstone to get some kind of order from the Clanton gang. He often arrested bandits from other groups as well. In the early morning of October 28, Curly Bill and several of his comrades were amused by shooting in the city. When White arrived to disarm the thugs, an accidental bullet hit him in the groin. The marshal died two days later. It is said that he can be seen at the site where he was injured. There used to be a wasteland, and then the Bird Cage saloon appeared. There is a legend that one jealous woman killed her rival here and cut out the unfortunate heart with a sharp heel of a shoe. Twenty-six deaths have been recorded in the building, so it's no surprise thatthat more than thirty different ghosts were counted in it. The former saloon has now become the Bird Cage Theater, and its caretakers have repeatedly reported seeing patrons killed long ago, and many claim to have heard music and laughter inside the building.
Many times on the streets of Toomstone, a cowboy has been seen in a long black cloak: he usually stands leaning against the wall of the post office. Many believe that this is the ghost of Virgil Earp, who was ambushed here and was wounded in the arm, leaving him permanently disabled. And several times at the top of Ajax Hill, we saw a guy with a half head smoking a cigar.
However, criminal lawlessness was not the only reason for the deaths of residents in Toomstone. The city survived two terrible fires: the first in June 1881, the second in May 1882. During these fires, significant areas of the city's business district were destroyed. More than forty people died in overcrowded saloons and brothels that burned to the ground. These people who died in smoke and fire, who apparently still have not found peace, also remind of themselves from time to time, appearing on the streets of the city with terrible burns on their bodies. Moreover, some eyewitnesses reported that when these ghosts appeared, they felt the smell of smoke and burning. Apparently, the events of the past were somehow captured by the city, and from time to time it replays these scenes.
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Toomstone was often seen as the ghost of a woman dressed in a long white dress. According to one legend, this is the mother of a child who died from a fever epidemic in the 1880s. With grief, she committed suicide. Another legend says that this is one of the cheerful maidens who was hanged by the bandits in a brothel, and her spirit is still looking for its killers to take revenge. And in Landin Park, before dawn, you can sometimes see how the ghost of a woman with a knife sticking out of her head buries someone's body under a large stone.
In the vicinity of Booth Hill, the spirit of a lady was often seen walking, with a sword sticking out of her leg. She is said to enjoy scaring tourists who come to gawk at the ghosts of Toomstone.
Booth Hill became even more popular after one remarkable photo. A certain Terry Clanton - the namesake of the legendary local gang leader, or maybe even his descendant - photographed his friend against the backdrop of this cemetery. Clanton turned in the film for development, but was very surprised when he received the pictures. Behind the figure of a friend, who portrayed a stern cowboy with a revolver, we can clearly distinguish a man in a dark hat. Judging by the height, the person either has no legs, or he is kneeling, or … is rising from the grave. Moreover, the photographer is absolutely sure that, apart from the two of them, there was no one at the cemetery during the shooting.
From the book: "The Cursed Places of the Planet." Yuri Podolsky