Just a Quick Timeline

Tombstone Arizona:

1877: Ed Schieffelin discovered a rich mine of silver and claimed it as his own, naming it Tombstone. Soliders teased him about his rock collecting, and told him "the only rock you'll be collecting out here will be your own tombstone". This is what he decided to call his claim

1879: Tombstone, Arizona Territory founded as a silver mining boomtown

1885 ish: Silver is tapped out, boomtown fails, population falls dramatically

Today: Tombstone is a popular tourist stop as it is home to a famous graveyard and gunfight sight from the old west and has around 1500 permenant residents

In Tombstone's "glory days", there were many saloons, prostitution houses, and vigilanty justice.

Today, the sight of the O.K Corrall is preserved and admitance is charged

Doc Holliday

My honors project will center on Tombstone Arizona during its famous lawless days of the Old West. For my first novel, I decided to combine my biography with my project and read about the famous John Henry "Doc" Holliday.

Before reading the book Doc Holliday by Gary L. Roberts, I didn't know that Holliday was born and raised in Georgia. He was the oldest son and only child of a prominent, well respect man and was around the age of 10 when the Civil War started. He had a very large close family and went on to become a talented dentist. For unknown for sure reasons, he moved to Texas and continued to go west. Holliday was known for being a drinker, a gambler, and a man who wouldn't back down from a fight.

I had never payed much attention to Doc Holliday's name, and I had never thought of him other than as an Old West gunslinger from the O.K. Corral. Learning about him has really put a lot of events and other things into the context of the time. The most likely reason Doc Holliday moved to Texas was an incident where he shot at a group of black people swimming in a "white" swimming hole, killing 1-3 people. The fact is that racism and the Old West were never anywhere near each other in my mind, and I have the tendency to disconnect the North from the South from the West during the times of slavery and the civil rights movement.

This book has provided great insight for me, and I know it will aid me in my want to understand the way things really were in 1880 in Tombstone Arizona. While certain qualities about Holliday are admirable, like his willingness to stand up for himself, I find myself more drawn to the hardened Western cowboy version of him instead of the well educated Southern gentleman. Learning about a man whos life changed so radically from a 22 year old dentist to his death at the age of 36 has changed my perspective on the type of people who found themselves in fronteir boomtowns, but has not disenchanted me from the subject. If anything, it has made me more excited about my project and has left me wanting to know more about the city itself