"People think all that happened in Tombstone was a gun fight. It lasted 24 seconds, but the rosebush is 126 years old," said Dorothy Devere, owner of the Rose Tree Museum.

This weekend's Rose Festival will honor the underrated, "softer side of Tombstone," she said, bringing the community together to remember and celebrate the history that brought the tree and museum to the town.

Named "The World's Largest Rose Tree" in the Guinness Book of Records, the canopy of the Lady Banksia Rose tree is more than 8,000 square feet and growing.

Dorothy Devere and her husband Burt are responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the tree and museum, ensuring it still runs.

Aside from the tree's beauty and size, the importance of keeping it alive and well has been a priority for several years. It honors original pioneers of the town and their efforts to preserve the tree.

Burt Devere is the grandson of Ethel and Herbert Macia, the couple who began a memorable legacy as Tombstone natives in the 1880s and to whom the museum
is dedicated to.

­Ethel's parents, S.C. and Alice Robertson, moved from Colorado to Tombstone in 1880, hoping for a bright future with the promise of silver mines.

With two wagons full of household supplies and furniture, the Robertsons began their life in Tombstone. These items are now featured as a large part of the museum.

The Robertsons' daughter Ethel was born a year later, followed by four more children.

Ethel grew up quickly when her mother died in 1895, and her father died four years later, leaving Ethel to raise her brothers and sisters.

In 1904, she married James Herbert Macia.

She was one of the first students at the University of Arizona, one of the first women to be employed at the Cochise County Court House and became a devoted historian to Arizona. Serving in church, on school boards and working for the Arizona Pioneer's Historical Society, Ethel gave much of her time to Tombstone and Arizona.

"She was a unique woman....She always was there to help people. [She was a] very helpful, strong-willed woman," Dorothy Devere said of Ethel.

Before the Macia couple owned the home and property, Jim Vizina of the Vizina Mining Co. owned the whole quarter block surrounding the museum and home.

She said that he built it in 1879 or early 1880s and kept adding to it. Eventually a woman, Amelia Adamson, bought it from him and ran it as a boarding house, which led to the initial planting of the famous rose tree.

Mary and Henry Gee, a newly married couple, came to Tombstone setting out to build a home nearby. The process took about seven to eight months, Dorothy said. While waiting, the couple stayed in the boarding house, and Mary, a young Scottish woman, developed a friendship with Amelia Adamson.

Mary's parents sent a trunk of cuttings to her, and she gave one of them to Amelia. The women planted the rooted shoot on the patio in the spring of 1885.

"In 1880 that backyard was a lot different than it is today. We've taken out fruit trees, a lot of things that we used to have in the yard to make room for the tree," Dorothy said of the tree's growth.

Mr. and Mrs. Macia eventually purchased the property, and the boarding house's name was changed to Arcade Hotel, said Dorothy.

When Ripley of Ripley's Believe it or Not fell in love with the rose bush, he was the first to call it the World's Largest Rose Tree, and the Macias realized the significance of their tree.

"They said, 'Maybe we should change the name of this to the Rose Tree Inn," Dorothy said.

Ethel and her husband Herbert Macia had three kids, and the youngest girl Jeanne married Burton Devere in 1944. Jeanne and Burton bought the property in 1951 after Mr. Macia's death and settled into the home with their five children.

In 1964, Burt and Jeanne were left with an empty nest, as all of their children had gone off to college, but still owned quite a bit of memorabilia. The Rose Tree Museum was born around this time.

Their son, Burt Devere and his wife Dorothy took over the museum in 1992, after Burt retired.

"It's owned by a family corporation. We do have a lot of nieces and nephews. Hopefully somebody in the family will continue on," Dorothy said of the tree and museum's future.

Both the museum and the Rose Festival aim to remember the pioneers of Tombstone. A newer portion of the festival will include a round-table discussion with pioneer family descendants and their tales of growing up in Tombstone.

"This is a real nice community celebration. It's one that doesn't
center so much around gunfights," said Joy Robeson, treasurer of the Tombstone Restoration Commission Marcia Spitler, museum employee of eight years, estimated that about 300 to 400 people have come through the museum's doors for the Rose Festival weekend in the past.

"Once they come in, I often hear people will say, 'I don't wanna see that. I have a rose bush in my backyard.' But then the wife will convince them, and they're just really surprised. The people are very neat, and they really are impressed....I just had a woman poke her head out and say how relaxing it was, it was just what she needed today," Spitler said.

Penny Germain, Rose Parade chairwoman planned the event approximately six months in advance. She said she tried to use email, online calendars and Facebook more this year to advertise.

"The tree is really interesting, because there are people, I've seen them come and sit here. They come all the way from Europe just to sit under that tree and just marvel at it," Germain said.