Any picture of the crowds in Tombstone will show the median age is in line with that of a nursing home. Unfortunately, these guests will not be around to keep the town too tough to die alive forever.

“Give me the future of the American economy and I can give you the future of Tombstone,” Robert Love, owner of the O.K. Corral said last week. “I’m concerned about what’s going to happen, but what can you do?”

Love said the average age of Tombstone’s visitors is in the 50s, and he is not sure if kids will still be interested in the history Tombstone offers.

“(Tombstone’s) a fascinating part of history and I’d like it to stay that way,” he said, “but history doesn’t make money.”

Love said the big problem for Tombstone is that there is no clear vision into how to market the town to the younger set.

The town has been relying on Hollywood movies and television shows to promote tourism and even though a few films relating to Tombstone are in production, popular culture is not showing nearly as much of the Old West as it was when the current tourists were growing up.

“In the 1950s, cowboys were all over TV, but now they aren’t,” he said.

Samuel Bastian, a senior at Tombstone High School, said Tombstone could do more to attract younger crowds. “Even a bigger park could help bring in more children and families.”

Bastian moved to Tombstone with his family five years ago and admitted he did not like it at first. “But it’s grown on me,” he said, invoking a chuckle.

He said the overall area of Cochise County appealed to his generation, citing attractions in nearby Bisbee and Sierra Vista, but the best thing was being able to drive out into the middle of nowhere and enjoy the quiet isolation.

“It’s alright to be here,” he said, “but there are certainly better places.”

Local citizens have seen some hope in the city attracting Generations Y and Z. Ruben Suarez, a real estate investor turned business tycoon, has noticed the younger set coming to Tombstone for the haunting aspect.

“I was giving a tour once and a couple teenagers asked me if I’d ever seen a ghost,” Suarez said. He enticed the group by re-telling a story of how he felt as if someone was watching him while working alone a few nights in the Bella Union. “It’s a good draw for the town.”

Suarez noted that ever since television shows depicted the spirits around Tombstone, the younger crowd has seemed more excited to come in and immerse themselves into the history of the place.

Suarez also noticed that European tourists, both young and old, are attracted to the western allure of Tombstone, even some immersing themselves to the point of dressing in 1880s attire.

Young couple Steven Rainey and Zoe Connell made the trip from Northern Ireland to Arizona in order to celebrate both their own anniversary and that of the O.K. Corral gunfight.

“It’s definitely the furthest away from home—both in distance and in style—we’ve been,” Connell said. “The history has always interested us. Not to the point of wearing period dress, but enough to come take a look for ourselves,” Rainey said.

Although the two noticed an older generation surrounded them and that most of the attractions were geared to that subset, “there’s still plenty to do,” Connell said.

The couple was unsure of how to get more kids excited about the town without taking the focus off of its history.

“This place looks like it did in the 1800s and, in 500 years, if the world is still here, it’ll look exactly the same,” Rainey said. “If it was modernized, it’d be ruined.”

Local merchants see potential in tourists immersing themselves in the Tombstone culture.

“The tourists who get involved in the fantasy add to the overall feel of the town,” Suarez said. “That gets older kids excited.”

Having more people participating in dressing up can elicit a domino effect, he said. “Imagine driving down the highway and seeing everyone—or at least a majority of people—dressed in the old clothing on the wooden sidewalks. That’ll make you want to stop in and have a look around town.” Suarez said he hopes to have nights of free dinner for those guests in period costumes at the Bella Union by next year to encourage this behavior.

Still, the town may not be able to live off the 30 seconds that made it famous for another 130 years.