In terms of holiday spending, it has not yet started to look like Christmas in Tombstone.
“People don’t generally do their Christmas shopping in Tombstone,” said Robert Carreira, director of the Cochise College Center for Economic Research. “The town never really sees a spike around the holidays.”
Merchants around town have seen this same trend and have accepted it as just something that goes along with living and doing business in Tombstone.
“People tend to go to malls for shopping,” Susan Cattany, owner of Casa Paloma, said. “But if they want unique gifts, they’ll come to Tombstone.”
Even though it is hunting season, there is no rush for Tombstone residents to pack up the shotgun to go shooting.
Despite some Tombstone residents enjoying the sport of hunting, many of these residents no longer participate in the sport due to the town’s elevation and legal limitations.
“There’s no wild turkey to hunt, the elevation’s not right,” said Byron Neubauer, owner of Cochise Trading Post Guns and Ammo. Neubauer said he used to hunt when he lived in Colorado, but doesn’t anymore.
Michael Shumacher made his way to Tombstone during his week’s vacation from Scenery Hill, Pa. Wearing a long black beard, biker boots, blue jeans and a black T-shirt, Shumacher meticulously went through racks at the new Harley Davidson Store next to the Silver Nugget on East Allen Street.
As he paid the cashier for five shirts, he explained how he and his riding buddies collect Harley shirts from all over the country.
“When they go places they buy me a T-shirt,” he said. “I’m returning the favor. It’s a long time coming.”
Since it opened Sept. 1, Tombstone Harley Davidson’s owner Steve Goldstein said its biggest draw has been its T-shirts saying, “Tombstone Harley Davidson.”
In Tombstone, gunfights usually evoke scenes of corrals, men falling from rooftops and a lonesome dusty road with gunslingers standing under the beating sun.
But that’s not what Jim Ferguson and Terry Najarian had in mind when they created the new Wyatt Earp Theatre, the only indoor gunfight show in Tombstone and the first of its kind since the Bird Cage Theatre 130 years ago.
When you walk inside the small venue a series of rudimentary wooden benches line the rear of the establishment. A poker table and antiquated bar, only feet away from where the audience sits, are the only stage-sets in the minimalistic but historically accurate scene.
The new $1.8 million sports facilities will finally be under way at Tombstone High School after construction loans were approved last month. According to Principal Robert Devere, the developer has started some legwork, but most of the construction will begin this October.
“They will work on all the athletic facilities at once and should be finished by the end of the school year,” Devere said.
Stacy Foster has created The Ultimate Tombstone Souvenir, with the help from Bonnie Solonley and Bruce Bliss, a new business located on Allen Street that is now up and running.
"I was the manager of Six Gun City, where we did the gun fighting stuff. It burned down in December so we wanted to come up with an idea for something to do, and I just came up with this," said Foster. "I thought it'd be simple and put a couple of us back to work."
Solonley, a gunfight actress, said that they were all so devastated when Six Gun City burned that they wanted to come together and create something new.
"We were all victims of the fire, so we devised this and just wanted to try something different in town," said Solonley. "We're doing great, and the people are happy with it."
The competition during this past weekend seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.
With 118 contestants from as far east as Kentucky, the Four Corners Fast Draw Association Territorial Championship in Tombstone heralded some of the quickest fast draw competitors in the world.
"The competition worked out just fine this weekend despite the weather," said O.K. Corral owner Bob Love.
Shooters competed throughout Friday and Saturday in the preliminary rounds, striving to qualify for the final round held on Sunday.
Stacy Foster has created The Ultimate Tombstone Souvenir, with the help from Bonnie Solonley and Bruce Bliss, a new business located on Allen Street that is now up and running.
"The horses are ready and we are open for business," said J.B. Brummett, owner and tour guide of Horseback Tours.
