After nearly eight years, Tombstone’s only gym, Cold Iron Gym, will be going up for sale, along with its surrounding property.

Sheri Hartmann, owner of Cold Iron Gym, bought the property in 1999. On July 5, 2004, Tombstone finally had a gym to call its own. The gym is used by many around town, and is known for hosting powerlifting meets over the years, about 15 in total.

On March 24, Cold Iron Gym hosted the Second Annual United States Powerlifting Federation Region 7 championship powerlifting meet, and this is where Hartmann announced she will be putting the gym up for sale along with the surrounding property. According to Hartmann, “Occasionally the building and property are sold separately, but we are putting the two up for sale together.”

The gym is undergoing minor cosmetic changes in the front and will reopen May 1, and soon after the gym will go up for sale. “It seems like the right time to sell,” responded Hartmann when asked why she is selling the gym.

“I bought the gym and my mom helped me design it,” said Hartmann. Hartmann’s mother, Danni Eldridge, is a famous powerlifter in her own right. Eldridge owns numerous great achievements under her name.

She was the first woman to ever powerlift in the California Police Olympics, and was inducted into the California powerlifting Hall of Fame on March 27, 2004, in Los Alamitos, Calif. According to Cold Iron Gym’s website, she is also the past and present holder of numerous USPF powerlifting records from state to national.

The building that is now Cold Iron Gym was the first commercial building built on Allen Street in the new millennium, so while it isn’t a historical building, it does hold a bit of history in the town and in the heart of Hartmann.

Inside the gym there are free weights, powerlifting equipment, cardio equipment and a tanning salon.

“We are also the only tanning salon in Tombstone,” said Hartmann. “The next one is in Sierra Vista.”

The next closest gym to Tombstone is Frontier Fitness, which is approximately 22 miles north of Tombstone in Benson.

One person who will miss the gym is 74-year-old Donald Judd. Judd works out downstairs in his house, where he also coaches his children, but he does partake in powerlifting meets at Cold Iron Gym, and will miss having meets there.

“I don’t like that we have to go all over the place for meets now,” Judd said. “We have to run to places like Vegas and Tucson, now, although Tucson isn’t bad.”

Judd mentioned that the increase in gas prices makes it much more difficult than in the past to travel to further locations for the meets.

While the closing of the gym doesn’t affect him all that much, he does know of numerous people in Sierra Vista and Bisbee who work out there and will be greatly affected by the closing of the gym.

“Such is life,” Judd said.