The Wild West - Arizona, 1937

Welcome to Tombstone

Travellers pass by the Boothill Graveyard, where over two hundred outlaws lay interred - victims or perpetrators of suicides, shootings, hangings. “Boothill” gets its name from the number of men who died in violent circumstances wearing their boots, adding to its considerable reputation of being one of the most dangerous places in the wild west. Amongst the dead are characters bearing names such as Jesse ‘Three Fingered Jack’ (a train robber left to die by his friends in a shootout) Dunlap, Geo. Johnson (hanged by mistake over a horse) and Lester Moore, (died in a shootout over a package) whose memorable marker reads, ‘Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a .44, no Les no more’.

The town of Tombstone was also home to Deputy Sheriff Wyatt Earp and John Henry ‘Doc’ Holliday, lawmen of the wild west and notorious gunslingers, immortalised in American culture in countless television and movies after their half a minute gunfight outside a photographers studio near the the O.K. Corral. Today, the town of Tombstone has numerous attractions based on its turbulent history, and if you were wondering if you can carry a replica gun, the official website states, 'Arizona is an open carry state and it is legal to carry firearms in Tombstone, replica or not.'

A catalog of all the deaths at Boothill can be found [here].

Color Reconstruction Jordan Lloyd
Words Jordan Lloyd

Original Photograph by Dorothea Lange
Format 1 negative : nitrate ; 4 x 5 inches or smaller
Date May 1937
Location Cochise County, Arizona, USA
Source Library of Congress / Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection