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Investigation Report Location: Boothill Cemetery, Tombstone, AZ |
All original information and photos Copyright 2005 by Cody Polston, Bob Carter and SGHA. All Rights Reserved. |
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Location Description and History
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Location Description and History |
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For many years, it was neglected. The desert overtook parts of it and vandals removed grave markers. Then, in the 1940's concerned citizens began the process of cleaning up the Old Cemetery and researching the placement of the graves to preserve it for future generations. The cemetery is a shadow of its former self. It used to extend down the hill to the approximate location of the Circle K convenience store. On its west flank, graves were relocated when the present highway was constructed. At the bottom of the hill is the Jewish cemetery. It once had a wall enclosing it that so high that a rider on horseback could not see over it. Today the wall is only about a foot tall. Many of the residents of this historic cemetery met violent deaths and even more are unidentified. News Writer's Elegy in Boot Hill Cemetery, Tombstone Epitaph, April 4, 1928 By H. S. Hunter That rocky slope under whose mounds lie the bones of pioneer gun fighters who drew unwisely and not fast enough is to undergo a little retouching. It may be no more desirable than possible to whitewash the picturesque sins of some of the buried on Boot Hill. Haloes and white robes would rest incongruously upon those wide-hatted gentlemen of the flaring mustachios, the fierce eyes and the nervous trigger fingers. But at least the stones that cover them can be whitened. There they are--mound after mound row--the graves of old Tombstone's unknown. Roughly oblong heaps of earth and rocks, scores of them, 150, or 200, or even more of them. On a few, wild thorny shrubs have taken root. Stones litter all. Rocks are banked on the graves. Even the earth is flinty. rough, hard, grim, forbidding is Boot Hill graveyard wherein lie the men who died with their boots on. Not a headboard, not a nameplate, nothing to identify any grave on all Boot Hill. Heavens above, could anything be more horribly symbolic? Here they lie, the bones of the gunman, the stage robbers, the cattle rustlers, the gamblers, painted Jezebels of the "cribs" and the dancehalls. Yes, and among the lot may not lie a few others, people who died forlorn and friendless but were decent and self-respecting. The innocent suffer with the sinful with whom they are linked in life. In death also, at least on Boot Hill. Not a blade of grass in this Boot Hill graveyard. Not a flower nor a tree, nor anything soft, lovely and tender. Nothing but the barren ground rocks, thorny shrubs. Everything hard, flinty, drab, Hard ugly, sinister like the lives of most of those whose bones lie under these stony mounds that almost touch so close are they. There is a saddening appropriateness about it. All those lively, vigorous, brave reckless, hard-hitting, hard-living, hard hating men and women who helped put color and life in the Tombstone of the early 80s have come to this. Nameless skeletons, side by side, row on row, on a stony, desolate hill. "Live hard and dangerously" said Nietzsche, the German philosopher. These people did, and see what came of it. Here are the "self-expressionist" of early Tombstone. Here is the "live-your-own-life crowd. Here is the jazz gang of the 80s who lived by their wits, or their six-shooters or their sex appeal. Here are the men of hot heads and soft hands, who would rather shoot it out than work it out or reason it out. Here are the boys who would rather take it from the other fellow by force then earn it. Here is the saloon gang and here are the dancehall habitués. Men and women who lived gaudy lives and were snuffed out. Nameless. More Dust and bones. H.S. Hunter, El Paso Herald Reporter Fifty years ago, Frank Vaughn, who has been a resident of Tombstone at intervals since that time and is again residing here, painted a wooden marker for the plot in Boot Hill cemetery where are buried McLowery and the Clanton brothers. The marker long since crumbled under the rays of the Arizona sun and a cross has been identifying the place during recent years. Now, under the plans of the Chamber of Commerce for improvements at Boot Hill, Mr. Vaughn is to reproduce the marker in form and wording. Other changes are to include a marker of wood for the five Bisbee murderers hanged under the law by Sheriff ward and a clearing of a driveway around the outer edge of the plot outside of the Escapule fence. Tombstone Epitaph, April 6, 1933 During the week, Dewey Chadwick, who has been in charge of a crew of workmen engaged in clearing and cleaning Boot Hill graveyard, counted the graves and found there are 259 outside of the drift fence, besides seventeen excavations from which bodies have been removed. This is more than were supposed to be in the old burying ground. There may be seen here a small grave marked by a tumbled-down stone bearing the name "Sam Harris." This is the only remaining grave in what was once the Jewish section of the cemetery, originally surrounded by an adobe wall. The wall long since disappeared without right or authority and the bodies all have been removed to other resting places with this one exception. On Monday, Harry Hughes, at work here, dug up a monkey wrench of antique design. It gives every evidence of having been buried beside one of the graves for approximately fifty years. It has been added to the collection of curios in the Chamber of Commerce Offices.Tombstone Epitaph, April 18, 1933
Over the years several unusual photographs have been taken inside the cemetery by locals and tourists. Some people believe that ghosts are spirits of people that died unexpectedly, violently, and/or at the hands of others, gunfights, hangings, etc.
We arrived at sunset with the graveyard's present owner to conduct a ghost hunt of the property to include the Jewish cemetery, which she said no one has ever done. One Team circled the cemetery in a counter clockwise motion and down to the Jewish cemetery while the other Team moved clockwise. The Teams would eventually meet up at the starting point near the cemetery's entrance. Team 1 moved south around by the graves of the Clanton's before moving north and back up towards the starting point. Several fluctuating EM fields were located, the most notable being near the north end of the cemetery. They gathered EVP samples at a random area just before finishing their search. Team 2 located two several unusual temperature variations around graves at the north end of the graveyard. As investigators moved in to gather EM fields the temperature returned to normal. EM fields acquired by the team during their sweep averaged 5 mg.
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)
Photographic Analysis
Electromagnetic Field Analysis A powerline crosses over the Jewish section of the cemetery. As you approach this section, AC EMF meters will register a small reading but it will vanish once you enter the Jewish section. This is due to the nature of the field generated by the powerline itself. The line is well shielded but this could easily throw off someone with less experience with the use of AC EMF meters. The DC electromagnetic fields were mid-scale spikes that occurred in the northern section of the cemetery. No reasonable explanation was found for these fields. EVP Analysis Two of the samples obtained in the graveyard are quite clear and understandable. Sample 1 was recorded by a tombstone that stated that the person buried there was hung unjustly. Therefore the recorded answer is consistent with the question. Sample 4 is also interesting because it suggests interaction with the investigators. The question that was first asked was "What do you prefer, Winchester or Colt?" After the interviewer was informed that Colt firearms had not been introduced yet, he asked the question again with the correct brand of firearm. Sample 2 (What is your name?) is difficult to understand. The list of the known burials is listed below although there are also a large number of "unknown" graves throughout the cemetery. Known residents buried
in the cemetery
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