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Investigation Report Location:
Tombstone, Arizona |
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All information and photos Copyright 1998 to 2005 by Cody Polston, Bob Carter and SGHA. All Rights Reserved. |
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Location Description and History |
By the mid 1880’s Tombstone’s population had increased to around 7,500. This figure includes only white male registered voters over 21 years of age. If you take into account the women, children, Chinese and the many “ladies of the evening” the estimates are that the population was between 15,000 and 20,000 people. At its peak, it was the fastest growing city between St. Louis and San Francisco. There were over one hundred saloons, numerous restaurants, a large red-light district, an even larger Chinese population, schools, churches, newspapers, and one of the first public swimming pools in Arizona. Fires swept through Tombstone twice. Legend has it that in June of 1881 a cigar ignited a barrel of whiskey at the Arcade Saloon. The subsequent fire destroyed over 60 businesses in the downtown area. But the town rebuilt itself and kept on growing. In May of 1882 another fire ripped through downtown Tombstone destroying a large portion of the business district. Again, the town rebuilt.
As the silver mining continued the mineshafts were dug deeper and deeper to get the precious ore. Once they hit the 520 foot level, the water table was reached which flooded the mines. Attempts to pump out the water marginally worked for a few years but soon became too costly to continue. As the mining slowed down, the people of Tombstone started leaving, but not before $37,000,000 worth of ore had been taken from the many mines in the area. It is estimated that by the early 1930’s Tombstone’s population dwindled to around 150 people.
Two historical photographs from a fire in Tombstone. (Library of Congress)
Allen Street. Probably one of the most notorious streets of drinking, gambling, ruckus and violent deaths known to western history. The streets of Tombstone lay claim to being infested with ghosts. There is a man in a black frock coat that has been seen by residents and tourists alike, always trying to cross the road. many locals believe that this is the ghost of Virgil Earp because the ghost is seen near the location where he was shot and crippled. However, he never makes it to the other side. There is also a woman in a white dress that has been reported to stop traffic on one of the roads. The legend states that her child died from a fever in the 1880’s and she committed suicide shortly after. She is often seen wandering around the town, but most often on Allen street. Another version of the story claims that she was a brothel madam who was hung and continues the walk the streets in search of her accusers.
Both times we were directly in front of the Oriental saloon. However, we were not able to locate any associated EM fields when the "footsteps" were heard. Other things of interest included a number of A/C electromagnetic fields that also caused interfere on our hand held radios. Photographs Click on the thumbnails to view the larger image
While we did get one interesting photograph,
no conclusive data was collected during this ghost hunt. |
Historical narrative from the Tombstoneweb
