[Source: Nancy Beardsley, Voice of America] -- As a former frontier mining camp, Tombstone, Arizona has faced its share of threats and calamities over the years, earning it a reputation as "the town too tough to die." Now the southwestern community is dealing with an official warning from the U.S. National Park Service, which says Tombstone could lose its designation as a National Historic Landmark if it does not depict its past in a more accurate way.A stagecoach on the streets of Tombstone, Arizona, Tombstone is best known as the scene of the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, where Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and their friend Doc Holliday had a fatal shootout with a group of cowboys. Each year, some half a million visitors from around the world come to Tombstone to tour its historic downtown of saloons and stagecoaches, pay their respects to fallen frontiersmen at the Boothill Graveyard, and see dramatic reenactments of Old West history.
But are visitors getting a completely accurate picture of Tombstone's colorful past? The National Park Service has cited numerous violations of historical authenticity in Tombstone, including structures that have fake building materials or bear dates suggesting they are older than they really are.
James Garrison, Arizona's State Historic Preservation Officer, says this is not the first time officials have demanded that Tombstone correct violations. But he believes there is a bigger issue in the town as well. Tombstone became a historic landmark as an example of a silver mining town, and it has important physical remains built after the 1881 gunfight. "To the tourists, and I think the community leaders, and a lot of the people who gain a livelihood in Tombstone, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the pinnacle event that draws people to Tombstone, and so there's some desire to restore the town to the point of the gunfight. But at the same time they have a responsibility to preserve the tangible remains of their entire history."
[Note: To read the full article, click here. Photo source: Nancy Beardsley]
