Are there really any bodies buried in Tombstone’s Boothill Cemetery? Isn’t Boothill just a tourist trap with fake headstones? Weren’t all the bodies disinterred and moved to a new cemetery?
We’ve been asked these questions, or ones very similar, many times over the years. So often, in fact, that we were beginning to doubt that Boothill Graveyard is an authentic cemetery for the dearly departed in the Old West’s most famous mining boomtown. So we decided to dig a little deeper, so to speak. Here’s what we found.
Boothill is authentic. It was Tombstone’s first City Cemetery, established in 1879. It wasn’t called Boothill until the 1920s, probably as a result of Hollywood westerns or dime novels.
After the new City Cemetery was established in 1884 at the end of Allen Street, what became known as Boothill was referred to as the Old Cemetery. Most Tombstoners wanted their loved ones buried in the New Cemetery, so there were few burials at Boothill after 1884.
In fact, after the New Cemetery was established, many locals had the bodies of their loved ones disinterred and moved to the New Cemetery. Presumably, they didn’t feel comfortable with their deceased family members spending eternity next to thieves, murderers, rustlers, prostitutes, and Chinamen.
But Boothill is also a re-created cemetery. By the 1920s, Tombstone’s boom years were long gone. Most residents had moved away and there was almost no one left to tend to the graves.
Boothill became a garbage dump. Most of the early headstones were wooden crosses that had disintegrated due to the harsh elements, or had been stolen as souvenirs, or trampled by free-range cattle.
When John Clum, former editor of the Tombstone Epitaph as well as former Tombstone mayor, returned briefly to Tombstone in 1929, he went to the Old Cemetery to pay his respects to his wife, Mary. Some said he became distraught when he could not find her grave.
Soon thereafter, a few of the town’s remaining citizens decided that the Old Cemetery should be cleaned up and put back together. They enlisted the Boy Scouts to clear the brush and debris. Old-timers tried to recall where various individuals’ graves were located. No doubt memories failed as often than not.
Yet, there are many famous people buried in Boothill Graveyard for which there is reasonable certainty as to the location of their grave. For example, China Mary was buried at Boothill in 1906. She was the undisputed ruler of Hoptown, the Chinese neighborhood in Tombstone. Her tombstone is the actual site of her grave. Dutch Annie, “Queen of the Red Light District, is buried where her marker rests. She was a popular madam and gave generously to many worthy causes and men down on their luck.
Billy Clanton, Tom & Frank McLaury are buried where their headstones indicate. John Heath was the mastermind of the robbery that resulted in the Bisbee Massacre. He was lynched by a mob in 1884. His 5 accomplices were legally hanged that same year. All of their grave sites are reasonably certain.
Their final resting place, and many others, are known because their funerals were major events attended by hundreds, sometimes thousands of mourners & gawkers.
Yet the precise gravesites of many will never be known because either; (a) no one knew them at the time they were buried, or (b) friends & family moved away and their tombstones were lost to time and neglect. That’s why you see so many “Unknown” grave markers at Boothill.
The tombstones in Boothill Graveyard are relatively new, replacing ones that withered away or were stolen. Visitors to Boothill can purchase a booklet with the names & locations of about 250 graves out of the 300+ graves that are actually there.
More stories about Boothill Graveyard here.
Learn more about the sights of Tombstone on our “Things to Do in Tombstone” page.
