Allen Street and National Historic District

In danger of losing the federal funding that accompanies National Historic Landmark status (legend in Tombstone [1] has a tendency to trample true history for tourists’ sake), the Tombstone city council in 2006 covered Allen Street with dirt to make visiting the town a more “authentic” experience.

Closed to cars and lined with wood-plank sidewalks, Western kitsch shops, and even a few genuine historical attractions, Allen Street is Tombstone to most. There are several saloons and restaurants here, and faux-gunfighters and saloon girls (some of them with somewhat anachronistic tattoos) mill about next to the working stagecoach replicas of Old Tombstone Historical Tours (520/457-3018, $10 adult, $5 child).

The National Historic District includes several streets off of Allen, including Toughnut Street to the west, Freemont Street to the north, and 6th Street to the south.

Within this historic district you’ll find the Tombstone Epitaph Museum (5th St., daily 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m., free), where you can see the original press used to print the perfectly named Epitaph newspaper, first published in 1880 and still going, and other printing-related exhibits.

The OK Corral and Historama (Allen St., 520/457-3456, www.ok-corral.com [2], daily 9 a.m.–5 p.m., $7.50 with gunfight, $5.50 without) has all the information you’ll need on the famous, albeit short, gunfight between the Earps and Clantons. You can see a rather tired and dusty historical reenactment of the fight, and watch a show narrated by Vincent Price, on the major events in Tombstone [1] history.

Among the saloons in the district, the Crystal Palace Saloon and Big Nose Kate’s Saloon are worth a look, with Kate’s being a fine place to kick back a few and look at all the pictures on the walls if you have the time. Both are on Allen Street.

One of the best sights on Allen is the Bird Cage Theatre (Allen and 6th Sts., 520/457-3421, daily 8 a.m.–6 p.m., $6 adult, $5 child 8–18), an 1881 dance hall, brothel, saloon, theater, and casino that has been spectacularly preserved. A self-guided tour takes you through the building, which looks much as it did when it closed in 1889.

On Freemont and 6th Streets, the Tombstone Western Heritage Museum (520/457-3800, Mon.–Sat. 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun. 12:30–5 p.m., $5 adult, $3 child 8–18) has may relics of Tombstone’s past, including a few personal items once owned by the Earps.