Tombstone True Tales and Yarns

By Richard Estep

Facts, Fiction & Tales of the Town Too Tough to Die

The desert oasis of Tombstone has reinvented itself many times over the course of the last century. From the boomtown heyday in the 1880s to its decline and reinvention as an icon of the Wild West, its reputation was built on colorful characters and even more colorful stories.

At its height, Tombstone was a town full of swinging saloons, bawdy brothels, and miners hanging their futures on extracting silver from the unforgiving landscape. Following close behind them were cold-blooded outlaws like the Cowboy gang and the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, whose exploits live on in both myth and memory.

Doc Holliday's outsized reputation was forged in part by Tombstone and the iconic gunfight in which he took part, and beneath Big Nose Kate's Saloon, the ghost of the Swamper, who secretly dug into the mine shafts to steal the silver for himself, still roams.

Even the naming of Tombstone is linked to the larger-than-life story of prospector Ed Schieffelin. A soldier once mocked him with the words "all you'll find out there is your tombstone," but in 1877, when Ed struck it lucky in the Arizona desert, a legend was born.

Join author Richard Estep as he untangles the truth from fiction in Tombstone.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1467171719
• ISBN13: 9781467171717
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: History Press
• Length: 128 Pages