Round Robin Challenge: I've Always Wanted To Photograph...Again!

Our latest Round Robin Challenge: I've Always Wanted To Photograph... was first suggested by Steven, former cohost of this meme and ace photographer of the late, lamented(sometimes)photoblog). I don;t think I had anything in particular in mind for myself when I assigned this topic two weeks ago, except, perhaps, to try again for an adequate photo of the moon.

But tonight I was out and about with my Dad, who is in town for the weekend for the first time since 2005. On a whim, I took him for a stroll in Trail Dust Town, a touristy fake western town on Tanque Verde Road that dates back to the 1950s. When I got my first Canon digital camera in March 2005, the first place I took it was to Trail Dust Town in the late afternoon. I hadn't yet charges the camera battery properly, though, and it soon stopped working. I've always wanted to photograph the place again, with a newer camera and working batteries.

The back entrance to Trail Dust Town. From My Tucson

Trail Dust Town is a fascinating mixture of the ostentatiously fake and silly...

...and real artifacts of a bygone era. Probably some of what looks genuinely old dates back only to when a movie was filmed here in the early 1950s (I'm assuming this really happened), but even that is impressive in a Roadside America, kitschy sort of way.

I love old tourist attractions that aren't up to modern standards of flash and realism, and don't really try to be. For example, nobody would accuse the man in the ticket office of the small gauge train depot of being "realistic!" The place is also plastered with reproductions of old posters, photos, advertisements and newspaper clippings.

The architecture is mostly typical fake Old West, but there are a few genuinely nice old buildings in a more upscale style.

And the place features a healthy dose of humor, some of it rather subtle.

Now let's go see what other Robins have always wanted to photograph!

Linking List
as of 1/15/11 at 3:30 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Fhaye
Photodito
http://photodito.com

Jama
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Kat
In My Dreams I Can Fly...
http://inmydreamssfk.blogspot.com/

Linda
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Maryt
Work of the Poet
http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

Sarah **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted!
Sandpit Diaries
http://sandpitdiaries.blogspot.com/

Ruth
The ScrabbleQueen Knits, Too
http://scrabblequeen.wordpress.com

A quick note - my dad is in town for the first time in five years, and on top of that I'm working at both churches later this morning. My updating is likely to be spotty, and I may not make the rounds until Monday. Please help me out by leaving a comment here once you've posted. Thanks!

KarenKaren

Two from Tombstone

Janet of fondofsnape.com expressed an interest in Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, whose statues guard the back patio of the old railroad depot here in Tucson. I actually have some more material on them, some from a 2004 journal entry, the rest not previously online. So let's run with that, shall we?


Here's the best picture I got on Saturday of Wyatt and Doc. Wyatt Earp is presumably the one with the big mustache, as you can see from the portrait below.


This marker was also at the depot. I didn't actually read it, so now I must Google to find out what the story is. As you might expect, it all ties in with the feud between the Earp brothers and the Clanton gang, which seems to have been more a faction than an actual criminal gang. Certainly there was plenty of murder carried out by both the Clantons and the Earps, and the Earps didn't always have the law on their side. Based on an excellent article I just found about little brother Warren Earp, here's the gist of what happened:

The three who fell at or near OK Corral. Photo by KFB.

• July 1881: deputy U.S. Marshall Virgil Earp takes a posse to "investigate" cattle rustling by Old Man Clanton. Gunplay ensures. It is thought that the senior Clanton was killed (among others) and Warren Earp injured.
• October 26, 1881: the Earps and their friend Doc Holliday have it out with the Clantons and McLaurys in the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton are killed.
  
• December 28, 1881: Ike Clanton, Frank Stillwell and others try to shoot Virgil Earp as he crosses Allen Street. Virgil Earp is injured. The shooters are eventually acquitted, and Wyatt Earp becomes U.S. deputy marshal.
  
• March 18, 1882: Morgan Earp is shot in the back while shooting pool in Tombstone. Stillwell as suspected of being one of the group that killed him.
• March 20, 1882: the surviving Earps, Doc Holliday and others leave Tombstone, ostensibly to join family in California. The train stops in Tucson, where the Earps hear that members of the Clanton faction (notably Ike Clanton and Frank Stillwell) are waiting to shoot them down. Wyatt reportedly spies both men at the Tucson depot. He, Doc and the rest get off the train. The next morning, Stillwell's "bullet-filled body" is found near the tracks. A warrant goes out for the Earps' arrest, and there are Clantons in the posse. The Earps return briefly to Tombstone for supplies and then ride out, killing three more of the Clanton faction in what becomes known as the Earp Vendetta Ride.
• April 15, 1882: about this date, the Earps reteat to Colorado.
  
• And so on: Wyatt and Doc are suspected of returning to Arizona that summer, long enough to kill Johnny Ringo. Others of the Earp faction kill Billy Claiborne and Frank Leslie before the whole sorry mess is over. Holliday dies of T.B. in Colorado. Warren Earp ends up in Willcox, Arizona, where he sporadically picks fights with people until he eventually gets himself killed. One of his surviving brothers, probably Virgil, is thought to have avenged his death. Wyatt drifts around the country, gambling and prospecting, and lives until 1929.
  

What a waste of human life. Seriously.


Of course, most of this takes place in and around Tombstone which Google Maps places exactly 66 miles from my house, or 1 hour 18 minutes. It's not exactly close by. I've been there a few times, but probably not since 1990. It's a memorable place, though. Some of the attractions are laughably dated and low-tech, but all the more endearing because of it. And it's real history, in a real place that hasn't changed all that much in the last fifty years or so. If you get a chance to go there, I recommend it.

My dad hangs out with the famous gunslingers, March 2005.

Karen

More Adventures in the Old West

In case you think that all I did while visiting Arizona Territory in 1888 was ogle a train and watch a hanging, I've got some more pictures for you.


A good time traveler dresses appropriately for the local norms. But I could not have brought myself to wear this! I dressed ranchhand style, as seen below.


That's me in the cowboy hat, dressed fairly appropriately for one of the most famous boom towns of the era. This is Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, not the one in Tucson where they took the man I saw strung up. (Boot Hill, a play on the idea of "dying with his boots on," was a fairly common name for cemeteries in the Old West.) The "residents" here include Billy Claybourne, Billy Clanton, Frank & Tom McLaury, someone called Stinging Lizard, and...


...good old Lester Moore. Moore was a Wells Fargo agent in the border town of Naco, Arizona. He was shot to death for delivering a package that was damaged in transit. Ah, those were the days, huh?


Educational opportunities in those days weren't what they are now. Here's one of the first public schools in Arizona. I'd be wary of a classroom where the concept of a right angle is not fully understood.


I'm pretty sure these guys were getting ready to rob a bank. Would they have found something better to do had they had a better education? Hard to say.


These buildings were in a place that was already a ghost town by 1888. Perhaps the fact that the gun shop was next door to the funeral parlor provides a hint as to why the town didn't last.


If you do go visiting the 19th century, try not to get sick or injured - and if you do, don't rely on the local medical facilities. The doctors, surgeons and apothecaries aren't going to have what you need.

Yeah. Arizona Territory. It's an interesting place to visit. But I wouldn't want to live there!

Karen

Eyewitness to History: Arizona Territory

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Share some of your favorite black and white photos. Older pictures are good, but what you also might think about is seeing how some of your favorite color pictures look in black and white -- most computer photo editors will let you make a photo black and white (or sepia-toned -- that's monochromatic, too). This is an opportunity to look at some of your best photos in a new way.

Time to hop in the TARDIS (or the Wayback Machine) for a trip to Old Tucson! As you can see from the quality of the photos, I stuck to the technology of the time rather than bring a digital camera to the past with me.

The railroad engineer, Old Man Funk, shows off his locomotive.
Unfortunately, a desperado set fire to it some years ago.

Another view of the burned-out locomotive.

The train station.

I arrived in Old Tucson just in time for some frontier justice.

From his haircut, I suspect that the man in front of me was another time traveler.

This man was arrested, tried, and hanged in the course of about ten minutes.
He never even saw the inside of a courtroom.

A judge sealed the man's fate from a second floor balcony.

After the hanging, the unfortunate criminal was carted off toward Boot Hill. The child in the photo is another suspected time traveler. I assume he did not visit the past by himself, but he appears to have wandered off. This could have had severe consequences to the timeline, but everything seems to be okay.

The U.S. Marshall, who wasn't a party to the hanging, was philosophical about it.
"These things happen all the time around here," he said.

More time travel photos to come!

Karen

(All photos by KFB, 3/20/05)