Boothill Graveyard

Tombstone exploded to life around 1879 when rich silver was struck in the surrounding hills, and thousands of miners, gamblers, merchants, and drifters poured into the raw desert town. This hillside cemetery served as the town's main burial ground through those roaring early years, roughly from 1879 into the mid-1880s, before a new cemetery took over on the other side of town.

In those few years around three hundred people were laid to rest here, and the manner of their deaths reads like a catalog of the frontier: gunfights and stabbings, mining accidents and cave-ins, disease and suicide, and conflict on a dangerous border. Only later, when the town leaned into its Wild West fame in the 1920s, was the neglected graveyard cleaned up and fenced and turned into the landmark visitors know today.

The best-known graves belong to Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury, the three cowboys shot down in the famous thirty-second gunfight near the O.K. Corral in 1881, when the Earps and Doc Holliday faced the Clanton and McLaury faction. Nearby lies Fred White, Tombstone's first town marshal, accidentally shot while trying to disarm a man in the street. Their markers turn the legend into something you can stand beside.

Then there are the epitaphs, blunt and often blackly funny, which have become as famous as the graves. The most quoted belongs to Lester Moore: Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a forty-four, no Les no more. Another simply reads that its occupant was killed cheating at cards. The cemetery also holds a Chinese section and a small Jewish burial ground, reminders that Tombstone's boom drew people from across the world, not just gunfighters.

Boothill sits right on the highway at the north edge of Tombstone, an easy stop as you come into or leave town. Give yourself time to walk the rows slowly and read the markers, because that is where the real history lives, one plain sentence at a time. Many of the wooden signs are reconstructions of ones long since lost to weather, but the people beneath them and the stories they carry are genuine.

Come prepared for the desert: this is an exposed, sunny hillside with little shade, so wear a hat, use sunscreen, and carry water, especially in the hot months. Above all, treat it as what it is, a real cemetery, and stay on the marked paths. Paired with the rest of historic Tombstone, from the old main street to the mine and courthouse, Boothill anchors one of the most vivid Old West days you can spend anywhere in the country.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

Boothill Graveyard is the historic frontier cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, where many of the town's early residents, including outlaws, gunfighters, and victims of its violent silver-boom days, were laid to rest. Its name, common to Old West cemeteries, refers to those who died with their boots on, meaning violently or suddenly. Famous as the burial place of men killed in the O.K. Corral gunfight and other frontier dramas, the rugged graveyard with its weathered markers and often wryly worded epitaphs offers an evocative and sometimes humorous glimpse into Tombstone's wild past.

Boothill holds the graves of many figures from Tombstone's rough early years, most famously the cowboys killed in the 1881 O.K. Corral gunfight, along with miners, victims of shootings, hangings, and accidents, and other townsfolk of the silver-boom era. The markers, many reconstructed, identify the dead and sometimes their manner of death, occasionally with the darkly humorous epitaphs the cemetery is known for. Walking among the graves offers a tangible, poignant, and colorful connection to the real people and dangers of frontier Tombstone.

You can walk the paths among the rocky desert graves, reading the markers and epitaphs that tell of the sometimes violent, sometimes sad, and occasionally amusing fates of Tombstone's early residents, with a guide or brochure identifying notable burials like the O.K. Corral cowboys. The setting is stark and atmospheric, with desert and mountain views. A small entrance is typically through a gift shop. It is a short but memorable and reflective stop that adds authentic historical depth to a Tombstone visit.

As an outdoor site in the open desert, the cooler months from fall through spring are most comfortable, while summer is hot, so morning visits and sun protection are advisable then. Mornings offer softer light and cooler air for walking among the graves. A visit is short, easily combined with Tombstone's other attractions. Checking current hours before you go is wise. Whenever you visit, the graveyard's atmospheric setting and historic markers make for an evocative and quick stop in the Wild West town.

Boothill Graveyard sits at the edge of Tombstone, near the town's historic Allen Street, the O.K. Corral, the Bird Cage Theatre, and the Tombstone Courthouse, in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona. The copper town of Bisbee, Ramsey Canyon, Chiricahua National Monument, and the region's wineries lie within reach, with Tucson to the northwest. That makes Boothill Graveyard an easy and atmospheric stop to combine with Tombstone's other Wild West sights and the broader history and scenery of southern Arizona.