Established 1878 Country United States Date formed 1878 | No. of interments At least 250 | |
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Address 145 Charles Rd, Tombstone, AZ 85638, USA Hours Open today ยท Open 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hours | ||
Boothill Graveyard is a small graveyard of at least 250 interments located in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona. Also known as the "Old City Cemetery", the graveyard was used after 1883 only to bury outlaws and a few others. It had a separate Jewish cemetery, which is nearby.
Contents
"Boot Hill" refers to the number of men who died with their boots on. Among a number of pioneer Boot Hill cemeteries in the Old West, Boothill in Tombstone is among the best-known, and it is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.
History
Originally called Boothill Cemetery, the graveyard was founded in 1878. After a new city cemetery was built elsewhere, the old cemetery stopped accepting new burials in about 1883 (save for very few exceptions) and fell into disrepair until the 1940s, when the city began to restore and preserve it.
In order to attract tourists, many of the Boot Hill grave sites are falsely marked, and fictitious claims of burials have been made by the cemetery's various operators over the years.
In the 1993 film Tombstone, the Earps first enter town and pass a wood grave marker in the cemetery that reads "Here lies Lester Moore, Four slugs from a .44, No Les No more." That grave is viewed today by countless tourists who visit Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, one of America's most famous graveyards. This grave marker is a phony. There was never anyone named Lester Moore who was killed in Arizona Territory.
Another of the best known grave markers reads, "Here lies George Johnson, hanged by mistake 1882. He was right we was wrong. But we strung him up and now he's gone." It too is a fake; no one named George Johnson was lynched in Arizona in the 1880s.
Another popular "grave" is that of outlaw leader John Heath, which is prominently marked in Boot Hill Cemetery; countless photographs of it have been published in books, magazines, and newspapers. Yet like many of the Boot Hill markers, it too is a phony. John Heath was arrested after the 1883 Bisbee Massacre and was later removed by a mob from the Tombstone jail and lynched in 1884. His body was returned to his estranged wife in Terrell, Texas, and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery.
Thomas Harper is another badman supposedly buried in Boot Hill cemetery. He was a friend of Curly Bill Brocius and was hanged for murder by Sheriff Bob Paul in Tucson in 1881. Harper was buried in Tucson, not in Tombstone.
The Boot Hill graveyard also boasts a grave for "Fiderico Doran" who is claimed to have been killed by Sheriff John Slaughter after the Agua Zarca train robbery in 1888. In fact, his real name was Federico Duran and he and train robber Jack Taylor were executed by firing squad in Guaymas, Mexico. Slaughter had nothing to do with their deaths and Duran was not buried in Tombstone.
Notable interments
Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton, killed in the O.K. Corral shootout, are buried here, as is Marshal Fred White, killed by Curly Bill Brocius.
Also buried here: