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Sense of Place : Tombstone

Tombstone is a little town near Tucson Arizona. Today it is known for its brutal gun fights (OK Corral) and famous heroes and villains that once made their homes there. It is the most preserved Western Town left throughout the United States. Nowadays, people there have created tours that will walk you through the old town of Tombstone and make you feel like you were there one hundred and thirty years ago. The city of Tombstone was established in 1877 by Ed Schieffelin. Tombstone is significant to me because I have gained an experience of what it was like in the Old West and seeing the transformation into a modern city.

Historical place
Tombstone in Arizona
Old Western village

While arriving at the main entrance of Tombstone, the presence of people From the Old West sent shivers cascading down my spine. I see people dressed up like the Old West: guys wearing boots, hats, and a gun holsters on their hips, as if ready to get into a standoff. Women and their long dresses with feathers in their hair increased their attraction. The smell of dust permeates the air where I stand. Horses are pulling old wagons people used to travel on. I entered the Bird Cage Theater where they say that the girls, or women, that used to work there used to satisfy their clients. I look around and see all the historical items and artifacts that had been used back then. As I walk all over, I can hear my shoes on the wooden floor resonate. I stop and all I hear is silence. Suddenly, gun shots are echoed from the reenactment of the OK Corral gun fight. I head out of the building and see people lying on the floor as if they were dead. It’s almost as if I have stepped back in time to the eighteen hundreds, yet there are certain aspects that enable Tombstone, Arizona to remain in the present.

Many things have change from the Old West to the New West. Horses are still ridden on, but mainly for sport. The way people traveled has change dramatically, from riding in horse-drawn carriages to riding in automobiles or even flying in planes. Buildings are still made out of

wood, but the architecture has changed. Communication went from snail mail to receiving it in an instant. No longer are there any authentic John Wayne folk, but people in business suits and expensive casual wear. Light bulbs are now used to illuminate the buildings and the streets, not oil lanterns. Guns today are automatic and usually concealed; when in the Old West they were worn on the hip for everyone to see. The interactions between people were much more friendly and social in the Old West then now. Everything is done over the phone and sent over text, very impersonal, when in the Old West people actually talked to each other.

Tombstone, located in southern Arizona is the epitome of what the Old West was like in its small town, its people, and its buildings that represent what life was like in the old west. From gun fights at the OK Corral to the horse drawn carriages, Tombstone is a traditional Old Western town; however it incorporates the modernization of the twenty first century. In this little town you will find telephones, cars, flat screen televisions, and indoor plumbing, alongside the simplistic realities that were the Old West. Tombstone, Arizona, combines Old Western ideologies with the modern west. Tombstone is significant in my life, because I visited it and had the smoothest blend of old and new. Tombstone is significant to me because I have gain the experience of living in the Old West and seeing the transformation to a modern city.  

Biography of Alexis Palma

Being a Mexican/American is something I am proud of because I have both in my blood. My family came to the west from Mexico and settled here in the mid-1970s. I was born and raised in Yuma Arizona and have never lived anywhere else. I am eighteen years old, turning nineteen in May. I choose to get my education at AWC first, because it was cheaper for my family and I wanted to my associates here. My goal is to graduate within a year and a half. After I graduate from AWC with my associates in Construction Trades Management I will be attending the University of Arizona to continue my education, but this time in the field of Architecture. Something unique about me is that I play many musical instruments for example, guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano, marimba and other auxiliary instruments