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In 1881, Cochise County
was split off from Pima County, and naturally with
Tombstone
being the largest town, filled with some 10,000 people, it became the new
county seat. Plans immediately began to build a new courthouse. In 1882,
the courthouse was completed at a cost of nearly $50,000.
 The Victorian style
building, laid out in the shape of a cross, housed the county offices,
including the courtrooms and the jail, which once housed all manner of
lawless characters. Outside, the gallows, from which seven men, including
those who participated in the Bisbee
Massacre, would serve
Tombstone's
final justice.
Though
Tombstone's
most famous lawman,
Virgil Earp,
was long gone before the courthouse was built, it was called “home” to
other interesting police officers, including
Sheriff John Slaughter, who is
credited with clearing Cochise county of outlaws, and the controversial
Deputy Sheriff Burt Alford, who rode
both sides of the fence of the law.
Like other popular mining
settlements, when
Tombstone's
mining operations began to shut down, its population headed elsewhere. By
1929, Cochise County held a vote to move the county seat to Bisbee.
Tombstone
lost and in no time, plans were made to shut down the building.
By 1931, the last door in
the building closed and the courthouse was abandoned. All useable objects
were removed to the new county courthouse or sold at public auction. Empty
and neglected, the once proud courthouse languished under the desert sun
until the 1940’s when investors decided it would make a fine hotel. Though
initial preparations and dismantling were made, the venture fell through,
and once again the old courthouse was silent.
In 1955, however, the
Tombstone
Restoration Commission acquired the building and began to restore it to
its former grandeur. Four years later, in 1959, it became an
Arizona State
Park Historical site and opened as museum.
Today the site, located
at 219 Toughnut Street, provides a number of displays featuring
Tombstone's
historic past. Outside, re-created gallows stand, reminding visitors of
Tombstone's
more lawless days. Admission charged.
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, © May, 2007
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