Spirits of Tombstone, AZ

OK everyone, sorry for the absence but I was in Arizona all last week. On my last day there I got the chance to visit Tombstone, the town too tough to die. When it came to visiting haunted locations, Tombstone was definitely on the list. I went specifically to take one of the ghost tours that are offered in town. I also visited the Boothill Graveyard, where the Clantons and McLaury's are buried. (In case you need a history refresher, those are the guys that were killed by the Earps and Doc Holliday in the shoot-out at the OK Corral.) I walked around in the building where one of the Earps died and then walked the very streets where Wyatt Earp and his brothers walked back in the 1880s. During the ghost tour I didn't experience anything out of the ordinary, but I took plenty of pictures in hopes of capturing a spirit or two on film. After looking over my pictures, I was not disappointed! But before I show you what I found, I want you all to watch this video. This is from a show called "Ghost Lab" where two brothers from San Antonio went around to haunted places. In this clip they feature what is perhaps one of the most famous ghost pictures around, taken at the Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone. (Unfortunately the show is no longer in production, which is a shame because it quickly became one of my favorites.)

Spooky, huh? Well, let's continue with some of my own pictures taken at the graveyard. I don't think the spirits were willing to have their pictures taken that day, but if you spot something that I missed let me know.

 Here is the sign at the entrance:

Here is one of the more "creative" grave markers.

Another interesting one...

Here we have the grave of the patriarch of the Clanton clan:

These are the graves of the men killed in the shoot-out at the OK corral:

After leaving the graveyard I headed into town. I headed down the road and immediately sought out the "Ghosts and Legends" tour. They were set up in one of the historic buildings that line the main street. In fact, they said that it was located where Morgan Earp died after being shot. Not only that, but before the walking tour, one could go inside for a special tour. Well, what more could I ask?

The sign outside the "Ghosts and Legends" tour building.

The inside tour took you through four rooms, each with a scene from the past. I even had a special tour guide, the ghost of Doc Holliday himself! The first room contained an authentic stagecoach from the 1800s. It had even been used in a couple of John Wayne movies. I have provided a picture for you and right away I caught something in the picture.

Here is the stagecoach picture. See the orb on the right?

Close-up of the orb. Is that a face I see??

Nothing else of interest showed up in the rest of the pictures I took inside the building. After finishing inside, I went back out to wait for the walking tour to start. The sun was setting and I thought it would be a good opportunity to take some pictures of the town before it got completely dark. This is where things decided to show up.

Here is a picture across the street. When I zoomed in I saw something...

It looks like someone, or something, was trying to appear.

Now, the two orbs up above may not be that impressive to everyone that's not a ghost hunter. Luckily there are plenty of dead cowboys in Tombstone and at least one of them was willing to make himself known. Now, just a disclaimer before you look. The only thing I have done to the next few pictures is to adjust the brightness and contrast and zoom and crop where I felt necessary. No software was used to add or modify the pictures in any way. 

I was trying to capture the sunset. Do you see the shadow figure?

Here is a zoomed in version of where the shadow person is.

I have highlighted him for you here.

It would have been fantastic if just one of my pictures contained a shadow figure. However, this cowboy was not done:

Here is another picture I took of the same part of town. See the same shadow figure there?

You can see him more clearly in this picture than the last one. His hat is more defined.

I highlighted him again, but I really don't think it's necessary. 

Spooky, huh? All this BEFORE the walking tour even started. The rest of the pictures from the walking tour are not as exciting as the shadow person, but we still got some orbs that wanted to show up. One of the first locations was an empty lot between two buildings. Our guide explained that a dance hall once stood there and that to this day witnesses report seeing orbs and ghostly people dancing where the dance hall once stood. I took as many pictures as I could. Most of them showed nothing but a dark empty lot, until I got to the last one.

An orb, right where our guide said they were reported.

The following pictures are from a building on one of the corners. I don't recall what our guide said about the building, but it had to be interesting for me to have snapped a couple of pictures. Again, we can see some orbs.

Quite the orb party, huh?

A couple of more orbs, albeit not as visible as the previous ones.

The next pictures are from one of the "hot spots" for spirit activity. The building where the visitor's center now sits was a bank back in the 1800s. Our guide explained that being a bank in an old west town, it was robbed quite a few times and quite a few men were shot. Later it became a hospital and again saw its share of death. I took several pictures there and again we can see some orbs that came out to play.

Another haunted location is Big Nose Kate's Saloon, named after Doc Holliday's main squeeze. The business sits where the Grand Hotel once stood. Our tour only included walking by it, but I had the chance to eat dinner there afterward. Alas, no ghosts wanted to play in there.

The picture is from earlier in the day. It's a great place to eat and have a drink!

After the tour our guide suggested that we go take some pictures at the mine behind town. During the day you can tour the mine, but it's closed at night. This didn't matter, as many of the miners who died are still down there since the bodies were never recovered. Our guide all but guaranteed that we would get something in our pictures even if we just took them from outside the gates. Sure enough, he was right.

Just outside the gates to the old mine. See all the orbs?

Another pic, another orb. This one is near the top middle of the picture.

One more orb.

There you have it, the best ghost pictures that I have from my trip to Tombstone. I sure hope I get to go back because there are many things that I want to do there, including the lights-out ghost hunt at the haunted Bird Cage Theatre. Maybe next time I'll see our dark cowboy again, who knows?