S1 – 6: You'll Find Your Tombstone

the strangest specimen of human flesh I ever saw. He was six ft two inches tall and had black hair that hung several inches below his shoulders, and a beard that had not been trimmed or combed for so long a time that it was a mass of unkempt knots and mats. He wore clothing piece and patched from deer skins, corduroy and flannel, and his hat was originally a slouch hat that had been pieced with rabbit skin until very little of the original felt remained. But something tells me

this look didn't stick with Ed for very long. Despite the dangers. Ed would often go out on expeditions in search for or His home base was camp with Chaka. Soldiers would often ask him about his efforts. Ed consistently responded with hope and determinations, but apparently surrounded by a bunch of pessimists. Those soldiers would tell him you'll find something, You'll find your tombstone, as so many others have before. Well fatefully, on August one, eight seventy seven, Chefflin did

find his tombstone, but probably not like anyone expected. I'm Amy Bruney and this is haunted road. The San Pedro Valley had been the destination for intrepid miners and those seeking work prior to the eighteen seventies, but our Ed Chefflin found something that would be a game changer. On August first, eighteen seventy seven, Ed struck silver and appropriately dubbed his new mine tombstone. He found yet another mine nearby that he christened the graveyard. Ed's name for his

silver mine. Carried Over is the name for the settlement founded near the site, fueled by a silver rush that attracted fortune hunters to the new town. When miners came to town, they didn't just bring their supplies and hopes. They ushered in a need for civil structures, food, education for growing families, and entertainment. The town grew significantly into the mid eighteen eighties as the local mines produced a

staggering forty to eighty five million dollars in silver. The largest productive silver mine district in Arizona, its population grew from one hundred to around fourteen thousand in less than seven years. Tombstone's residence had access to a school, a handful of church ches, a bowling alley, ice cream shop, and most notably, one hundred ten saloons, fourteen gambling halls,

and numerous dance halls and brothels. Over seven thousand folks answered the promising call of silver by the eighteen eighties, and the famous art brothers Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan were among them. Shortly after their friend Doc Holiday, a former dentist from Georgia, turned to gambler and gunfighter followed suit. Virgil took on the roll of Tombstones Marshal in eighteen eighty. But the rb faction wasn't solely committed to upholding the law.

They had income that was unrelated with steaks and mines and saloons, and occasional work as bartenders and private security. There was a class division among Tombstone residents and that culminated in numerous skirmishes and conflicts. But the most notable occurred between the art Brothers and the Cowboys, a loosely organized band about laws who were known cattle steelers. Tombstone sits about thirty miles away from the Mexican border, and at the time, the government of Mexico maintained a high

tax on imported tobacco, cattle, and alcohol. Cowboys gathered in small groups in this liminal space and seemingly made a lot of money from smuggling. They also brought a love of drink and shooting to Tombstone, but they were allowed to stay because they also brought a lot of money

to saloons, theaters, and of course, brothels. There were various altercations that exacerbated the tense relationship of these two groups, but the final straw was added in October when an ordinance was passed in Tombstone prohibiting the carrying of weapons in town. This riled the cowboys, who were used to carrying their weapons wherever they pleased. On October, Doc Holiday and Ike Clanton of the Cowboys were at the Alhambra

Saloon when they got into a fight. I'm almost positive this started with Doc Holiday declaring I'm your huckleberry, but this could be wishful thanking on my part. Cooler heads temporarily prevailed. Holiday eventually headed home to his room in a boarding house, but Clanton kept drinking and getting more worked up. Virgil was still the marshal, which meant enforcement of this unwelcome edict fell to him. But if there was beef against Virgil, the whole RB Holiday group felt

the effects. Threats of this kind, though were commonplace, the follow through wasn't, so no one, including Virgil Herb took the threat from Clanton very seriously. The next day, around nine in the morning, a policeman roused Virgil after just a few hours of slumber to tell him that Ike Clanton was staggering around town, now armed and still drunk, threatening to kill all the Art brothers and their friend

Dog Holiday on site. Initially unfazed, Virgil did get around to disarming the very drunk Clanton before escorting him to see a judge. After receiving a fine and being let go. Ike, infuriated, sought out a group of five cowboys, including his brother Billy, the mclory's, and went with them to Fremont Street. The bolstered threats from the cowboys resulted in Virgil's quick deputizing

of his brothers and Doc. The sheriff tried to convince the Herbs to back off, but they pressed on, finding the Clantons and the mclory's in a lot near the old Kindersley Corral. Thirty shots and thirty seconds later, Tom and Frank McClory and Billie Clanton were dead in the dust. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne had made a successful getaway when the shooting began. The lawman all survived, but Whyatt

was the only one to remain unscathed. It wasn't clear what side had fired the first shot, and the Herb Holiday group was arrested and held in jail for about a month. The hearing brought the result that the cowboys were not unarmed, therefore closing out the case against the Herbs and Holiday, but it was not the end of the conflict. On December one, just two months after the shootout, Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed in a murder attempt

by the cowboys. It's believed that an apparition of Virgil appears in this spot, but it never makes it across the street. Morgan RB was the next target. In March of eighteen eighty two, he was shot and killed by a cowboy who aimed through a glass door of the saloon Morgan was sitting in. The saloon was then called Campbell and Hatch's Saloon, but is currently the Red Buffalo Trading Company. It seems that Morgan is still frequenting the place even in death, and has been said to even

help stock shelves. For these crimes, cowboys covered their own with alibis and no charges were filed. Wyatt tried to form a band to get justice, but didn't have much luck. Wyatt left Arizona in eighteen eighty two without exacting his revenge. After his death, the first biography of Wyatt Earp was published in nineteen thirty one. It gave us a dramatic telling of the shootout at the Okay Corral and other events in RB's life that still color our understanding of

events in Tombstone. Even though the shootout occurred about six buildings to the west of the Okay Corral. It's firmly held that the latter is haunted by the spirits of those slain cowboys. Several witnesses have reported seeing the fading apparition of men dressed in cowboy attire, often appearing with guns drawn, perhaps locked into a perpetual battle with the RBS. Others have claimed to have felt numerous cold spots in

various areas of the Corral. One of the other most haunted and storied spots in town is the Bird Cage Theater. As someone who has visited here a few times, this place has changed very little sincece heyday. It's like walking into a time capsule. There's even still bullet holes in

the ceiling from especially rowdy nights. Established in the vein of Chefflin Hall, a fine operatic venue, William and Lottie Hutchinson hoped that their theater would draw respectable folks in Tombstone, but money talks and the local population of lusty young miners preferred body or types of entertainment, so the Hutchinson's delivered in eighty two, just one year in the New York Times referred to the bird Cage as the roughest, bodiest, and most wicked night spot between Basin Street and the

Barbary Coast. Bird Cage certainly seems to refer to the boxes attached to the ceiling where the women engaged in sex work would host their companion and make good on the exchange. But the women didn't do just that. They also tended the bar and performed in a variety of shows. Stage shows at the bird Cage started at nine pm and continued until one am or so the next morning. Waiter girls in short dresses with low cut necklines peddled

as many drinks as they could. Beer was just fifty cents on the main floor and a dollar in the curtain boxes. Skits, music acts, and comedy shows were all featured and typically accentuated by bright clothing and short skirts. Jokes were definitely of the naughty kind. In general, the bird Cage was a rowdy place. It was the scene of at least sixteen gun and knife fights over the years.

By the time the doors were shut permanently, there were one hundred forty of those bullet holes in the walls and ceilings that I told you about in their short and bright outfits, women performed a popular act called the Human Fly. Performers walked upside down on the ceiling over the stage was specially outfitted shoes that had clamps on

them that fitted into holes board into the ceiling. At least one of those performers fell to her death when a clamp slipped, but there's not many details on that. A very popular story connected to the bird Cage seems dubious but is quite striking. The top lady at the bird Cage was known as Margharita, and her supposed main rival was Dirtie the gold Dollar from Crystal Palace, another brothel. Gertie had quite a committed customer in Billy mill Green.

Some even alleged that mill Green was Gertie's liven lover. Billy, apparently with a different conception of loyalties, found himself in the birdcage with the lovely Margharita in his lap. Gertie, the gutsy gritty woman, also found herself in the bird cage, and, as a witness of betrayal, grabbing a handful of Margharita's hair, gold Dollar stabbed her with a double edged stiletto that was stashed in her garter she hacked at Margharita's heart.

Margherita died before anyone could offer aid. Gertie and Billy left, and she apparently discarded the weapon behind the theater. When she was found, charges weren't filed because there was no weapon on which to base them. Margherita's death was unresolved, and her spirit supposedly haunts the bird Cage still. Then, supposedly in nWo, when they excavated an old privy behind the bird cage, the stiletto used by gold Dollar was found.

It seems rather convenient that the blade was found on the centennial of the slaying, if it happened at all, but it's a great story. Carmeally to Jimenez's death by suicide is another potentially apocryphal tale that's consistently repeated. Carmeally to Jimenez and her partner, Frederick Baker were both performers at the bird Cage. If true, I'd like to note that Carmelita is also described as a well known singer. They lived together for four or five months before her

death in the middle of August eighteen eighty eight. Frederick had noticed of late that she was not in her right spirits, rather downhearted and melancholy. As the day wound down at home after performing at the bird Cage, Carmelita began to cry. When asked if she was upset about him, she assured him she wasn't. The next day, after rehearsals at the bird Cage, Frederick saw her vomit alongside the washstand. When asked, Carmelita said she intentionally took medicine to make

her sick, but wouldn't tell Frederick what it was. He assumed that she had taken an emetic, something that seems to have been consumed widely, if abusively, in the nineteenth century, or was at least accessible to those who wanted or needed to purse their systems of some real or perceived affliction. Regardless, he assumed incorrectly she had actually taken two teaspoons of rough on rats, an arsenic pason. This was only discovered after a doctor was rushed to Carmelita, but the actual

emetic he applied was too late to save her. During its heyday, the building was sold at least twice, but its final curtain closed in eighteen ninety two as Tombstone's water problem pushed out the bulk of miners who would work elsewhere, which we'll talk about later. Because of fires through Tombstone as well as the wear and tear experience in a mining boomtown, most structures are recreations in modern builds,

but the bird Cage Theater wasn't constructed with wood. It's made of concrete, and today it's the only building on Allan Street that is original. When it closed its doors, everything inside was left in place. The doors weren't opened again until nineteen thirty four, and when they were, Tombstone

found itself with a perfect window into its past. As we move on to the Boothill Graveyard, so named because most of the men there supposedly died with their boots on, let's also move on to the rapid demise of Tombstone and its eventual status as a ghost town. Water was threatening Tombstone as early as eighteen eighty, but each year the mine seemed to strike more and more of it. The flow wasn't at first large enough to stop work, but experienced miners thought the water flow would increase, and

it did. All sources I've read indicate that pumping water from mine shafts worked until it just didn't. A double whammy seems to have ended things quite suddenly, as a fire destroyed the pumping system on May eighteen eighty six, and then the price of silver dropped, dashing hopes of funding a restoration. Like the Boom Town, the Boothill Cemetery

had a quick rise and a short fall. Originally started in eighteen seventy eight, it was referred to as the City Cemetery until an actual city cemetery was built in the town. Then it earned the named the Old Cemetery, which it kept until nineteen nine. That's when we get the name booth Hill Graveyard. By the nineteen twenties, it had fallen into disrepair, and interested residents work diligently to

track down information regarding those who were buried there. Those who were buried here usually had their places marked by wood, which doesn't hold up well, especially in Arizona's climate. Most of what visitors see there now are recreations of the originals for the benefit of tourists, so the veracity of some claims seem dubious but certainly entertaining, and some aren't seemingly dubious but are in fact total fabrications intended to spur tourism. If names come up, find a grave seems

to have a robust database of interments. There are about two hundred fifty or so graves in this cemetery, and many of them were outlaws. Brothers Tom and Frank McClory and Billy Clanton, killed by the Herbs and Doc Holiday in the shootout, are buried here. It's claimed that Billy's spirit is one of the most active and apparently rises from his grave each night. Many claimed that Billy haunts both the graveyard and Allen Street, where he died in the shootout. There are a few places that would be

so predictably haunted as Tombstone. But how many of these ghost stories are just that stories? And what other secrets does this old mining town hold up. Next, we'll talk with Tombstone local and renowned paranormal investigator Dwight Hole, who will fill us in on some of the more famous Hanson Town plus some mothers you may never have even heard of. Okay, so I am now joined by Dwight Hole, who is a Dwight What is your position in Tombstone? Officially?

Everybody tells me you're like the resident paranormal expert. Oh, I hate that word expert, but yeah, I'm kind of the paranormal guy. And my wife and I have investigating Tombstone for what I have for over twenty years, Ronda for about last ten, So we're kind of the go to folks for the paranormal and Toomstone. Yeah, I mean that makes sense. I know people always shy away from the word expert when it comes to the paranormal, which I think is fair because people always say, how can

you prove the existence of something? Or how can you call yourself an expert in something that we can barely prove the existence of. But I think it's fair to say that if you have a lot of knowledge of the history of the paranormal, or if you are someone who knows a lot about the history of a location, as you seem to do, I think expert is fair. I think you're allowed to call yourself something like that. I'll take it. I'll take it. So Tombstone is such

an interesting town. I think I met you there years and years ago. I have not been back since then. What year was that, uh, two thousand eight, I believe, Yeah, so it's been a minute, but it seems like not that long ago to me. It was just such an

interesting town with such an interesting history. And I think what I love about it is that I expect it's probably not nearly as lawless as it was, but it doesn't seem like it's changed much Like you really do feel like you're taking a little step back in time. And do you think that that might have something to do with why spirits tend to remain there? Oh? Yeah, absolutely, Tombstone is still Tombstone, whether it's today or a hundred and fifty years ago. Um, you know, the players have changed,

but it's still the same thing. It's small town and instead of silver, you know, they're mining tourists. It's still kind of the same thing. The shops are still there are at least the buildings are still there, you know, all the streets are still there. So yeah, there's a bit of familiarity, I think, and a bit of the Tombstone attitude that I guess still prevails today. So I think that's what helps keep some of the spirits there, is they liked kind of that rock is body atmosphere,

and it still has it there today. Yeah. Absolutely, I remember that very much and you read through you know, kind of what happened there over the years, and now it seemed like there was at the very least a bigger population back then. Definitely a lot less buildings are still standing. But how is the population changed over the

years from back in the heyday until now? I mean back in the heyday we had like, gosh, almost twenty thousand people in Tombstone, which if you come to Tombstone you probably look around and say where they put them all? Not that big of a place. But and you're right, there's a lot of buildings that aren't there anymore that were occupied by some of that twenty Now we have a population about So yeah, that's a dramatic decrease in living population. But are we sure have the ghost population

that still makes up for it? I think, I imagine. So, what do you say is probably the most haunted spot in the town? What is your favorite spirited place to visit? Wow? Yeah, well, you know, my favorite place I have to say probably the bird Cage, just because it's probably the most untouched building from the back of the day. But really, and honestly, you know, you've been to enough ghost town and Old West towns you can't throw a rock without hitting a

haunted place in Tombstone. I mean it's just saturated with haunting. So it's pretty much. You know, people come to town, they say, well, what's the haunted place? Where are we going to go to find ghosts? Uh? Pretty much anywhere go get ice cream? You know, that's true. It's anywhere there in Tombstone. But you know, my favorite place because of the authenticity and originality probably the bird Cage. Not much has changed there. I remember going in there. I

feel like it was empty for a little while. It was almost like a time capsule before it was reopened. But can you still see bullet holes in the walls there or anything? Oh yeah, all the bullet holes are still in the walls and ceiling, the floor. All the original curtains and tapestries are still up. A lot of the old original paintings are still there, the stage, the original pianos. So it's it really is like walking into a time capsule, or you know, you go back in

time as then you go through the doors. It's an amazing place. So what would you say is probably the most frequent occurrence there as far as paranormal activity, The most frequent I think is being touched by It's usually a female that goes around and kind of touches the men when they come in there, and that seems to be the most reported. I've had. It happened a few times.

In fact, I've got a picture of me inside the bird cage and you can see a mirror on one of the pianos, and in the mirror you can see me, and you can you know, see a woman's head with long black hair on my shoulder, but you can't see it in the picture of me because it shows me and then me in the mirror. So it's very cool picture.

But that's probably the most frequent thing, is people being touched. Yeah, I could see that, And then I remember in the Ghost Hunters episode that was there, which unfortunately that was right before I started with Ghost Hunters and so I didn't get I got to investigate later, obviously, But they had a really interesting experience where they had put like a cord up or something and the cord literally just like lifted up and dropped off of they had used

it to wire a camera or something, and it wasn't like it slipped, like it literally like lifted up and fell so is there a lot of movement in there? Do things get moved around a lot? Yeah, there's a lot of movement. Um, you put stuff someplace and then you know, you go back for it and it's moved. Or downstairs in the poker room, there's a lot of stuff that gets moved. You could see it move or

you hear it move. Yeah. And in that Ghost Hunters episode, it was cord from one of the cameras that went over one of the alarm bells that brought display there and it just lifted right up off the bell and just fell back down. In fact, when you and I were there with Lloyd Arbach and Jeff Blanger, that's right, that's right. Jeff kept talking about being touched on the back of the neck where we were all there. Oh, that's funny. I'll have to remind him of that. He's

obviously very into the paranormal. For those who don't know, Jeff Blanger is a really fabulous paranormal author. He's got a number of books out there. He's a great friend of mine. But he's very hard on his paranormal experiences, and so I had forgotten about that. So I'll have to remind him you know, he's had just a few, so that's a good one. So Bird Cage Theater is

obviously high on the list. Now, the other spot that a lot of people talk about, which I was surprised when I saw it in person because it was a lot smaller than I imagined it would be, was the Okay Corral. So does anything happen near the Okay Corral? It does. It is not so much actually inside, although there are stories, but right outside because it's kind of

walled off now for obvious reasons. But on the other side of the wall, next to the main thoroughfare that goes through there A lot more stuff happens there because that's where the gunfight actually took place, was almost right on the street. And we've investigated out there, you know, several times, and it's difficult because you always, I don't care what time of day it is or night, you always have cars going by, so it's difficult for noise contamination.

But we have gotten some just amazing e vps right outside the Okay Corral, one of them being when we were out there, we were saying, okay, who shot first? We want to know who shot first. The McClary's or the and we got a class A e v P saying leave these boys alone. That was amazing to me. And honestly, we never asked that question again. We've back a couple of times, but I thought, you know what, I'm going to respect what the spirits say and we're

just not going to go there again. That's something that we kind of strive for in our investigations. You know, sometimes you kind of have to think outside the box when you're investigating some of these more well known haunts, because it's got to be strange if you're some sort of spirit or entity to just kind of, day in and day out have people talking about the moment of your death when you had an entire life before that.

And so that's why I always encourage people to kind of think prior to that moment of death and see what can you draw upon in their life that they might actually want to talk about or might trigger them to speak out. And so that might be kind of a perfect example of like, okay, there over this right, yeah, and they get tired of being asked the same thing day in and day out. Like you said, it's amazing while doing investigations and being so involved in the history.

You know, my wife I have kind of switched our views pretty quickly on who the real bad guys were, who the real good guys were. You know, we like the Clantons and mcclowdy's just from what we have experienced, have talked to them. We've actually been out to the Clanton ranch where they live just outside of Stone, which is an amazing place. Is that open to the public or is that a place that you kind of have

to go visit it is? Yeah, you have to know where it is because it's literally out in the middle of the desert. It's an amazing, amazing place and it hooks into of course Tombstone and its history. So we love going out there. Now, tell me about the Booth Hill Graveyard. I do remember visiting that briefly. Yeah, the boot Hill Graveyard. It is a neat place to go. We've had a few experiences out there, but mostly with and and it sounds funny, but mostly with spirit animals,

not so much the spirit people. We've gone out there, we've done t VP sessions and we've come back listen to them, and we've had dogs bark right next to us that we didn't hear. Of course, when we were there. We've heard footsteps, you know, dog or something running through there, and we have gotten a couple of e vps. But it's a great place now. It used to be a

lot bigger than what the tourists see now. In fact, there's a circle can just on the other side of the street, kind of down the same side, and that used to be part of Boot Hill. So there's a circle k built on top of part of the cemetery. And every time they dig to put in a new gas pump or a new tank, they'd always find some bones. They'd have to stop. They'd have to call in the University of Arizona archaeological team, they'd have to do a

dig there. And I believe it or not, that circle k next to Boot Hill is the most haunted circle k I have ever investigated in my life. It's amazing. I don't think, you know, I need to cross that one off my list. I don't think I've ever investigated a circle k, but this might be the perfect opportunity. It might be. Yeah, it is crazy haunted it there to get called in there like it was a milk file,

you know, because there would be phenomenon going on. Yeah, they used to call me in it O Dark thirty saying, hey, you know, we got all kinds of stuff. You come in here and talk to these guys or I'm like, what am I supposed to do? But wow, it was great and you know, I love it, and it's probably

the the most haunted quick March I've been to. That is wild and it's just so funny that, you know, people just think it's okay to just kind of keeping when you build so close to a historical old cemetery, like Odds are especially out there that you know, the gravestones and stuff get so weathered and they kind of just melt away over time. You never know what you're gonna get if you build that close to something like that. Why do you think there's animal spirits out there as

opposed to people? You know, that's a really good question. And again I think, you know, it could be We've tried to theorize on this over and over again. Could be dead dogs from whoever's buried there that they're still sticking close to their master. Because interestingly, whenever we go to the Clantons and mccloudy's graves there, that's where we always get the dogs Barking, which is very interesting. And

of course past Boothhill. Not too far from Booth Hill there was a big tent city from all the miners and stuff like that that lived there. So you know, who knows all the animals are there, but they seem to gravitate there. So what do you think is like maybe a little known piece of history about Tombstone. You know, there's a lot of like very well known kind of moments in time. There are there any like tragedies or debts there that people don't really talk about much that

you think have kind of been overlooked historically. Um, you know there are And I'll give you one good example, because you don't really hear a lot about the Chinese influence in Tombstone that there is a certain section of town that was called Hoptown or China Town that was run by China Mary. We do an event every year. In fact, we're going to have it again next week,

a big event. We did an event a few years ago and we had Brian Kanno as one of our guests, and we were in a building that was in Hoptown, the old Hoptown, and we got just an amazing experience with e VPS and some pendulum work that we were doing about a brother who killed his brother and couldn't cross over and he was feeling guilty and the brother that he killed came back to try to get him.

And we've got all this on tape. Fact we had a film crew from New York that was videoing all this and we have some extremely emotional things about the ghost that came back. And there's a lot of death in Hoptown that people just don't know about because it was the Chinese section and it was kind of put aside. But it was just a very very interesting investigation. Great e vps, great film, you know evidence. When we crossed them over there when they drive, we had thirty people

in that building. Everybody was in tears at the moment of the crossover because they could feel it. So yeah, there's a lot of gosh, you know again throw a rock. There's history and hauntings and Tombstone. We could do, you know, six shows on Alta, the different ones that we've found out in Tombstone. It's so good. Gomers and prostitutes that were associated with the birth age um that people forget about, and so it's always interesting to talk to them as well.

This unknown or untapped history. Have you ever been able to like find some evidence and then kind of cross reference it with documentation in some way and it kind of uncover a piece of history that maybe was overlooked otherwise. Well, yeah, to Beauford House, which is one of the most haunted houses private homes in Tombstone in fact ron and I got there ead there because uh, yeah, we have. We've really delved into the spiritual history and the actual history

of the place and have found that as well. As you know, sometimes the written and handed down history isn't exactly what happened. Yeah, exactly. Dig far enough and deep enough, you find out that the stories have changed, or it was altered, or it was whatever. And the Buford House is a prime example where history and folklore kind of got intertwined and the story got kind of lost along the way, so to speak. Again, that's very common in Tombstone.

Between the actual history and the folklore that comes with it, you often have to dig through a lot to get to the truth. Yeah. Absolutely, you know, since it was kind of lawless, a lot of the things aren't quite in the newspapers and whatnot. I mean, there is a lot of interesting information if you can start to dig through like historical archives. But I imagine a lot of it is very skewed and not necessarily accurate. So the Beaufort House, is that a place that people can visit

as well? Everyone knows the obvious spots, but you know, I'd love to spotlight some places people might not know. The Beaufort House is not open to the public. I can say it's a private residence that it was an Airbnb for a while, but because of the whole COVID thing, they had to shut that down, so it's strictly just a private residence. Now. There are a lot of ghost towns around it, other areas in Tombstone that maybe not well known. Trying to think of some of the better ones.

I mean, I've investigated just about every building in Tombstone. The Courthouse is a great place. Yeah, the Episcopal Church. Yeah, It's funny always in my brain because I spent a lot of time in Virginia City because I lived in California for so long, So in my brain I always kind of mix up the two in memories because they're so similar, and I have to like catch myself because they literally look very similar and have very similar histories

as well. Have you heard any wild stories from people as far as encounters they've had with the paranormal in town that really stick out in your brain? You know, As far as wild ones, there's just I mean again, there's dozens of stories. But we've had people tell us that, you know, they've walked down the street in the middle of the night just to experience it, and they've seen very sharp a ghost of Virgil Earp and it started

walking towards them and then disappeared. We've heard stories of you know, the Clantons walking down the street and then disappearing, stuff like that. You listen to enough of the stories and they kind of get wilder as they go, right, I can imagine how is Tombstone doing tours twice right now? With everything going on with COVID? Are are they recovering? Okay? Are people coming back now? Yeah? They are, they really are.

They're coming back kind of in droves now that you know in Arizona here everything's opened up and they've lifted all the masks, stuff and everything else. So a lot of people from other states are actually flying in again to Tombstone because it's kind of quote unquote back to normal, so to speak. So, yeah, it's really getting busy now and people are coming in. We've got probably thirty or forty people coming in next week for our events, so we've kind of booked the hotels up, which is good.

So yeah, it's it's starting to really come back again. And that's kind of the thing of Tombstone. You know, you think it's dead, it's a sound too tough to die. Before you know it, you know, it's it's booming again, and that's kind of the history of Tombstone. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of ebbed and flowed over the years when the pandemic was really in the thick of

it and everything was closed and quiet. Did you do any investigating then or did Tombstone just kind of have a different vibe to it when that was going on? You know, it did. It had a different vibe, and it was very, very difficult to try to do any investigating because nobody wanted to open a building up for you, so it was difficult to investigate. But yeah, it was a very different vibe. It was I don't use this word often, but it was creepy because it wasn't the same.

It wasn't that same vibe to get when you go there. Now, what happened, I don't know whether it was just the absence of people and things close it down, but it did change it for a while. But thankfully it's it's

it's back and kicking again. Yeah, as we've been investigating again and kind of back out there, I always asked that because I don't know that we'll ever see that again in some of these haunted historical locations where the living people were just gone for months and it really affected some of the hauntings, and as soon as you kind of thought about the human aspect of these spirits and kind of like how confused they must be or

you know, assuming that there's intelligence behind them. That we've been in some locations where activity just like completely ramped up at that time, and then in other locations it hasn't even really come back since then. So it's interesting to see how the personality of each hunt handled those months of quiet. Yeah. Yeah, and we're going to kind of find out next week with our event because we're

going to be doing a few different locations. So it'll be interesting to see just coming out of the pandemic, if things are going to be as active or whether it's going to be cooled down a little bit or maybe ramped up. So we're curious how often do you do events out there? Ron and I put on an event every year. It may right around our anniversary can We got married at to Beauford House May eighteen, So we try to do an event during our anniversary, just kind of our thing we'd like to do. So we

have it every year. We've done it for about seven years and it's it's been great. We have a lot of people that come in. We have you know, solver talent that we book to come in and investigate with the folks. And of course not last year because we got everything was shut down. But again we're picking up and hopefully we can continue. Well I think this will air too late for this year's but how can people kind of keep tabs on you and to sign up for next year and just kind of see what you're

up to. Where can they find you? Oh, they can find us any place on social media, either through my name Dwight Hall, my wife's name Randa holl or be Leave Paranormal which is b E L I E v E paranormal dot com. We have a website. We have two books if you're interested. You know, folks out there, we have two books out there, working on a third almost complete, and of all the areas around Tombstone, in Tombstone and southern Arizona. So for those Old West fans

it might be an interesting read. Well. That is fantastic, and I thank you guys for joining me and just kind of telling people a little bit more about the haunts in town. And I'm sure people are going to want to come visit, because now I know I do, so as soon as I get some time, I've got to pop into town and explore again because I miss it. It's a really great place and so much history and so many ghosts. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, guys. Oh,

thank you. And hey, you want to pop into town, just let us know and we'll take you out for sure. It's been many years since I visited the town of Tombstone, and admittedly, putting together this episode made me really want to take a trip back there. There's something about the creation of an entire boom town, the buzz of new riches and dreams being fulfilled, coupled with the wild West romanticism that's really never left those streets. There is one

memory that stands out for me. When I visited so many years ago, I had just completed an investigation and found myself at two am walking alone down Allen Street on the way it's my rental car. I didn't see a ghost, but in those moments of stillness, I could so strongly feel and imagine what Tombstone looked like during its heyday in the eighties. It draws you in and takes you back, just like it's drawn so many history lovers, tourists,

and more recently, paranormal researchers. Perhaps that's why, when so many boom towns wasted away and disappeared, Tombstone is still lovingly referred to as the town Too Tough to Die. I'm Amy Bruney, and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rima Ill

Kali and Trevor Young. Taylor Haggerdorn is the show's researcher. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.