[Pen-l] Tombstone

[MICHAEL YATES <mikedjyates@xxxxxxx>]

Everything about Tombstone screams tourist trap, nothing more so than Boot Hill. The old
cemetery is at the western edge of town and is the most famous "Boot Hill" In the United States.
This is a public cemetery, so we were suspicious when we saw that it was surrounded by a large
and gated wall. You have to go inside a building, where you can purchase memorabilia and snacks,
to get to the graves. There is no fee, but you have to pay $2 to get a grave guide.
I foolishly paid and we went to see the resting places of the most notorious denizens of this
southwestern sin city. What we saw outside has to be one of the biggest tourist scams I’ve seen.
Each grave consists of a uniform pile of rocks, laid about a foot high above the presumable remains
of assorted murderers, murder victims, thieves, those wh succumbed to dread diseases, and prostitutes.
A cheap wooden cross identifies the deceased. Not one headstone, just one inscription.
We went back inside and asked an oversized man who was intently counting the day’s take,
why there were no headstones and why no ordinary people were buried here.
He said that the wooden head markers had all rotted. And most of the good folks in the graveyard
had been moved across the highway to a new cemetery. Some might still be buried underneath the
parking lot, he told us. Only those of ill repute were left behind, and we are to believe that exhaustive
research has identified the man who was found dead at the bottom of a mine shaft, stabbed, and who
is now buried in one of numbered plots identified in the $2 brochure. This is a real P.T. Barnum enterprise.
 
...
 
The truth of Tombstone can be seen in its demographic and economic data. 1,562 residents;
household income 30 percent below the state average; housing prices low and falling; percent
of people with higher education "significantly below" the state average; median age "significantly above"
the state average; over 40 percent of men working in construction (mostly nonunion),
accommodations/food service, and arts/entertainment/recreation (read stage coach drivers and fake cowboys
for the daily shootouts); 25 percent of women working in accommodations/food service. A town of middle income
retirees come to enjoy the warm weather, living with low wage workers and proprietors "servicing" the tourists.
We noticed that the barkers and hucksters had a look of desperation on their faces. Will the
downturn in the economy spell our doom? A hard-looking women sitting on a bench told a friend that she was going
back to Minnesota. No doubt the stage coach drivers, shootout actors, cooks, dishwashers, bed and breakfast owners,
motel room attendants, and trailer park attendants face a tough winter.

Full at http://www.blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate

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