“The Cowboys” of Tombstone, AZ

The Cowboys were a loosely connected faction of outlaw “cowboys” in Pima (of Tucson fame) and Cochise (of Tombstone fame) County, Arizona Territory in the late 1800’s. They were cattle rustlers and robbers who rode across the border into Mexico and stole cattle that they drove back to the US to sell for cash.

Cochise County was created on February 1, 1881 from the Eastern part of Pima County Arizona. It took its name from the legendary Apache war chief Cochise.  The county seat was Tombstone, and remained so until 1929.

By the middle of 1881 Tombstone had within the town limits one bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dancing halls and brothels.

You probably recall that Tombstone was the site of a large number of silver mines, which naturally attracted a lot of rough and ready miners as well as several members of the loosely knit out-law group called “the Cowboys”. Most historian’s think there were around 200 to 300 members of this group; friends or acquaintances that routinely teamed up for various crimes and often came to each others aid.

You might say that as a general rule the Cowboys were former Confederate sympathizers and Democrats while the townspeople of Tombstone and her capitalists were largely Republicans from the Northern states and thus generally former union supporters.  With this alignment, coupled with the above described environment, tensions soon grew into deadly conflict which most old west followers think of as the now famous gun fight at the O K Corral, which is really another story which I will describe in detail in my very next post tomorrow.

Should this create a great hardship for you, or you were simply anticipating more, may I suggest you click-on the following posts / critiques I have completed in their entirety regarding similar topics:

                                                                        The Lone Ranger

                                                                        The Texas Rangers

                                                                        The Jessie Evans Gang

                                                                        Billy the Kid

Sources …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombstone,_Arizona                           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowboys_(Cochise_County) http://cp1237.com/frankandtom/cowboys.htm