Around Tombstone: Ghost Towns and Gunfights (Images of America: Arizona) [Paperback]

Jane Eppinga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2009

The communities that once surrounded the infamous Wild West town of Tombstone, including Dos Cabezas, Fairbank, Gleeson, Pearce, Courtland, Charleston, and Milltown, are now mostly ghosts of their former selves. These rich mining towns had promising futures when they were first established, but many experienced only fleeting boom times, like Courtland, a promising copper camp that survived only 12 years. During its short existence, the town of Charleston, founded in 1879 as a milling site for ore from Tombstone's silver mines, was every bit as wild and rowdy as its neighbor. There was corruption in the region too. Dos Cabezas's Mascot Mine became part one of the largest stock scandals of the time when it was exposed around 1900. Today this fascinating, rough-and-tumble history lives on primarily in faded memories, crumbling remnants on the outskirts of Tombstone, and in vintage photographs gathered together in this volume.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Title: Images from the Past!

Author: Staff Writer

Publisher: Tombstone Times

Date: January 2010



Author Jane Eppinga has compiled another wonderful view of the past. Her newest contribution to the Images of America collection offers the reader a glimpse into the past of not only early Tombstone but also the surrounding towns, some of which are known as ghost towns today. This collection of photographs should be in everyone's library that enjoys the voyeuristic way of observing what came before us here in the old west town of Tombstone. Were it not for those images captured long ago, we would have only our imagination with which to visualize the images of this county's past. But thankfully with this new book, we can not only visualize our town's past, but learn some of the stories and legends that go along with such places surrounding Tombstone's history such as Charleston, Courtland, Gleeson, St. David, Fairbank and Pearce. Jane's efforts at collecting these images of America, Tombstone related are to be applauded for with her hard work, the history lover can truly enjoy glancing into a time long ago, but very much on our minds. Images of America - Around Tombstone by Jane Eppinga is a 128 page softcover book selling for $21.99 and is available at area bookstores, independent retailers and online retailers or through Arcadia Publishing at [phone] or www.arcadiapublishing.com.

About the Author

In this retrospective, award-winning historian Jane Eppinga reveals the unique history of the hard-rock mining towns and rowdy camps that once surrounded Tombstone. Eppinga is the author of previous Images of America volumes on Tombstone, Tucson, and Apache Junction, and here she presents more than 180 images culled from sources including the Rose Tree Museum, Arizona Historical Society, Arizona State University archives, Arizona State Archives, and private local collections.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (May 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073857127X
• ISBN-13: 978-0738571270
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Writing credentials include over 200 articles for both popular and professional publications. For four years I produced all material for the Arizona Sheriff Magazine. My writing credentials include more than 200 articles for both popular and professional publications covering a broad spectrum of children's fiction, travel, personal profiles, biology, construction, food, and public relation pieces. My books include a biography of Henry Ossian Flipper, West Point's First Black Graduate, Arizona Twilight Tales, and books in Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series focusing on Arizona towns including Tucson, Nogales, Apache Junction and Tombstone. She writes regularly for Biology Digest a quarterly publication for high school science teachers. In 2009, Globe Pequot published my book. They Made Their Mark: An Illustrated History of the Society of Woman Geographers. That same year she made a presentation on the Society of Woman Geographers at the 10th International Congress of Women in Madrid, Spain.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Images of the Old West!, March 17, 2010

By 

Michael OConnor "Wordsmith" (Wausau, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Around Tombstone: Ghost Towns and Gunfights (Images of America: Arizona) (Paperback)

Until just recently, I was unaware of Arcadia Publishing and its "Images of America" series of photo-books. My word, their output is truly impressive: over 5,000 such books on various American towns, cities, neighborhoods and so on! Jane Eppinga's AROUND TOMBSTONE, GHOST TOWNS AND GUNFIGHTS offers up a photographic tribute to the legendary town of Tombstone, Arizona and surrounding communities. It's a fascinating tribute to the long-gone Wild West.

Eppinga's book chronicles and illustrates Tombstone, Charleston, Courtland, Gleeson, St. David, Fairbank, and Pearce along with the legendary Mascot Mine and the O. K. Corral Gunfight. Tombstone is clearly the top dog, taking up 90 of the book's 128 pages. The others were once thriving mining towns that went under.

The 180 period and contemporary images found in the book were obtained from various Arizona museums, historical archives and private collections. They depict myriad scenes of frontier life, street scenes, businesses, town life, personalities including Wyatt Earp, landscapes, mining operations, contemporary shots of abandoned buildings and so on. All are well-captioned. What comes out from the photographs is the rich variety of frontier life and the many different nationalities that helped populate the West.

Fans of the old West will enjoy AROUND TOMBSTONE. It's an excellent and fairly inexpensive photographic study of those bygone pioneers and towns. Recommended.