University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository American Studies ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-11-2013 Imagining "the Town too Tough to Die": Tourism, Preservation, and History in Tombstone, Arizona Kara McCormack Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation McCormack, Kara. "Imagining "the Town too Tough to Die": Tourism, Preservation, and History in Tombstone, Arizona." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/29 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Studies ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Kara L. McCormack Candidate American Studies Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: A. Gabriel Melendez, Chairperson Rebecca Schreiber Paul Andrew Hutton Michael Trujillo i IMAGINING “THE TOWN TOO TOUGH TO DIE”: TOURISM, PRESERVATION, AND HISTORY IN TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA by KARA L. MCCORMACK B.A., Journalism, New York University, 1989 M.A., American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2004 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy American Studies The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2013 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am humbled by the wonderful people who have supported me on this long journey. At every step along the way, wonderful advisors, professors, and committee members have offered their advice and suggestions, guiding me throughout this process. First and foremost, my academic advisor and committee chair Dr. A. Gabriel Meléndez has been a tremendous influence on and supporter of my work—not just for this dissertation, but during my entire tenure at the University of New Mexico. His work in film and critical regionalism studies greatly impacted my own academic endeavor and his encouragement on this work has helped make my arguments stronger and clearer. I continue to learn from his patience and quiet grace. Dr. Rebecca Schreiber has been instrumental in my studies at the University of New Mexico, imparting her expertise in popular culture and cultural studies onto me, an eager and willing student who realized after a number of meetings about my dissertation that I will always be awed by her knowledge and approach to scholarship. I am so grateful for her willingness to take such an active role in my dissertation and for offering comments that helped me craft a stronger, more academically rigorous piece. Dr. Michael Trujillo’s encouragement and interest in my work, along with his recommendations early in the process contributed greatly to the final product. I am grateful for his participation on my committee and his enthusiasm for the project. Dr. Paul Andrew Hutton helped lure me to the University of New Mexico in the first place. I had focused my thesis work at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, on the cultural significance of rodeo and decided that I wanted to continue exploring the meanings and messages wrapped up in the Mythic West. I had seen Dr. Hutton in a number of history documentaries about the American West on the History Channel and PBS and was immediately taken with his knowledge, expertise, and passion for the subject. I am honored that he has been such an integral part of my studies at the University of New Mexico and thank him for his support and inspiration. I would also like to thank Dr. Judith Smith and Dr. Rachel Rubin of the American Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. They introduced me to the field of American studies, encouraged me to delve into topics I never knew could be explored, supported my interest in the Mythic West, and inspired me to further my academic studies. I am eternally grateful to them. My friends and colleagues at the New Mexico Historical Review, most notably Dr. Durwood Ball and Donna Peterson, have been amazingly supportive and encouraging. I could not have asked for a better place to work over the last five years. iii My friends and colleagues in Albuquerque have made my life far more grand than I could ever have imagined. I would like to specifically thank Dr. William Dewan and Clare Daniel for their constant support and advice throughout moments of self-doubt and second-guessing. They offered balance whenever I felt ill at ease and encouragement at all the right times. My friends at home and abroad have continued to support me through time and space, and for that I am forever grateful. Lastly I would like to thank my family. My sisters Suzanne and Beth McCormack helped me study for the GRE years ago, and have been supportive ever since. My nephews Finian and Elijah have brought recent joy and happiness to all of us, breaking up my academic sojourn with hilarity and laughter. My mother, Anne McCormack, is the strongest woman I know, and I thank her for imparting some of that strength onto me. She has also been emotionally and financially supportive of me these past few years, and without her, this would not have been possible. Finally, my father, Robert McCormack, has been both financially and intellectually supportive of this endeavor since I came up with the idea years ago. His love for the American West was an early influence on my choice of field and his continued interest in my work has been a gift to me. I cannot thank you enough. iv IMAGINING “THE TOWN TOO TOUGH TO DIE”: TOURISM, PRESERVATION, AND HISTORY IN TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA by KARA L. MCCORMACK B.A., Journalism, New York University, 1989 M.A., American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2004 Ph.D., American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2013 ABSTRACT This dissertation looks at the ways popular culture, preservation, and economic exigencies continually circulate and interact in Tombstone, Arizona; the ways tourists make meaning from the site; the importance of the concepts of history and authenticity; and the resonance of the Earp Myth and the Mythic West worldwide. Tombstone’s place within that myth cannot be understated, as it has come to signify for many the ideas wrapped up in the myth as a whole. On a more basic level, Tombstone fits within wider trends in historic preservation and heritage sites that are central to an analysis of the power and consumption of narratives of the past, the importance and strength of tourist dollars, the centrality of popular culture to our understandings of history, and the link between the manipulation of history and place. This paper demonstrates that Tombstone, Arizona, is but one of many elements in the larger Mythic West that continue to circulate and resonate with consumers of popular culture. As a mythic site, Tombstone works in specific ways—helping audiences to continually “relive” their frontier past; upholding gender-, class-, and race-normative v ideologies; and perpetuating a certain brand of U.S. history, and the region that has become ever more meaningful in the retelling of that history in particular ways. As a tourist site, Tombstone offers an ordering narrative to the story of the Old West, but it also has become yet another example of the promotion of simplified history. Further, it is a site of contestation and struggle—struggles to remain viable and relevant; contestations around historical accuracy and authenticity; efforts to cash in on a frontier past that is based more in the popular imagination than in the complex history of the American West. vi CONTENTS Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 I. The Legend Begins .....................................................................................1 II. The Quest for Authenticity ........................................................................10 III. The Tombstone Mystique .........................................................................14 IV. Methodology ............................................................................................17 Chapter One: “A Nationally Significant Historic Place”: History and Historicity in Tombstone’s Historic District ............................................................................23 I. Tombstone’s Historic Landmark District ...................................................25 II. Tombstone Courthouse Museum ...............................................................33 III. The Fight to Tell Tombstone’s Past .........................................................44 IV. Saving Tombstone’s “True” History........................................................49 Chapter Two: A Monument to the Old West: Preservation and Performance in Tombstone, Arizona ............................................................................................55 I. Designating the Past: Preservation in the United States .............................56 II. The Journey Westward: Tourists Head West ............................................68 III. Preserving and Promoting Tombstone’s Past ...........................................70 IV. Performers of History ..............................................................................82 V. Tombstone’s Future ..................................................................................90 Chapter Three: Hollywood, Historicity, and the Enduring Earp Myth: