Place · United States
The history of Sierra Vista
Assembled from 2 dug tiles · 28 sourced records · 1877–1991 · last reviewed 16 October 2026
This record gathers two points of ground in Tombstone, Arizona, near present-day Sierra Vista: the O. K. Corral, a livery founded in 1879 whose name attached to the 1881 gunfight fought nearby, and Boothill Graveyard, a cemetery opened in 1878 that holds the men who fell that day.
These are the individual spots Strata has dug in Sierra Vista — not a guide to the town, but a record of what happened on particular ground.
Digs in Sierra Vista
Tombstone's livery turned gunfight shrineThis point marks the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, a former horse livery now run as a paid historic site. O.K. Corral
1877–1964 Tombstone's old pioneer cemetery, now a roadside memorial
This point sits at Boothill Graveyard, a small burial ground on the edge of Tombstone, Arizona. Boothill Graveyard
1878–1991
Sierra Vista in layers
1877
The city of Tombstone had only been founded in 1877, four years before the gunfight, when it already held about 5,300 residents. FamilySearch
1878
The cemetery began in 1878 as Tombstone's City Cemetery, and its first burial is believed to be an infant, Eva Waters, who died of scarlet fever. Wikipedia / Cactus Atlas
February 1879
Tombstone's chamber of commerce records that John Montgomery opened the O.K. Corral, Livery and Feed Stable here in February 1879, one of eight liveries then operating in the boomtown. Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
1879–1881
By the time of the gunfight the corral belonged to "Honest John" Montgomery and Edward Monroe Benson, who rented out horses, buggies and an eleven-passenger excursion coach to a town where most people owned no horse at all. Wikipedia: O.K. Corral (building)
October 30, 1880
Tombstone's town marshal Fred White was killed by Curly Bill Brocius on October 30, 1880, and lies in Boothill Graveyard. Wikipedia / siteresearch
October 26, 1881
On October 26, 1881, Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday fought the Clanton-McLaury gang for thirty seconds in a narrow lot on Fremont Street, six doors from the corral's rear entrance. Wikipedia: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
October 26, 1881
Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed; Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded, while Wyatt Earp walked away unscathed. Western Mining History
1881
Billy Clanton, killed in the gunfight at age 19, was buried in Boothill Graveyard a short walk south of here. Wikidata
October 30, 1881
Ike Clanton, whose own gang had just lost three men, filed murder charges against the Earps on October 30, 1881. Western Mining History
October 26, 1881
Billy Clanton, killed with Tom and Frank McLaury in the October 26, 1881 shootout, was buried here while hundreds of townspeople watched the funeral procession. Wikidata / siteresearch
October 26, 1881
On October 26, 1881, the Earps and Doc Holliday shot it out with the Clantons and McLaurys on Fremont Street, now State Route 80, about 740 meters away. Arizona Department of Transportation; Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
1881
Schieffelin Hall, the largest standing adobe building in the American Southwest, opened as a theater in 1881, a short walk south of the graveyard. Wikidata
1882
Morgan Earp, wounded in the Fremont Street fight, was assassinated in Tombstone in 1882 as reprisal killings continued between the Earps and the Cowboys. Early Arizona Territory Coroners History archive
May 25, 1882
On May 25, 1882, a fire tore through almost the entire western business district and burned the O.K. Corral's own buildings to the ground. Wikipedia: O.K. Corral (building)
March 18, 1882
Wyatt Earp's brother Morgan was shot dead while playing billiards at Campbell & Hatch Saloon on March 18, 1882, widely believed to be revenge for the O.K. Corral killings. Early Arizona Territory Coroners History / Wikipedia
November 14, 1882
Claiborne, who had testified against the Earps, was killed in the Oriental Saloon by Buckskin Frank Leslie on November 14, 1882, and buried in Boothill. O.K. Corral History Page
March 28, 1884
Five men hanged in 1884 for the Bisbee massacre were buried in Boothill, though the gang's accused leader John Heath, lynched by a mob, was sent home to Texas instead. Wikipedia
1906
China Mary ran a well-stocked general store and lent money around town until her death from heart failure in 1906, drawing a large funeral turnout. Wikipedia
1920s
The graveyard was renamed Boothill in the 1920s after the famous Dodge City cemetery, a move made to draw tourists. Tombstone Chamber of Commerce
1931
Stuart Lake's 1931 book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, published two years after Earp's death, caught the public imagination during the Great Depression and set the corral on its path to fame. Wikipedia: O.K. Corral (building)
May 30, 1938
On May 30, 1938, the Roy Fourr post of the American Legion built and dedicated a monument here to the unknown settlers and drifters buried in the old cemetery. Discover Boothill, Rita Ackerman
1940s
Resident Emmett Nunnelly led a restoration effort, and Harry Fulton Ohm, owner of the Bird Cage Theatre, donated steel markers to replace the rotted wooden ones. Interment.net Boothill burial records
1945
Swain, a former slave of Judge Slaughter who became a cowboy and a longtime Tombstone resident, was one of the final people buried in the graveyard. Wikipedia
1957
After the 1957 film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the shootout took that title in the public mind, and visitors were led to believe it happened inside the corral rather than in the lot on Fremont Street. Wikipedia: O.K. Corral (building)
Questions about Sierra Vista
What is Sierra Vista known for historically?
This record covers Tombstone's O. K. Corral and Boothill Graveyard. The O. K. Corral, founded as a livery in 1879, became famous as the namesake of the October 26, 1881 gunfight, while Boothill Graveyard, founded in 1878, holds roughly 250 burials including those killed in that gunfight.
What happened at the O.K. Corral in 1881?
On October 26, 1881, the gunfight took place not in the corral itself but in a vacant lot six doors from its rear entrance. Three men died within a minute and three more were wounded, with charges following within days, on October 30, 1881.
Who is buried at Boothill Graveyard?
Boothill holds Billy Clanton, killed in the 1881 gunfight; Marshal Fred White, shot in 1880; Billy Claiborne, a witness to the gunfight, shot and buried in 1882; the perpetrators of the 1884 Bisbee massacre, hanged and buried there; and China Mary, a merchant and moneylender buried in 1906.
What happened to the O.K. Corral building after the gunfight?
The corral itself was destroyed by fire on May 25, 1882, the year after the gunfight. A 1931 biography and a 1957 Hollywood film, which renamed the event and misplaced its location, later made the gunfight and Wyatt Earp widely known.
Why is it called Boothill Graveyard?
The cemetery was founded in 1878 but was not called Boothill until the 1920s. Wooden grave markers were replaced with steel in the 1940s, and the last burial there took place in 1945, with a Jewish cemetery section added in 1991.
Is the O.K. Corral site still standing today?
The original corral building burned in 1882, but the site is run today as a paid historic attraction on East Fremont Street in Tombstone. The surrounding district became a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and Detroit investors bought the site in 1964.