Mr. Write's Page

Tombstone, Arizona, is located not far from the Mexican border, between the San Pedro Valley and the Huachuca Mountains. A young prospector, “Lucky Ed” Schieffelin, gave the town its name.

Ed had been told that the only thing he would find in that desolate country, besides Apaches, was his tombstone.

But Ed persevered, and in 1877 he discovered a rich vein of silver ore at a place called Goose Flats. He called his claim The Tombstone. The mining boomtown of Tombstone quickly arose there.

Tombstone became famous for the OK Corral, where the Earps and the Clantons mixed it up. It’s also the home of Boot Hill Cemetery, with its graves of gunslingers, hanging victims, and the losers from the OK Corral.

Lucky Ed became a wealthy man, but he didn’t stay long in Arizona. He moved on to prospect in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

In 1880, a journalist, John Crum, was traveling to Tombstone by stagecoach from Tucson. He planned to start a newspaper.

Crum asked his fellow passengers for recommendations on what the newspaper should be called. One passenger spoke up immediately and suggested The Tombstone Epitaph.

The passenger was Ed Schieffelin, on his way back to Tombstone to visit family and friends.

Lucky Ed died in Oregon in 1897, age 49. In his will, he asked to be buried in Tombstone, Arizona.

That request was honored. His grave, beneath a 25-foot-high tombstone, is located about a mile from town.

Inside the casket with Ed, as stipulated in his will, are his pick, shovel, and canteen.

The Tombstone Epitaph is still in publication.

Lucky Ed.

Lucky Ed's tombstone.