The Wild, Wild West

Sat Feb 13 – We still had discounts left on our Tucson Passport so we headed for Old Tucson Studios, about 20 miles west of town. The last time we were here was about 5 years ago. Our granddaughter, Addison, was about 2 years old and the whole place had been rebuilt after a disastrous fire burned it down. Old Tucson Studios was originally built in 1939 and has been the set for over 300 movies and TV shows. Western classics such as “Rio Bravo”, “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, and “The Quick and The Dead” were all shot here. It was also the set for TV shows such as “Little House on the Prairie” and “The Young Riders.” We walked the same streets that John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Kurt Russell walked! If you have ever seen the movie “The Three Amigos” with Chevy Chase, Martin Short, and Steve Martin, you will recognize the Mission scene with the fountain. That mission has probably been in hundreds of movies.

 

We had a lot of fun at Miss Kitty’s Can-Can Revue. As you can see, the girls recruited some cowboys from the audience and provided them with hats and horses.

We had no sooner walked outside when Billy the Kid (the “scourge of New Mexico”) and his gang had a shoot out right there in front of the Hotel Del Toro! At least, this time, the dead guys all got up afterward and posed for pictures.

After being lost in the Haunted Mine for what seemed like forever, we finally crawled our way to the Big Scoop Ice Cream and Fudge Shop for a couple of desperately needed ice cream cones.

Stopped by Rosa’s Cantina where we found a familiar looking barmaid and bartender.

Unfortunately, we saw that same bartender in the jail and, later, in a pine box. Guess that’s what happens when you hang out in a bar.

Took a train ride from the west end of town, then hopped on the stagecoach for a ride around the rest of the place. In the Old West days, a trip from St Louis to San Francisco (about 2800 miles) in a coach like this one would take about 22 days, barring Indian attacks and break downs, and cost $200. Our trip was considerably shorter and only cost $3.