Ed Schieffelin Monument — Attraction in Arizona

Ed would not be happy. His monument has gone to ruin. The inscription long ago faded in the weather and sun and now it looks like the local hooligans use it to prop up glass bottles for target practice. There's glass all over the place to the point we were afraid our dog would get a cut paw, so we left.

You know Tombstone is in many ways charming but in many other ways it is rather depressing because it is kind of ratty and unkept.

This is this is more of monument to that than it is to Ed who started the town back when they told him he should leave or the place would "become his tombstone".

They call this the town too tough to die but if they can't keep the monument up and they can't make downtown look a little better then maybe one day it will.

What tombstone needs is an infusion of capital from investors who might, for example, turn it into a western version of Williamsburg. Instead, this is like Gatlinburg with historic buildings that have been hollowed out to hold cheap trinkets and souvenirs and tacky imitations of "authentic"...

You have total access to all sides of the monument. However, the day we were there, I found on the trail freshly hatched rattlesnake eggs and many slithering drag tracks in the sand and dirt. As we were heading back to the car, I heard hissing and rattling. In the bush to our right was the mother rattlesnake and the babies. I told my friend to back up slowly since she was very close to the bush. She's hard of hearing and never heard the snakes 🐍. We got back to the car safely, and as we backed out, you could see the family of...

Ok so be advised...there isn't a lot her. There's the monument...there's the picnic table...and there's an information sign which needs serious replacing. I don't know how she did it, but she was actually able to read the sign. If you go visit here, you'll see how amazing that is. The view is nice...all in all totally worth visiting. It's seriously like 7 minutes from the heart of Tombstone. Travel north on historic Allen st....and that's it. You'll see the monument...