Boot Hill

For other uses, see Boot Hill (disambiguation).
Tombstone, Arizona's Boothill Graveyard in 2009

Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the name for any number of cemeteries, chiefly in the American West. During the 19th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who "died with their boots on" (i.e., violently).

Origin of term

Although many towns use the name "Boot Hill", the first graveyard named "Boot Hill" was at Hays, Kansas, 5 years before the founding of Dodge City, Kansas.[1] The term alludes to the fact that many of its occupants were cowboys who "died with their boots on," the implication here being they died violently, as in gunfights or by hanging, and not of natural causes. The term became commonplace throughout the Old West, with some Boot Hills becoming famous, such as Dodge City, Kansas, Tombstone, Arizona, and Deadwood, South Dakota.

Boothill Graveyard

The most notable use of the name "Boot Hill" is at the Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona. 31°43′11.6″N 110°04′13.6″W / 31.719889°N 110.070444°W / 31.719889; -110.070444 (Boothill Graveyard) Formerly called the "Tombstone Cemetery", the plot features the graves of Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury; the three men who were killed during the famed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.[2]

Located on the northwest corner of the town, the graveyard is believed to hold over 300 persons, 205 of which are recorded. This was due to some people (especially Chinese and Jewish immigrants) being buried without record. There is a separate Jewish cemetery nearby with some markers restored, and there are also marked graves of Chinese. However, most of the loss was due to neglect of grave markers and theft of these wooden relics as souvenirs.[3] For example, when former Tombstone Mayor John Clum visited Tombstone for the first Helldorado celebration in 1929, he was unable to locate the grave of his wife Mary, who had been buried in Boothill.

The Tombstone "boothill" cemetery was closed in late 1886, as the new "City Cemetery" on Allen Street opened. Thereafter, Boothill was referred to as the "old city cemetery" and neglected. It was used after that only to bury a few later outlaws (some legally hanged and one shot in a robbery), as well as a few colorful Western characters and one man (Emmett Crook Nunnally) who had spent many volunteer hours restoring it.[4]

Currently, the Boothill Graveyard is open to the public without fee, and is a popular stop for tourists visiting Tombstone.

Boot Hill Museum

The Boot Hill Museum is located on the original location of the Boot Hill Cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas.[5]

In popular culture

Boot Hill is the name of the cemetery in Dodge City in the Gunsmoke radio series. In many episodes, the marshal (Matt Dillon) would allude to "putting you in Boot Hill", or "another man headed to Boot Hill". In the first season of the Gunsmoke television series, the introduction to each episode showed Matt Dillon walking around Boot Hill reflecting on the deaths of men buried there.

Boothill Graveyard is referenced in many films such as Tombstone (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), during which it was repeatedly sung over the recurring title theme song by Frankie Laine. In the later half of the movie Laine changes the theme to:

“

Boothill... Boothill...
So cold... so still...
There they lay side by side,
the killers that died,
in the Gunfight at O.K. Corral.

 ”

Boot Hill is the name of a role playing game first published in 1975 by TSR, Inc., the original publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. It was the third game released by TSR and notable as one of the first games to use ten-sided dice.

Boot Hill also appears in the first person shooter video game Borderlands 2, located in 'The Dust', and playing home to a 'truxican standoff'.

Carl Perkins wrote in 1959 a song "The Ballad of Boot Hill". Johnny Cash recorded it for Columbia Records and it was released in the same year.

A Spaghetti Western named Boot Hill was released in 1969. It featured Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.

The first of three parts that compose the Neil Young song "Country Girl", that appears in his 1970 album with Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Déjà Vu", is called "Whiskey Boot Hill".

The song "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" from Billy Joel's 1973 Album Piano Man contains the lyrics "And he never had he a sweetheart, but he finally found a home, underneath the boothill grave that bears his name".

Gallery

Tombstone, Arizona

Deadwood, South Dakota

Dodge City, Kansas

Miscellaneous

List of places with Boot Hill cemeteries

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Boot Hill Cemetery". The Milwaukee Journal. January 10, 1939. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  2. ↑ Martin, Douglas D. (1997). Tombstone's Epitaph. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2982-2.
  3. ↑ Interment Cemetery Records. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  4. ↑ Ben T. Traywick, Tombstone's Boothill, Red Marie's Bookstore, Tombstone AZ, 1971.
  5. ↑ "Boot Hill Museum and Front Street". Boot Hill Cemetery. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  6. ↑ "Boot Hill Cemetery". Find A Grave. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  7. ↑ "Boothill Swords Park Cemetery Review | Billings, Little Big Horn, and the Montana Plains | Fodor's Travel Guides". Fodors.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  8. ↑ "Arizona Tourist Attractions Hometown Offbeat Arizona Ghost Towns Travel Wall Maps". Yourhometown.org. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  9. ↑ Nye, pp. 243–247
  10. ↑ "Hartville, Wyoming – Profile". Wheatlandwy.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  11. ↑ "Patagonia Backroad Ghost Towns". Legendsofamerica.com. 1903-03-04. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  12. ↑ "Sidney Nebraska Boot Hill Cemetery". Sidneyboothill.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  13. ↑ "Skagway Spectacular Sightseeing Tours, Skagway Tours, Skagway Alaska Tours, Skagway Tour, Skagway Train Ride, White Pass, White Pass Railroad Train Ride, AK". Southeasttours.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  14. ↑ "Boothill Cemetery: a Cemetery in Gunnison County, Colorado". Colorado.hometownlocator.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  15. ↑ "National Park Service – Prospector, Cowhand, and Sodbuster (Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings)". Nps.gov. 2005-05-22. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  16. ↑ Brown, pg. 291-292
  17. ↑ "Boot Hill - New Westminster BC - Abandoned Cemeteries on". Waymarking.com. Retrieved 2012-10-26.

Further reading

External links

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