Editing Tombstone, Arizona (section)

===City growth and decline===

By mid-1881, the town had fancy restaurants, Vogan's Bowling Alley,<ref name=losing>{{cite web |url=http://4jranch.com/cokestories/o%27rourke.htm |title=Losing Gambler |access-date=May 22, 2011 |archive-date=April 12, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050412230538/http://www.4jranch.com/cokestories/o%27rourke.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> four churches—Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist<ref name=nhlsnom/>—an ice house, a school, the [[Schieffelin Hall|Schieffelin Hall opera house]], two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/tombstone/boothill.html |title=Tombstone, Arizona – Boothill|access-date=February 10, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tombstoneepitaph.com/history_printableversion.html |title=The History of The Tombstone Epitaph Newspaper |publisher=TheTombstoneEpitaph.com |access-date=March 15, 2010 |archive-date=September 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100908020938/http://www.tombstoneepitaph.com/history_printableversion.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> several Chinese restaurants, French, two Italian, numerous Mexican, several upscale "Continental" establishments, and many "home cooking" hot spots including Nellie Cashman's famous Rush House and numerous brothels all situated among and on top of a number of dirty, hardscrabble mines.<ref name=wgbh>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/wyatt-transcript/ |title=WGBH American Experience: Wyatt Earp, Complete Program Transcript |date=January 25, 2010 |series=22 |number=2 |access-date=September 17, 2017 |archive-date=January 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130081133/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/wyatt-transcript/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Arizona Telephone Company began installing poles and lines for the city's first telephone service on March 15, 1881.<ref>{{cite web| title=Contention City and Its Mills| url=http://www.wyattearpexplorers.com/contention-city-and-its-mills.html| publisher=Wyatt Earp Explorers| access-date=May 27, 2011}}</ref>

[[Investor]]s from the northeastern United States bought many of the leading mining operations. The mining itself was carried out by immigrants from Europe, chiefly [[Cornwall]], [[Ireland]], and [[Germany]].<ref>Rowse, A.L. The Cousin Jacks, The Cornish in America</ref> Chinese and Mexican labor provided services including laundry, construction, restaurants, and hotels, but immigrant labor provoked backlash; an "Anti-Chinese League" was formed in the 1880s to boycott Chinese businesses and workers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tombstonetraveltips.com/us-immigration-1800s.html|title=US Immigration 1800s|publisher=Picture Rocks Networking|website=TombstoneTravelTips| date=April 13, 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=131096|title=Hoptown Chinese Section 1879|publisher=Historical Marker Database}}</ref>

The mines and stamping mills ran three shifts.<ref name=nhlsnom/> Miners were paid union wages of $4.00 per day working six 10-hour shifts per week. The roughly 6,000 men working in Tombstone generated more than $168,000 a week (around ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|168000|1883}}}} today) in income.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldwesthistory.net/tombstone_memories_by_harry_h._bishop.html |title=Tombstone Memories by Harry H. Bishop |access-date=February 15, 2011 |work=Tombstone Epitaph |date=September 27, 1934 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215215404/http://www.oldwesthistory.net/tombstone_memories_by_harry_h._bishop.html |archive-date=February 15, 2011  }}</ref> The mostly young, single, male population spent their hard-earned cash on Allen Street, the major commercial center, open 24 hours a day.

The respectable folks saw traveling theater shows at [[Schieffelin Hall]], opened on June 8, 1881. On December 25, 1881, the [[Bird Cage Theatre]] opened on Allen Street, offering the miners and cowboys their kind of bawdy entertainment. One of the prime entertainments at the Bird Cage Theatre was [[Cornish wrestling]] competitions, with the results being regularly published in the UK.<ref name="WBACA10061999">''Jerry prepares for a return to Tombstone'',  West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, June 10, 1999, p30.</ref>

In 1882, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that "the Bird Cage Theatre is the wildest, wickedest night spot between [[Basin Street]] and the [[Barbary Coast, San Francisco|Barbary Coast]]."<ref>"This Month in History", p. 10, ''Arizona Highways'', December 2008.</ref> The Bird Cage remained open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year until it closed its doors in 1889.<ref name=gooseflat>{{cite web| title=A Brief History of Tombstone| url=http://www.tombstoneweb.com/history.html| publisher=Goose Flats Graphics| access-date=May 23, 2011| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110625071235/http://www.tombstoneweb.com/history.html| archive-date=June 25, 2011| df=mdy-all}}</ref> Respectable women stayed on the north side of Allen Street. The prostitutes worked the saloons on the south side and in the southeast quarter of the town, as far as possible from the proper residential section north of Fremont Street.<ref name=nhlsnom/>

By late 1881, Tombstone had more than 7,000 citizens, excluding all Chinese, Mexicans, women, and children residents. At the height of the town's boom, the official population reached about 10,000, with several thousand more uncounted.<ref name=nhlsnom/> In 1882, the Cochise County Courthouse was built at a cost around $45,000.<ref name=gooseflat/>