Tombstone was founded in 1877 by prospector Ed Schieffelin. When he set out from Camp Huachuca, heading east into dangerous Apache territory, he was warned that he'd find nothing but his own tombstone.

The town grew significantly in the early 1880s as local mines produced $40 to $85 million in silver bullion. Tombstone became one of the last boomtowns in the American frontier, with the population exploding from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years.

Within two years of its founding, although far distant from any other metropolitan area, Tombstone had a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dance halls and brothels.

One of the most lawless mining camps in the American West, Tombstone might have gone the way of many old mining towns and become a true ghost town, but in 1881 it was made famous by the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Today, the town draws most of its revenue from tourism, acting out its history on a daily basis for tourists who come to the historic district to experience and relive the fantasy of the Wild West and "The Town Too Tough to Die."

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West.

The historic gunfight is often portrayed as occurring at the O.K. Corral, though it actually occurred a short distance away in an empty lot on Fremont Street.

After three Cochise County Cowboys robbed a Kinnear & Company stagecoach carrying $26,000 in silver bullion (about $689,000 in today's dollars) and killed the driver and his passenger, Tombstone Marshal Virgil Earp, along with his temporary deputies and brothers Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp, pursued the suspected murderers, setting off a chain of events that would culminate in the famous gunfight, during which the lawmen and Doc Holliday killed Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton.

Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton, killed in the O.K. Corral shootout, are among those buried in the town's Boothill Graveyard, so named because most of those buried there "died with their boots on."

The Bird Cage Theatre was a combination theater, saloon, gambling parlor, and brothel that operated from 1881 to 1889. It hosted a high stakes poker game that was played continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and ran for 8 years, 5 months, and 3 days. Among the notable players in this particular game were George Hearst, Diamond Jim Brady, Adolphus Busch, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and Wyatt Earp. It is estimated that approximately $10 million was exchanged during the course of the game and that the Bird Cage retained ten percent of that money.

Tombstone's first newspaper, the Tombstone Daily Nugget, was established in the fall of 1879. The Tombstone Epitaph followed on May 1, 1880. The Epitaph took a Republican view on events in town while the Nugget was supported by the Democrats.