Excavation of Sidewalk at Tombstone Courthouse

Hollis Cook

Excavation of Sidewalk at Tombstone Courthouse

Year: 1988

Summary

As part of an ongoing effort to bury the utility lines at Tombstone Courthouse State Park, helping to recreate the 1800's aesthetics, in April of 1988 a trench for a telephone line conduit was dug (east to west) in the northeast yard at the Courthouse.

Located four feet N.E. of the corner of the east wing, the trench encountered what appeared to be possible (although rather small) flagstone pavers. The stones were not broken by the construction and were placed in position to await further investigation.

The trench outlined above, in conjunction with a couple of small stones exposed near the tree trunk, at the N.E. corner of the north wing, and near the metal gate into the southeast yard led us to believe that the area merited investigation. Prior to the telephone trench the exposed pavers had been thought to be all that was left of a previous flagstone sidewalk until the trenching tipped the individuals creating the telephone trench to the fact that there were stones below grade.