FROM THE TEXT

"Tombstone, Arizona is a kitsch town trying to maintain any ounce of relevancy by targeting gun loving tourists. The town is a safe haven for right-wing conservatives, confederate flags, and bearing arms. As such, the town has expertly edited its own history into a selective version that omits Native Americans and Mexican ties. The main street that cross-sections Tombstone is lined with haunted brothels, restored saloons, and more than a couple souvenir shops. Tired cowboys stand at each corner while tired horses pull tourists on stagecoaches. It becomes clear that Tombstone, much like other towns focused on reenactments, have found a way to mythologize America’s not so distant past through tourism and pop culture. These spaces have become parodies of themselves capitalizing and commodifying the myths and legends into palatable bits for consumption. It becomes apparent that the only way to enjoy Tombstone is to don historical horse blinders and ignore the greater connotations of the seemingly insignificant actions within this lawless town and the southwest at large. Tombstone is sepia colored in everything except the color of its residents and reenactors. “Non-whites seemed to have been completely erased from popular narratives.” In a bookstore belonging to “Ben Traywick, the ninety year old, now retired official historian of Tombstone… There’s a confederate flag in the back, some dusty mariachi hats, many framed pictures of admirals and generals-among them Nathan Bedford Forrest, a confederate Army general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan--and a poster of Donald Trump dressed as a cowboy, with a gun under his belt, and the slogan ‘Keeping America Safe Again.’’’