TOMBSTONE — Arizona has come a long way from its Wild West days and storied past. There are still plenty of cowboys, you can still ride off into the sunset, but gone are the “break everything in its place” saloon brawls, the shady lawmen and the infamous gunslingers who took the law into their own hands.
We may no longer have this kind of vigilante justice, but the Wild West mystique is still alive and well in Tombstone, known as the town too tough to die.
The shootout at the O.K. Corral lasted only 30 seconds but it was enough to put Tombstone on the map and eventually turn it into a thriving tourist destination.
On October 26, 1881, four men in long black coats strode down dusty Fremont Street. Around the corner, behind the O.K. Corral, waited six cowboys.
In a fateful 30 seconds, thirty shots were fired at close range killing three people, wounding three others and becoming the most famous shootout in the history of the American Old West.
One hundred forty-one years later, the streets of Tombstone still look the same, yet different. You can catch the daily reenactment of that infamous gun fight between Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Virgil and Morgan Earp versus the McLaurys, and the Clantons in the streets of the Tombstone theatre.
Allen Street is still filled with saloons like Big Nose Kates and the Crystal Palace, but new claims have also been staked. There are now tasting rooms by local wineries and an award-winning brewery over on Tough-Nut. Old or new, one thing is for sure, Tombstone is one of a kind.
Take Johnny Fields for example. He is a former RV salesperson turned Sarsaparilla Slinger. He first made a name for himself walking around town with his dog. People would ask, who is this guy and what does he do? Some guy answered, “that’s John and his dog.” This goes on for months when another gal says, “who is that guy, I see him all the time.” Another guy answered, “that’s Johnny One Dog,” hence the name stuck.
While on his walks, Johnny One Dog said an idea came to him when he walked past a little general store on 6th and Allen and saw a display of Sioux City Sarsaparilla. He thought to himself, “Tombstone is more famous than Sioux City, Iowa, they should have their own Sarsaparilla.”
After some research, Johnny partnered with a micro-brewery in Kansas City to make Sarsaparilla especially for him. He scrapped up enough money to buy a pallet of the specialty soda and made labels and packaging emblazoned with the likes of Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers.
He picked up a secondhand fridge, turned a rolling tv cart into a bar and set up shop in an old stagecoach repair garage across from the O.K. Corral.
“All of a sudden, I have 20 accounts. I’m selling, oh geez, maybe 5,000 bottles a month,” said Johnny.
He now has customers driving from five other states to buy his cases and he’s selling about 50,000 bottles a year but Johnny says he has no plans to go mainstream.
“It turns into root beer. You get into mass production, and it screws it all up.”
Johnny prefers his one-man operation and likes to personally deliver his own bottled soda. Just like the old days when Tombstone was still a one-horse town.
New mixed in with the old. Tombstone will always be connected to its storied past, but like Johnny One Dog, there are a few new places hoping to be part of the narrative.
