Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Arizona (6)

Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the given name of many cemeteries, chiefly in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. During the 19th and early 20th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of

gunfighter Gunfighters, also called gunslingers (), or in the 19th and early 20th centuries gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in gunfights and shootouts. Today, the te ...

s, or those who " died with their boots on" (i.e., violently).

Origin of term

Although many towns use the name "Boot Hill," the first graveyard named "Boot Hill" was at Hays, Kansas, 5 years before the founding of

Dodge City, Kansas Dodge City is the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, United States, named after nearby Fort Dodge. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 27,788. The city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier to ...

. The term alludes to the fact that many of its occupants were cowboys who "died with their boots on," the implication here being they died violently, as in gunfights or by hanging, and not of natural causes. The term became commonplace throughout the Old West, with some Boot Hills becoming famous, such as Dodge City, Kansas, Tombstone, Arizona, and

Deadwood, South Dakota Deadwood ( Lakota: ''Owáyasuta''; "To approve or confirm things") is a city that serves as county seat of Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. It was named by early settlers after the dead trees found in its gulch. The city had ...

Boothill Graveyard

The most notable use of the name "Boot Hill" is at the Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona. Formerly called the "Tombstone Cemetery", the plot features the graves of Billy Clanton,

Frank McLaury Frank McLaury born Robert Findley McLaury (March 3, 1849 – October 26, 1881) was an American outlaw. He and his brother Tom owned a ranch outside Tombstone, Arizona, Arizona Territory during the 1880s, and had ongoing conflicts with lawmen W ...

and Tom McLaury; the three men who were killed during the famed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Located on the northwest corner of the town, the graveyard is believed to hold over 300 persons, 205 of which are recorded. This was due to some people (especially Chinese and Jewish immigrants) being buried without record. There is a separate Jewish cemetery nearby with some markers restored, and there are also marked graves of Chinese. However, most of the loss was due to neglect of grave markers and theft of these wooden relics as souvenirs. For example, when former Tombstone Mayor John Clum visited Tombstone for the first Helldorado celebration in 1929, he was unable to locate the grave of his wife Mary, who had been buried in Boothill. The Tombstone "boothill" cemetery was closed in late 1886, as the new "City Cemetery" on Allen Street opened. Thereafter, Boothill was referred to as the "old city cemetery" and neglected. It was used after that only to bury a few later outlaws (some legally hanged and one shot in a robbery), as well as a few colorful Western characters and one man (Emmett Crook Nunnally) who had spent many volunteer hours restoring it. Currently, the Boothill Graveyard is open to the public for a $5 fee, and is a popular stop for tourists visiting Tombstone.

Boot Hill Museum

Boot Bill Cemetery, 'Toothless Nell', Dodge City, Kansas (8735446744)

The Boot Hill Museum is located on the original location of the Boot Hill Cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas.

In popular culture

Boot Hill is the name of the cemetery in Dodge City in the ''Gunsmoke'' radio series. In many episodes, the marshal ( Matt Dillon) would allude to "putting you in Boot Hill", or "another man headed to Boot Hill". In the first season of the ''Gunsmoke'' television series, the introduction to each episode showed Matt Dillon walking around Boot Hill reflecting on the deaths of men buried there. Boot Hill cemetery is a main plot point in the Twilight Zone episode '' Mr. Garrity and the Graves''. Boothill Graveyards are referenced in many films such as '' Tombstone'' (1993), ''

Wyatt Earp Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which la ...

'' (1994), ''

The Magnificent Seven ''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay by William Roberts is a remake – in an Old West–style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself initially ...

'' (1960) and '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), during which it was repeatedly sung over the recurring title theme song by

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final p ...

. In the later half of the movie Laine changes the theme to: '' Boot Hill'' is the name of a role playing game first published in 1975 by TSR, Inc., the original publisher of ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (T ...

''. It was the third game released by TSR and notable as one of the first games to use ten-sided dice. Boot Hill also appears in the first-person shooter video game '' Borderlands 2'', located in 'The Dust', and playing home to a 'truxican standoff'.

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 19 ...

wrote in 1959 a song " The Ballad of Boot Hill".

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American Country music, country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later s ...

recorded it for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

and it was released in the same year. A

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most ...

named '' Boot Hill'' was released in 1969 and it featured

Terence Hill Terence Hill (born Mario Girotti; 29 March 1939) is an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. He began his career as a child actor and gained international fame for starring roles in action and comedy films, many with longtim ...

and Bud Spencer. The first of three parts that compose the

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

song "Country Girl", that appears in his 1970 album with

Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth mem ...

, " Déjà Vu", is called "Whiskey Boot Hill". The Outlaws' song " Hurry Sundown" also references "lying" an unnamed character in "Boot Hill". Several themes from

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

’s soundtrack album " Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid" (1973) contain the verse "Up to Boot Hill they'd like to send ya". The song " The Ballad of Billy the Kid" from

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the " Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

's 1973 Album '' Piano Man'' contains the lyrics "And he never had a sweetheart, but he finally found a home, underneath the boothill grave that bears his name". "Boot Hill" (unknown) is the first track on

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years ...

's 1991 posthumous release The Sky is Crying. It was recorded in early 1989 and is one of the last fully produced songs completed prior to his untimely death in 1990. In cricket, the term 'Boot Hill' is used to refer to the fielding position of short-leg because of its proximity to the batsman and high likelihood of being hit by the ball, making the position particularly dangerous. Players fielding in this position typically wear a helmet and other protection. In the comic book series ''Preacher'', the Saint of Killers rests at a tomb on Boot Hill when not actively pursuing his goals. Boot Hill Cemetery is the name of the graveyard at Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris.

Gallery

Tombstone, Arizona

File:BootHillCemeteryTombstone.jpg, The entrance to Boothill Graveyard
File:TombstoneGraves.JPG, Graves of Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers File:Boot Hill 02.jpg, Alleged grave of John Wesley Heath File:BHGravestone1.jpg, Grave of George Johnson File:TwoChinese.jpg, Grave of "Two Chinese" File:Gene Barry Bat Masterson Tombstone Arizona 1960.JPG, Gene Barry as

Bat Masterson Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921) was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was born to ...

standing next to Lester Moore's grave in 1960 File:Tombstone Boot Hill, FSA, 1940.jpg, The Boothill Graveyard in 1940 File:TombstoneinTombstone.jpg, Graves of Dan Dowd, Red Sample, Tex Howard, Bill Delaney and Dan Kelly in 1940 File:BHTCactus.jpg, A blooming prickly pear at Boothill Graveyard

Deadwood, South Dakota

File:Mt Moriah Cemetery.jpg, Deadwood's Boot Hill, the Mount Moriah Cemetery File:Deadwood Cemetery- Wild Bill and Calamity Jane.jpg, Plaques for

Wild Bill Hickok James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvemen ...

and Calamity Jane File:Steve and Charlie Utter.jpg, Grave of Wild Bill Hickok File:Grabill - Wild Bills Monument.jpg, Bust of Wild Bill Hickok in 1891 File:Wild Bill Monument Deadwood South Dakota.jpg, Bust of Wild Bill Hickok File:Seth Bullock Tombstone.jpg, Grave of

Seth Bullock Seth Bullock (July 23, 1849 – September 23, 1919) was a Canadian-American frontiersman, business proprietor, politician, sheriff, and U.S. Marshal. He was a prominent citizen in Deadwood, South Dakota, where he lived from 1876 until his death, o ...

and his wife Martha

Dodge City, Kansas

File:Boot Hill Museum Entrance (Great Western Hotel).jpg, The entrance to the Boot Hill Museum File:Boot Hill Museum Shops - West.jpg, The shops at Boot Hill Museum, including a reconstruction of the

Long Branch Saloon The Long Branch Saloon was a well-known saloon in Dodge City, Kansas from about 1874 to 1885. It had several owners, most notably Chalk Beeson and gunfighter Luke Short. The establishment provided gambling and live entertainment, including B ...

File:Graves at Boot Hill, Dodge City, KS, 1959(1).jpg, Graves at the Boot Hill Cemetery in 1959 File:Hanging Tree at Dodge City (color print).jpg, Graves and the Hangman's Tree File:Hangman's tree, Dodge City, KS, 1959.jpg, The Hangman's Tree File:John M Lawson at Boot Hill Cemetery.jpg, John M Lawson at Boot Hill Cemetery

Miscellaneous

File:152631159106 0 ALB.jpg, The Boot Hill Cemetery at Tilden, Texas in 2006 File:738340030206 0 ALB.jpg, Historical marker in front of the Tilden Boot Hill Cemetery File:Soapy Smith grave Skagway 2009.jpg,

Soapy Smith Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (November 2, 1860 – July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier. Smith operated confidence schemes across the Western United States, and had a large hand in organized cri ...

's grave at the

Skagway, Alaska The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal wit ...

, Boot Hill File:Frank Reid Grave 1 Skagway 2009.jpg, Grave of Frank H. Reid in Skagway File:Boot Hill Billings, Montana.JPG, The Boothill Cemetery at

Coulson, Montana Coulson is a ghost town located in Yellowstone County, Montana, United States, on the north bank of the Yellowstone River, approximately one mile east of present-day downtown Billings. References {{coord, 45, 47, 20, N, 108, 28, 41, W, ...

File:Virginiacity.jpg, View of Virginia City, Nevada, from Boot Hill

List of places with Boot Hill cemeteries

* Alma, New Mexico * Anamosa, Iowa *

Billings, Montana Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metr ...

* Bodie, California *

Bonanza, Idaho Bonanza is a ghost town in Custer County, Idaho, United States. It was originally established as a mining town. As of 2005, the land is privately owned but open to the public. Custer has a museum for the gold-rush era where visitors can exper ...

* Calabasas,

Santa Cruz County, Arizona Santa Cruz is a county in southern Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population is 47,669. The county seat is Nogales. The county was established in 1899. It borders Pima County to the north and west, Cochise County to the eas ...

* Calico, San Bernardino County, California * Canyon City, Oregon * Canyon Diablo, Arizona *

Columbia, California Columbia is a census-designated place (CDP) located in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Tuolumne County, California, Tuolumne County, California, United States. It was founded as a boomtown in 1850 when gold was found during the California Gold R ...

* Cripple Creek, Colorado *

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

Fort Sill Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (136.8 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost . The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landma ...

, Oklahoma *

Guthrie, Oklahoma Guthrie is a city and county seat in Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. The population was 10,191 at the 2010 census, a 2.7 percent increase from the figure of 9,925 in the 2000 census. First ...

Hartville, Wyoming Hartville is a town in Platte County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 62 at the 2010 census. History During the Old West period, Hartville was the scene of multiple shootings. Many of the victims were cowboys and are buried at the to ...

* Hays, Kansas * Idaho City, Idaho *

Leadville, Colorado The City of Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,602 at the 2010 census and an estimated ...

Livermore, California Livermore (formerly Livermorès, Livermore Ranch, and Nottingham) is a city in Alameda County, California. With a 2020 population of 87,955, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley. It is located on the eastern edge of Californ ...

* Mowry, Arizona *Newton, Kansas * Ogallala, Nebraska *

Pioche, Nevada Pioche is an unincorporated town in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States, approximately northeast of Las Vegas. U.S. Route 93 is the main route to Pioche and bypasses the town center just to the east, with Nevada State Route 321 and Neva ...

* Powderville, Montana * Riley Camp,

Quay County, New Mexico Quay County () is a county in the state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 9,041. Its county seat is Tucumcari. The county was named for Pennsylvania senator Matthew Quay, who supported statehood for New Mexico. Its east ...

* Seney Township, Michigan *

Sidney, Nebraska Sidney is a city in and the county seat of Cheyenne County, Nebraska, United States. The city is north of the Colorado state line. The population was 6,757 at the 2010 census. History The city was named for Sidney Dillon, president of the Unio ...

* Silver Reef, Utah *

* Tascosa, Texas * Tilden, Texas *

Tincup, Colorado Tincup, or Tin Cup, originally named Virginia City, is an unincorporated community in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The community was once a prominent mining town, but is now a community of summer homes with a few year-round reside ...

* Tombstone, Arizona *

Valentine, Nebraska Valentine is a city in Cherry County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 2,737 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cherry County. History Valentine was founded in 1882. The Valentine post office was established on December 4, ...

, also known a
Minnechaduza Cemetery
*

Virginia City, Montana Virginia City is a town in and the county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. T ...

* Virginia City, Nevada *

Weaver, Arizona Weaver, or Weaverville, is a former gold mining town, now a deserted ghost town, in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. All that remains are some rusting mining machinery, a partially restored cemetery, and the ruins of a stone house. Hi ...

* Webster, Park County, Colorado * Prison graveyard at

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

, British Columbia. * Cemetery name given by the prisoners at the Japanese-run Batu Lintang POW and civilian internment camp in

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River at the southwest tip of the state of Sara ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java Isl ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. * Fictional cemetery at the end of Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris.