This all started before the Memorial Day weekend and here we are coming up on the Labor Day weekend with no results. The Tombstone city cemetery is in worse shape now than it's ever been. Since Tricia Rawson was told by the Marshal to stay out of the cemetery earlier this year it has become completely overgrown with weeds - taller than the headstones - graves that Tricia told the city needed to be filled and tamped before they caved in have now done so. Weeds are understandable during our monsoon season but not to the extent they are now. I was at the cemetery yesterday looking for a 4 month old grave that had no funeral marker of any kind - due to the rain, you can barely tell it's a grave at all. Within a couple months this will be just one more lost grave in the Tombstone City cemetery. If they had just left her alone to do her volunteer work, the cemetery wouldn't be in this condition. In the meantime, the mayor stated that funds would be allocated for the city cemetery from the donations collected through Boothill cemetery starting with the new fiscal year in July. What happened to those funds? Nothing has been done - nothing - at least not at the CITY cemetery... Boothill managed to receive custom shelving from floor to ceiling, new carpet and they're putting in a patio for the tourists so they'll have a place to sit in the shade while they drink their beverages, which of course are purchased through the gift shop. Considering the donations are for the upkeep of the cemeteries - how do they get away with spending the money on a city building? How can they do this when the city cemetery is caving in, overgrown, and although it's still an active cemetery they can't even get a funeral canopy? Supposedly the city had set aside $1000 for the purchase of a funeral canopy which Ms. Rawson's non-profit organization was willing to match - as of May the money had "mysteriously" disappeared. Nobody seems to know where it went, who used it, etc.

On Friday, July 29th, after a major rain storm, Tricia went to the cemetery to check on the graves that she had informed the Marshal's office were starting to cave in. She found Sally King's grave (only 2 years old) had begun to cave in and called the Marshal's office. Deputy Nash responded and was horrified! Not only was the grave caving in, but the coffin was visible only approximately 18 inches below the surface. Tricia told them they had until 5pm to get it taken care of or she'd be back in the cemetery first thing the next morning taking care of it herself and they could arrest her if they wanted to. Deputy Nash managed to get a load of dirt dumped on the grave - and that was it, dumped - but also said it took a great deal of pursuasion on his part to get city works out there. The fact is that now that the city HAS attempted to fix a grave, they have acknowledged their responsibility to maintain the cemetery. What now???

We recently spent a few days in New Mexico and stopped at the little town of White Oaks. This tiny little town has a wonderful old cemetery! It amazes me that a town that probably doesn't have more than 20 residents and is lucky to see one tourist a day had managed to maintain that cemetery beautifully. Every grave is marked and tended. It just goes to show that the bottom line in Tombstone is the almighty dollar. To hell with history as it really was - tell it like they want to hear it and glorify the outlaws - not the people who truly made the "town too tough to die".

I could give you a list a mile long of people that volunteer their time all over this country to help maintain cemeteries. Why is Tombstone so hell bent on harassing the one person that cares enough to try and keep their cemetery tended? Do to all the negativity, Ms Rawson has put her house up for sale and is planning on moving as soon as it sells. She has found a new little historical town here in the southwest that has welcomed her with open arms. The one thing that saddens her about leaving is the condition of the city cemetery. She feels she's let hundreds of people from our past down by not finishing her job there. There has to be a way to force the city of Tombstone to take it's responsibility seriously and clean up the cemetery. Any and all suggestions appreciated.