VACATION AND TRAVEL
Main Street in Tombstone, Arizona
Old Tucson offers a complete Western town set with 75 buildings, including 32 practical buildings. The 320-acre location is located in the Sonoran Desert region. While you are at Old Tucson Studios, you’ll enjoy classic Wild West experiences like Gunfights, saloon musicals, live action stunt shows, living history presentations, vintage rides, traveling salesman pitches, film history tours, southwestern BBQ and other places to get food, and more. This place has been immortalized in more than 400 films and commercial productions, Old Tucson Studios is a premiere film location made famous by movie legends such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.
Then there is the other place which is “Mescal” western town, which is located just 45 minutes South of Tucson International Airport, which is an 80-acre, open prairie, Western “ghost town” set located near Benson, Arizona. Mescal offers a complete Western town with 44 Western buildings including several practical buildings. Buildings include a bank, sheriff’s office, ranch houses, farmhouse, jail, two saloons, corrals, two-story hotel and an 1860’s fort.
Anyway, this 60-acre location is in a high-desert plain that easily represents terrains throughout the American West. Sweeping vistas and majestic mountains can be seen in the distance. The property is surrounded by open range owned by the state of Arizona.
A lot of western movies were filmed there including the, “Quick & the Dead” starring Gene Hackman, Russell Crow, and Sharon Stone, and also, the movie “Tombstone” with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.
Both of these places are seasonal and need to be planned ahead of time if you wish to get the best experience. Old Tucson Studio is the number one western attraction on my list! Mescal was closed for tours when I was there since it is used just as shooting location for some westerns, but all the action is over at Old Tucson Studios.
(Note: Mescal is seldom open to the public. It's not an Old West theme park like Old Tucson. If you want to go, it’s best to call Old Tucson and make arrangements (520-883-0100). Otherwise, you're likely to get out to Mescal, just be turned away.)
This next place is my 2nd favorite place to visit while I was in Arizona, and that is the 1879 city of Tombstone, which is in the middle of nowhere 70 miles south of the city of Tucson surrounded by desert on all sides. This town was made famous with the shootout at the OK Corral with famous characters from the late 1800’s like Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Doc Holiday, plus other well-known names of that time. By 1881 is when it really grew! This town is frozen in time with many original buildings and virtually unchanged in over one hundred