Only the ghosts still live on the Clanton Brothers' ranch

I can still hear the shots. The bullets ricocheting off the stone blocks of the bank building; Virgil diving for cover behind a buckboard wagon. Doc, carefully concealing his body, firing around the corner of a red brick building, and Wyatt taking careful and deadly aim from beside the horse trough. When the famous gunfight at the OK Corral was over, several of the Clanton gang lay dead, the end of the cattle rustlers delivered from the hands of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday.


This scene has played in movies, television shows, and in the regular Tombstone, Arizona re-creations. But did you know that you could visit the infamous Clanton brothers’ ranch? The ranch is where rustled cattle grazed secretly in 1881 when Virgil Earp was U.S. Deputy Marshal and City Marshal of Tombstone and when his famous brother Wyatt was deputy U.S. marshal for the entire Arizona Territory.

The ranch now lies on Arizona BLM land, where you can choose your own boondocking space among the cactus and creosote. To find the ranch drive East from Sierra Vista toward Tombstone to Escapule Road, a signed dirt road heading south (right) a mile before the Charleston Bridge across the San Pedro River. In about three miles there will be a BLM road marker and small parking area. Walk about a mile to the south along a fence until you come to a gate marked “Clanton Ranch” with some of the letters missing.

Go through the gate, but from this point on let the ghosts of the Clantons guide you to the decayed remnants of the former buildings and the old corral. Only a few crumbling walls and scattered pieces of rusty metal remain, but as you wander through the grass and under the towering cottonwood tree, try to visualize one of the Clantons, branding iron in hand, meticulously changing the brands of the newly acquired cattle to match their brand.

For additional boondocking possibilities, head on down to the Charleston Bridge for spots along the San Pedro River. Learn more about desert camping with my new eBook, Snowbird Guide to Camping and Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts.