The Bird Cage Theatre was a famous theater in Tombstone that operated continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for eight years from 1881 to 1889, during the height of the silver boom. Featuring a saloon, a bar, a theater, and a brothel, where the painted ladies hung from the ceiling in crib-style housings named ‘bird cages,’ the theater developed a reputation as one of the wickedest theaters between San Francisco and New Orleans. The theater was visited by many famous and infamous people during its time, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday who drank and played cards there. When the silver mines were shut, and the mining boom died down, the theatre was also closed in 1892. Today, the theater is believed to be haunted by the ghosts of the many people who were murdered there and supposedly shouting, and loud music is sometimes heard at night, and cigar smoke and whiskey can sometimes be smelled on the air. The Bird Cage Theatre offers guided night tours, which explore the “paranormal phenomena” and take in all the incredible original historical artifacts that have been perfectly preserved there since 1889.

535 E Allen St, Tombstone, AZ 85638, Phone: 520-457-3421

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