Campbell and Hatch Billiards in Tombstone, Arizona--the location of Morgan Earp's untimely demise.
March 18, 1882 gunfire rings out in the night and the bullet fatally strikes its target– Morgan Earp, brother of the infamous law-man Wyatt Earp. Morgan Earp bleeds to death on a billiard table in Campbell and Hatch’s Billiards on Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona.
Though the original building has likely been reduced to ashes in one of the many Tombstone fires, the location where Morgan Earp spent a lot of his waking hours in life is still frequented by him in death.
Campbell and Hatch’s is now a tourist shoppe called Red Buffalo Trading Company. The shop primarily sells western antiques and sundry to the curious Tombstone tourists who want to visit the “Town Too Tough To Die”. The significance of the building is announced by a window etching and a 2005 plaque outside the building which reads:
Historic Location 19
Morgan Earp was murdered while playing pool at Campbell and Hatch’s Saloon on March 18th, 1882
Red Buffalo Trading Company, a tourist shoppe in Tombstone, Arizona takes up the space formerly known as Campbell and Hatch's Billiards in Tombstone, Arizona. This is the location of Morgan Earp's untimely demise, as described by the etching in the window.
The Earps were a well dressed bunch. They were raised with manners, which is something a lot of western settlers were lacking. Those manners seem to have carried over in this life as well. Employees of the store are alleged to have told that Morgan Earp watches over the store in their absence. At night, when everyone has gone home for the evening, Morgan will face shelves (incorrectly) and tidy up the place. One employee is said to have been unable to finish stocking shelves before the store closed. Planning on finishing the task in the morning, they left the box of wares still half-full. The last person there was the first to open the shoppe in the morning, and when they went to finish shelving the contents of the box they found it empty. Items from the box had been removed sometime during the night, but they were not shelved correctly and the employee spent a lot of time trying to find where the helpful spirit had set the wares.
Was it a prank or was it really the kind-hearted Morgan Earp trying to help staff from beyond the grave?
It was “CASPER, TFG” stupid!