Big Nose Kate's Saloon

The Grand Hotel opened on this spot in September 1880 as Tombstone's most luxurious lodging, and lost its upper floor to the fire that burned much of the town in May 1882. The ground-floor bar survived and has been in use ever since. The saloon's present name honours Mary Katherine Horony, the woman known as Big Nose Kate, who lived in Tombstone with Doc Holliday — though she never owned or ran a saloon here, and the name is a modern one. Staff describe a dishevelled figure they call the Swamper, blamed for shoves on the basement stairs, a cowboy who waits at the bar for a drink that never comes, and a presence that has put itself between a member of staff and an unwelcome customer. Lights switch on and off, doors open and close, and plates occasionally leave the shelf with nobody near them.