Friday, June 29, 2012
With its water supplies dwindling, the legendary Wild West town of Tombstone, Arizona (population 1,562), is suing the federal government over refusing to allow local residents to use heavy equipment to repair a pipeline that runs through protected lands.
Fire followed by heavy rains caused mud and rock slides in July 2011 that damaged Tombstone’s water line in the Huachuca Mountains, part of the Coronado National Forest. To fix the broken pipe, the town needs to employ bulldozers to clear large boulders that are in the way.
But the U.S. Forest Service has refused to grant permission for heavy machinery at higher elevations.
With tourist season coming up, Tombstone’s leaders decided they could not wait any longer and sued the Forest Service’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in federal court.
Tombstone, which bills itself as “The Town Too Tough to Die,” was the site of the famous 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which has been portrayed in more than a dozen Hollywood films, most notably, My Darling Clementine (1946), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Tombstone (1993).
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
To Learn More:
With Wild West Spirit, Tombstone Fights for Its Water (by Fernanda Santos, New York Times)
The Town Too Tough to Die Sues the USA (by Tim Hull, Courthouse News Service)
Tombstone v. United States (U.S. District Court, Arizona) (pdf)
Cleaning Up the Old West the Modern Way (by Ken Belson, New York Times)
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