Tours
- Walk the streets trod by Billy The Kid, John Ringo, Curley Bill, Russian Bill, The Clantons, Jim Hughes and Sandy King.
- Walk a portion of the Butterfield Trail.
- See 28 points of interest and hear stories of the West as it really was.
- The guided tour includes the interiors of seven buildings.
- More....
- Pictures
of Shakespeare, Rita & Janaloo Hill
History
Shakespeare has had several
names through the years and only
acquired its present one in 1879 at the
beginning of its second mining boom. It
is located here because there was a
small but reliable spring located in the
arroyo west of the town. The reliable
water source
attracted many
people, Indians who ground mesquite beans
left their metates scattered about,
probably a few Spaniards stopped by, and
then some of the Forty-Niners who were
taking the southern route to the gold
fields of California, watered their stock
at this little spring. About 1856 a
building was built here by the Army,
evidently to serve as a relay station on
the Army Mail line between Fort Thorn on the Rio
Grande and Fort Buchanan, south of
Tucson. This spring served as an alternate
stopping place for the San Antonio and San Diego mail
line but was bypassed by the first Butterfield coaches. However before
the Butterfield quit running in 1861, they
had moved the road back up in the hills
and had built a square adobe stage station
here. During this time the spring was
sometimes called Mexican Spring according
to old timers.
More....
