In one of my favorite books, Daphne DuMaurier's "House on the Strand," the characters can drink a magic potion and be spirited back to a different time in history, but in the same place. I never really thought that was possible until I was standing by myself in the basement of the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone, Ariz. I was staring at the site of the longest-running poker game in history (eight years, five months and three days in 1881) when I began to hear the sound of poker chips being slapped down on the table and music from the piano drifting down from the dance hall upstairs. But the piano had long ago been silenced and I hadn't been drinking anything stronger than iced tea.

I looked around the room to see who had turned on the time machine effect, but I was still alone. I shivered slightly and walked to the next exhibit. It was not the last time Tombstone would have that effect on me.

Tombstone was founded in 1879, and for a brief 10-year period it was a prosperous, boisterous city made rich by silver. The Tombstone mines produced $37 million of silver ore in a flurry of activity that brought people from all over the country.

The city is most famous for the gunfight that occurred at the O.K. Corral on Oct. 26, 1881, between the Earp brothers and their rivals, the Clanton gang. The gunfight is still a source of much controversy and speculation around town, and depending on where you go in Tombstone, you're likely to hear a different story.

Back at the Bird Cage Theater, I wasn't thinking about gunfights. I was more interested in the "ladies of the night" who provided the entertainment upstairs. The theater has 14 compartments suspended from the ceiling that overlook the dance hall, and it was in these "bird cages" that woman with names like "Lizette, the Flying Nymph," " Big Nose Kate" and "Crazy Horse Lil" plied their trade. One of the more famous courtesans was "Big Minnie," who was billed by her liberal-minded husband as "6 feet tall and 230 pounds of loveliness in pink tights."

The women of Tombstone did not have an easy life, and many of them died tragically. The Bird Cage Theater was boarded up in 1889 after many of the Tombstone mines were flooded. But the owners never cleaned it out, and the theater stayed in the same family for years. It was reopened in 1934 and became a historical landmark. For $10 visitors can walk around and let their imaginations take hold.

Or they can hitch a ride on a stagecoach and get a short tour with one of the local history guides. The entire town of Tombstone is set up like a historical museum, although very few of the buildings are original. Men dressed like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday wander the streets wearing chaps and authentic-looking pistols.

One building that does date back to 1882 is the Tombstone Courthouse. It once housed the jail, sheriff's office, treasurer's office and courtrooms that attempted to keep some semblance of lawfulness going in Tombstone. The courthouse is now a state historical park and museum with lots of guns and mining equipment and even a replica of the gallows in the courtyard where seven men were hanged in the 1880s.

Dying dramatically was something of a Tombstone tradition. Boothill Cemetery (so named because many of its eternal residents were buried with their boots on) on the outskirts of town provides a snapshot of the colorful ways people could die in the 1880s: "Ambushed by Apaches," "Died of Smallpox," "Shot by Ormsby" and "Legally Hanged." My favorite was on the grave of Lester Moore: "Four Slugs From a 44. No Les, No More."

The most visited graves hold the three cowboys who died at the O.K. Corral. The markers at this spot, put up by the remaining members of the Clanton gang, read "Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, Billy Clanton. Murdered on the Streets of Tombstone."

Tombstone is located 80 miles southeast of Tucson in the bottom corner of Arizona. In the 1870s it was still Apache land, so it seems like an unlikely place for a boomtown to have sprung up — except for all that silver. The town got its unusual name when a prospector named Edward Shieffelin was looking for silver deposits in the hills. A soldier who was travelling through the area told him, "The only rock you will find out here will be your tombstone."But Shieffelin had the last laugh. He soon discovered an entire silver lode, and when it came time to name his mining claim, he called it Tombstone. The town sprung up around it and Shieffelin became a rich man.

The town's rapid growth was well-documented by the two local newspapers in town, the Tombstone Daily Nugget and the Tombstone Epitaph. Some of the original printing presses used in the 1880s are on display in the Epitaph offices. The newspaper is still publishing today, and visitors can buy a reprint of their famous edition that features their report of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. They also have special editions with catchy titles like "Tombstone's Pioneering Prostitutes" and "The Life and Times of Doc Holliday."

Also entertaining are the re-enactments of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral staged every day in an outdoor amphitheatre near the original location. Spectators pay $7 and take a seat to watch as cowboys and sheriffs run around the stage brandishing guns at each other. At the end, when everyone is lying bloody in the dirt, the audience applauds wildly.

IF YOU GO

If you plan to stay in Tucson, the most convenient hotels are on the East Side. The Hilton Tucson East, located at 7600 E. Broadway, has recently been renovated. Rates range from $100 to $150. Telephone 520-721-5600 or visit www.hilton.com/tucsoneast.

In Tombstone, there are a few motels and bed-and-breakfasts. A Holiday Inn Express opened in 2003 just outside of town at 580 W. Randolph Way. Telephone 520-457-9507 or visit www.hitombstone.com. The Tombstone Bordello Bed and Breakfast located downtown at 101 W. Allen St. has small rooms and includes breakfast for $89. Telephone 520-457-2394 or visit www.tombstonebordello.com.

For entertainment, the Tombstone historical area is located in an eight-block square centered around Allen Street. Visitors can easily walk between these locations:

Big Nose Kate's Saloon and Restaurant is located in what was once the Grand Hotel, built in 1881. The waitresses are dressed in period costumes based on what the restaurant's famous namesake wore: www.bignosekates.info.

The Bird Cage Theater, Sixth and Allen streets, telephone 520-457-3421 or visit www.tombstonebirdcage.com.

O.K. Corral Museum and Re-enactments, Third and Allen streets, telephone 520-457-3456 or visit www.ok-corral.com.

Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park, 223 Toughnut St., telephone 520-457-3311 or visit www.pr.state.az.us/parks/parkhtml/tombstone/html.

Tombstone Epitaph newspaper offices, Fifth and Fremont streets, telephone 520-457-2211 or visit www.tombstoneepitaph.com.

City of Tombstone official website: www.cityoftombstone.com.

Maura Daly Phinney is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.