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RED BUFFALO TRADING COMPANY

Bob Hatch and John Campbell opened a billiards parlor in 1880. Hatch was a colorful character and an amateur actor. It was said he kept a jar of frogs on the counter, as their croaking helped him predict the weather. Bob also followed the Earps to the famous gunfight and assisted in removing the gun from dying Billy Clanton’s hand. He also testified at the hearing.

At 10:50 p.m. on March 18, 1882, Morgan Earp was shot through the body by an unknown assassin while playing a game of billiards. At the time the shot was fired, he was playing with Bob Hatch and standing with his back to the glass door in the rear of the room. The door opened out on an alley that led straight through the block along the west side of A.D. Otis and Company’s store to Fremont Street. This door was an ordinary glass door with four panes in the top in place of panels. The two lower panes were painted, while the upper ones were clear. Anyone standing outside could look over the painted glass and see anything going on in the room. At the time the shot was fired, Morgan must have been standing within ten feet of the door, and the assassin, standing near enough to see his position, aimed for about the middle of his body, shooting through the upper portion of the unpainted glass.

The bullet entered the right side of the abdomen, passing through the spinal column, completely shattering it. It then exited his body on the left side, crossed the length of the room and lodged in the thigh of George Berry, who was standing by the stove, inflicting a painful flesh wound. After the first shot, a second was fired almost immediately through the top of the upper glass. The bullet passed across the room and lodged in the wall near the ceiling over the head of Wyatt Earp, who was sitting watching the game. Morgan fell after the first shot and lived for only about an hour. His brother Wyatt rushed to his side and quickly moved him some ten feet away to get him out of the line of fire just in case another shot was fired.

Morgan Earp. Does his ghost really haunt the location of his death? Wikimedia Commons.

Doctors Matthews, Goodfellow and Millar were called and examined him. After a brief consultation, they pronounced that the wound was mortal.

Morgan was then moved into the card room and placed on the lounge, where he breathed his last breath. He was surrounded by his brothers—Wyatt, Virgil, James and Warren—and the wives of Virgil and James and a few of his most intimate friends. Despite the intensity of the pain from the gunshot, he did not complain.

The saloon and billiard parlor burned in the 1882 fire and was one of the first to be rebuilt. Prohibition closed all the saloons in 1914. This area deteriorated badly in the following years, but in 1945, this old building was remodeled for a new business.

Campbell and Hatch’s is now a tourist shop called the Red Buffalo Trading Company. The shop primarily sells western antiques and attire to the tourists who want a souvenir from 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.

Though the original building has 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.

As with many of the haunted locations in Tombstone, the descriptions of paranormal activity here vary, depending on who is telling the stories.

Many people have sighted a female apparition they believe is the ghost of Morgan Earp’s wife, who is searching for her deceased husband even in death. This explanation seems impossible, because she accompanied her husband’s remains back to California, where he was buried. It is entirely possible that there is a female specter here that people are merely misidentifying. Other witnesses claim that the ghost haunting this building is Morgan Earp himself. He is commonly seen in the back corner of the building where he died.

Common phenomena, other than the occasional apparition, include the sound of footsteps walking around the rear of the Red Buffalo Trading Company and objects being moved or manipulated.

One story that is told to guests on the local ghost tour tells of the helpful ghost of Morgan Earp. Employees claim that Morgan watches over the store in their absence. At night, when everyone has gone home for the evening, Earp 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 completing the task in the morning, he left the box of wares still half-full. The last person there was the first at the shop in the morning, and when the employee went back to finish emptying the box, it was empty. The items that were in the box had been removed sometime during the night. However, the items were not shelved correctly, and the employee spent a lot of time trying to find where the cooperative spirit had set the box’s contents.

Another suspect for this particular ghost could be George Berry. Berry eventually died after being shot that fateful night. However, Dr. Goodfellow said it wasn’t the bullet that killed Berry. He said the man was scared to death.

Local photographer James Kidd claims to have unknowingly captured a somewhat unusual image on 35mm film while photographing an empty stage in the back for insurance purposes.

The distorted images of two women and one man are visible, both wearing clothing from Tombstone’s heyday. One woman appears to be wearing a large hat. The man may have sideburns and wears a buttoned-up coat.

The blurring in the image was confined to this one frame. The frames occurring before and after have no unusual qualities in them. The area where this photograph was supposedly taken is close to the place where Morgan Earp died.

The location of the negative for this photo is not known, preventing a full analysis of the picture. However, the effects seen in the picture suggest issues with the aperture settings and possibly development or camera malfunction problems, so it is somewhat hard to say what is actually in the photograph. Regardless, many people claim to feel the presence of some supernatural force inside the building.