Most Haunted Places in America: Bird Cage Theater
Just imagine what it was like to walk down the center of town, your feet stirring up the dust as your boots scuff the dirt. You hear the sound of music, laughter, and shouting. You see a tall man with a Sheriff star pinned to his shirt. That was what Tombstone, Arizona was like back in the 1880’s when Wyatt Earp was the law and his brother James owned the local saloon. That saloon was the Bird Cage Theater.
The Bird Cage Theater was in operation from 1881-1889 and within those eight years the saloon had seen 26 murders. There was more than its share of sadness in this boisterous establishment. Although by all outward appearances, the “ladies of the night” were just doing a job to find their true love. Once a “painted lady” reached a certain age and did not find a good man to take care of her, she would commit suicide, as she did not want to live that life anymore. This was the first and only 24-hour establishment that housed a brothel, gambling hall, theatre and saloon.
As with any place with a violent past The Bird Cage Theatre has its share of paranormal activity. There is a minimum of twenty-six ghosts who have been haunting the establishment. Many people have claimed as early as 1921 that there have been reports of strange happenings that were too unbelievable to have been real.
The pungent smell of cigar smoke permeates throughout the building. This would not be too odd, aside from the fact that there has not been a cigar smoked in the building for nearly 30 years. Since that time, there have been numerous accounts of different paranormal experiences. There have been around 100 sightings a year of a man who wears striped pants, head gear and carries a clipboard that goes from stage right to stage left and just disappears.
There are other instances that have been reported of the strong smell of whiskey before the entire ground floor of the saloon seems to just come alive with paranormal energy. It has been said that you can hear the laughter and music and some folks have even seen the groups of transparent individuals who are laughing and gambling. It is as if they are stuck in the world that they enjoyed the most.
At one point, a Native American artist sculpted a likeness of Wyatt Earp and placed it in the crib above the saloon floor. Consistently for about 6 months each morning the hat that was on top of the statue’s head would be placed on a table. After a while, the hat would start landing on the floor below and the statue would be turned around. A local historian then revealed that the crib that Earp’s statue was placed was actually the crib the Clanton’s would rent when he came to Tombstone. Billy Clanton was Wyatt Earp’s enemy and had been killed during the shootout at the OK Corral. Once the statue had been moved to the correct crib, the activity ceased.
When you walk through the doors of The Bird Cage Theater, it gives you a sense of nostalgia, as if you were stepping back into time. Is this a place where the sins of the past have captured these souls and held them on earth, or is it just a time that the spirits of those long gone have stayed on to relive the better times?
In 1882, The New York Times had described The Bird Cage Theater as “The roughest, wildest, bawdiest honky tonk between Basin Street and the Barbary coast.” The Bird Cage did have a reputation for fulfilling any mans wildest fantasies, and those who were captured in her charm while living have remained after death. Tombstone, Arizona I believe truly is “The town too tough to die.”
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8 comments ↓
My fiance and I visited Tombstone during our stay in Tucson, Arizona today. We entered in as ambitious, yet skeptic amature investigators and left with much different perspectives. The man at the desk was warm and welcoming, inviting us to take lots of pictures, videos, and recordings, and to come back throughout the day if we pleased. As we entered, we could feel the excitment build. As we started, we split up with equiptment in hand in the main floor. The first thing I felt was a heavy feeling, I felt as if there were lots of other people in the building… I frequently had to remind myself we were the only ones there. As we entered backstage, the large, black hearse carrige was the first thing we saw, it looked as if it had came from a horror movie. I remembered watching the investigation on the theater done by the ghost adventures team from the travel channel. I instantly got chills as I was reminded of the apparition caught behind the black miriah following the physical contact made by aaron, the camera man. We moved back into the main floor to begin recording video, As I walked down the stairs behind my fiance, I felt three small impressions on the back of my right arm, suprised, I turned around to find nothing. I let it go, a few minutes later, as I was taking photos of the Cribs, I felt a disctinct stroke across the back of my left arm, this time i quickly turned around frustrated. No one was there as I reprimanded my fiance for joking around… he was on the other side of the room near the gun rack… This was NOT a coinsidence. The basement seemed to be the ultimate hotspot for us today, as I began taking pictures of the poker table, my camera shut off on its own. Thats not normal for my camera. after turning it back on, I was scanning the room through the screen on the camera when suddenly it completley blacked out. NO, my fingers were not over the lense.. I was asked this several times. after the view came back into focus, I began taking pictures, several turned out completely black… intrigued by this, I put my camera down and took some time to just stand there and take in the room. I tried to imagine myself in that time period, with the theater in action, meanwhile, back in reality It felt so dead, but at the same time, so active… I remember feeling a very heavy and uncomfortable feeling the third time i went down the stairs and into the basement, my fiance concurred with this feeling, telling me the sensation was thick and hazy. As we exited the building, i took my cellphone out of my pocket to answer a text, when i looked at my phone, the battery charge was in the red, beeped once, then died in my hand… My phone was charged all night, and this was not common. Once in the car, my fiance and i began reviewing some of the pictures we had taken, but we were quickly stopped, the film files were corrupt and went blue screen, freezing up the camera… this was chilling- every picture taken in tombstone showed up except the twenty or so taken in the birdcage. I am a skeptic, or so I’d like to think. But I also belive humans have the ability to tap into a psychic sense and communicate with the otherside. I believe we made contact, or somthing made contact with us.. today at the birdcage theater.
Sounds like you had an interesting experience! It is good you went in with a skeptical mind, probably made the experiences you had that much more real to you. I have had several people comment to us about the heavy feeling there and the camera issues. Let us know if you have anything on the audio as well.
We still are having problems with our equiptment. however i have reviewed the pictures several times and have yet to find anything. The video does work, not quite sure why, but I believe it has somthing to do with being in the birdcage. We checked out tombstonebirdcage.com and found a guided ghost tour led at night, we plan to attend that during our next visit. will keep posted on any findings!
Alot of people that believe in paranormal activity want so much to see or hear things,that their conscious begins to enter into play.What I mean is,that the more people concentrate and want so much to happen,that their minds take over and they begin to imagine they see shadows or spirits as some will call them or they think they hear things.When people see something they might have captured
on film,could be change in lighting.Its long been talked about that spirits and dead images cannot be captured on
film.But if that is whatt alot of people believe in,more power to them.As far as the couple that reviewed their
film and didn’t get anything inside the Birdcage,could be
because what they thought they experienced was actually
their subconscious coming into play.They kept visualizing
what life was like back then and they go into the place and stand there for a moment for their mind to visualize what all happened back then and to picyure what life was like.As for me,I don’t believe in the paranormal,but that is just me.I have been in a few places thought to be haunted through the years,but I went in with an open mind
and not concentrating on hoping to see or hear something.
I agree with you Mark that there are people who want to hear, see, experience the paranormal so bad that the mind will “give them what they want”. I also believe this to be true in the opposite case as well. Skeptics believe so hard that there is nothing out there and everything is explainable that they too will go out of their way to prove something not to be paranormal.
I think you are correct in both cases though, an open mind by both sides would be the right thing to do.
While I understand your point, Mark, I agree with you, it is easy to trick your eyes to see things and hear your name randomly called, we’ve all been there, but I would also argue the closed mindedness and stubborness of those who lay claim to being total skeptics and completely turned off to the idea of anything paranormal of the sort. The only way to correctly figure the mystery out is to be open minded to both sides, the idea that it may not be real, but just a fictional myth and to the possibility there may after all be life after death. The one reason why anyone would set out to “hunt ghosts” or invesigate is simply to find answers. It all falls back on the age old question we’ve all asked ourselves at some point- Is there life after death, and what comes with it? I personally am not a person of certain faith, nor do i intend to be, But I, just like the rest of the curious population- want answers. To be 100% honest, in a way, I really don’t want to believe there are ghosts, or life after death, it doesn’t seem very peaceful. Yet, we treked over fifty miles out of our way to find out. Keeping my word, I would like to touch bases again and share our findings- We have reveiwed our video and bulk durring our down time, and actually debunked the reason why our camera was showing corrupt file screens, we accidently switched the memory card with one not compatable with that device. However; we did find three serperate peices of audio which we believe contain evidence supporting the paranormal, also known as EVPs or Electronic Voice Phenomena. I can’t tell you what we found and felt was one hundred percent paranormal, but I can tell you it was NOT all in our heads. No one knows the real answers, but that is why we look for clues. I guess someday we will find out for ourselves, until then- I will continue to work to solve the puzzle myself.
I enjoyed your story regarding the famous Tombstone haunt, the Birdcage Theater. Living in Arizona, I frequent Tombstone two to three times a year. The rich history of the “old west” in the southern part of our great state is wonderul to experience. Throughout the year I make a point to travel to many of the famous “ghost towns” throughout Arizona. If you like Tombstone you should visit Jerome, and the Bradshaw mountain range where many ghost towns remain such as Crown King, Bumble Bee, Oro Belle (whats left of it), and Cleator.
I took note that in your story you listed Wyatt and James Earp as the owners of the Birdcage. This is incorrect. They did frequent the theater but were not the owners. The Bird Cage Theatre was opened on December 25, 1881 by William “Billy” Hutchinson and his wife Lottie. In 1882 Joe and Minnie Bignon acquired the theater. The theater was abandoned in 1889 when the local mine flooded and was shutdown.
A year and a half ago, I visited the Birdcage Saloon and photographed the majority of the interior. Upon my review of the pictures I noticed what could be two different apparitions. One in the “birdcage” near the piano in the theater and one in Josephine Earp’s room down stairs. One looks as if a man with a beard is sitting in a corner chair, looking onto the theater floor. The other appears in a full size mirror with what looks like a moustache and a long jacket or a duster. When I was photographing the facility I didn’t notice or see anything abnormal. It was after when I was showing pictures of our trip to family that it was caught.
I plan on returning to Tombstone very soon to attempt to debunk these pictures. I will be bringing these pictures with me to show the staff at the Birdacage to seek their opinions. I’ve never been a believer in the paranormal. Thought these pictures are VERY intriguing, I really think there has to be some sort of explanation. I will let you know what the results are if you are intrigued. Thanks.
I actually went on the after hours ghost tour. I was a skeptic myself. As the tour began and communications were being attempted near the stage, I felt a heavy feeling and my battery in both of my cameras drained. Upstairs, when the lights went out and the seance began, the woman next to me remarked that she believed something was “playing with her hair”. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness by this time and I could clearly see her hair moving in a circle (one ringlet). At this time, I felt a slight push in my back. I then felt something rubbing my leg (about 10 times). After this I felt someone breathe into my left air (cold air) and heard a man’s voice. I could not detect what was being said. Needless to say, I am no longer a skeptic. There were no strings or wires…this theater is haunted. I am going back in October to bring friends to hopefully have them experience what I did..
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