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| Diorama made by the author (wooden grave markers ¾ inch or 2 cm wide). |
My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took the Tombstone photos in this post in April 2024 and the diorama photos in 2026.
Travel is something I enjoy before, during, and after. One way I savor it long afterwards is by handcrafting items randomly inspired by my trips.
The above photo shows an example: my miniature diorama, “Tombstone Halloween Graveyard.” The “residents” are not dead. They wait all year to pop out and party for Halloween, when you can see them if you believe. The base of the diorama is 11 inches (~ 28 cm) wide. Each wooden grave marker is ¾ inch (~2 cm) wide.
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| Historic Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Arizona. |
I was inspired to make this while visiting my writing buddy Sara Kras in Arizona. She showed me around Tombstone, the Wild West town infamous for the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral between four lawmen, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and five outlaws.
Sara strongly recommended that I visit the historic 1880s Boothill Graveyard, now a museum, where the three outlaws killed in the gunfight are buried. The graveyard name reflects the notion that many of those resting there might have died with their boots on: one shot by a man who disagreed over the best way to drive cattle, fast or slow, one hung by mistake, some found dead in silver mine shafts… A dance hall girl was stabbed by a rival.
In the above photo, the buildings in the distance, near the American flag, house the ticket counter, gift shop, and entrance. A guide, available as a printed booklet and website PDF, lists, row by graveyard row, all that is known about how each buried person died.
In a frontier town with frequent, deadly shootouts, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral stood out by its above-average violence, with some 30 shots in 30 seconds leaving three of five bad guys dead and three of four good guys wounded. This became the stuff of movies, ten so far, from “Law and Order” in 1932 to “Tombstone Rashomon,” a 2017 Western sci-fi movie, with the most acclaimed being John Ford’s “My Darling Clementine” in 1946 with Henry Fonda, and “Tombstone” in 1993 with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.
Walking around Tombstone, where legends of the Wild West once did, was such a thrill that I felt the urge to make a miniature graveyard some day. So I took lots of photos for future reference.
Six months later, I started making the rock-covered graves. Eighteen months after that, I declared the project finished when I placed Petey the shy bunny near rocks where he could quickly hide. With the cobweb on the dead tree as the only quiet Halloween hint, I get to enjoy, year-round, this homemade handcrafted memento of my visit to Sara and to the Boothill Graveyard.
Materials and methods:
Ground: sandpaper.
Large rocks, dead tree and logs: found on hikes.
Graves: glued rocks, frayed-string dead grass, driftwood grave markers 3/4 inch (~2 cm) wide.
Gravestones for the beloved pets, a horse, a dog, a cat, and a mouse: rocks found on hikes, decorated with paint or marker. The mouse stone is less than half an inch wide (1 cm wide).
Bones: cooked Cornish game hen bones 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, salvaged, boiled, cleaned, painted with grayish white wash.
Cobwebs (not spider webs because I don’t like spiders): shreds of used clothes-dryer softener sheets.
Rope on tree: salvaged from packaging.
Lantern: pewter charm 3/4 inch (~2 cm) tall, from a bead shop, painted brown.
Shovel: purchased at the 2025 Annual Seattle Miniature Show.
Bunny: a gift from a friend who was trimming her stuff and a perfect mini-Petey, Sara’s resident wild bunny.
WARNING: DON’T SCROLL DOWN IF YOU DON’T LIKE REPTILES.
Native to Arizona, a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake and Arizona Black Rattlesnake (body 1/8 inch or 3 mm) wide, rubber micro-animals from a toy store, painted based on web photos.
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