A Town by Any Other Name

Walter Cole was one of Tombstone’s biggest boosters, starting with the first Helldorado in 1929. The next year, he bought and ran The Epitaph newspaper. For the next eight years, he and his wife promoted the town, believing its future lay in tourism. But his timing was bad; the Great Depression made his dream impossible, at least at that time. Cole sold the newspaper in 1938. But he left behind a major legacy: he was the person who coined the term “The Town Too Tough To Die.”