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TOMBSTONE - On the corner of Fremont and Sixth streets in this town famous for the Shootout at the O.K. Corral, there is a museum dedicated to the lore and history of the Old West.
With a collection of more than 25,000 items, ranging from small bottles to leg irons from the Arizona Territorial Prison in Yuma to documents like one demanding $3.50 "to remove one dead horse" in Tombstone to one-of-a-kind photos to historic guns to the original roulette table from the Crystal Palace, on display, soon another connection to the state's history will be officially unveiled - saved from a watery grave in Hawaii.
The University of Arizona has the ship's bell of the USS Arizona that is rung every Dec. 7 to honor the nearly 1,200 sailors and Marines who lost their lives on that day in 1941 when the battleship went down when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
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At 1 p.m. May 29, Steve and Marge Elliott will have a ceremony in their Tombstone Western Heritage Museum for the signal flag marker from the USS Arizona.
The metal device - 3 inches wide and about 6 feet long - has been affixed to a mahogany board.
The marker is from an area on the ship where signal flags were kept to be hoisted to send message to other vessels.
Is it strange to have a battleship artifact on display in a Western museum? The Elliotts think not.
"Arizona is a Western state," Steve Elliott said.
While the battleship, which became a U.S. military legend when it went down at Pearl Harbor, has no direct connection to Wyatt Earp, the Clanton gang, silver mining and other lore connected to terra firma, Elliott said it is only fitting that the lives lost aboard the Arizona be honored in the Tombstone museum.
Of the nearly 1,200 souls who were lost on the ship in 1941, seven were from Arizona, including a resident from Bisbee.
To the Elliotts, the value of the ship's history is worthy of having part of the vessel in the museum.
The trip for the marker from Hawaii to Tombstone was a long and slow journey.
After the attack by the Japanese, it was decided which of the ships hit at Pearl Harbor would be repaired or have parts salvaged.
The USS Arizona was to have parts of it salvaged. Years after World War II ended, the ship's remains under water became a monument of the attack. To this day, oil continues to seep from its bunkers. Those who survived the attack and war can request to have their cremains put inside the vessel to join their shipmates who died when the USS Arizona was destroyed when its powder magazines exploded.
Carl Schwender was one of the civilian salvage workers removing usable parts from the battleship. During the removal process, he was allowed to keep the metal signal flag marker.
The device was passed on to his son, Richard, who in his later years decided to become a permanent snowbird.
When Richard Schwender cleaned out his home, he gave the marker to a friend - Griffith Squire.
It was Squire's desire to see the marker in a museum, and the Elliotts were asked if they would display it.
The answer was yes.
For more than 20 years, Steve Elliott has been collecting western memorabilia. His wife of 14 years got the bug when they married.
Steve Elliott's an admitted pack rat who when he finds anything with Western history to it, he wants it.
Marge Elliott tries to keep her husband focused on museum pieces with primary themes of western history.
"The way it's going, we're going to start doing submarines and elephants," she said.
Shaking his head in disagreement, Steve Elliott answered her: "I'm looking for a Gatling gun."
When the unveiling is done just before Memorial Day, the Elliotts hope people will come out and show their appreciation for the sailors and Marines who lost their lives on the USS Arizona.
The ship carried Arizona's name. The signal flag marker deserves a place in the state, they say. "That marker will have a place of honor," Steve Elliott said.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
nicole ray wrote on Jun 21, 2009 3:35 PM: