{"id":2086,"slug":"big-nose-kates-saloon-tombstone-arizona","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Big Nose Kate's is the Grand Hotel's ghost — the 1880 luxury that burned in '82, the bar that survived in the basement. The guests were the famous — the Earps and Holliday who stayed, the Clantons who registered before the gunfight. The Kate was the namesake — the Doc's woman who ran the sporting house, the deposition that she signed and recanted.","The fire was the transformation — the '82 burn that collapsed it, the arches that survived above. The bar is the original — the long bar that the Earps leaned on, the only one that lived. Big Nose Kate's is the layered — the hotel under the saloon, the gunfight's eve that's in the registers.","The file keeps Big Nose Kate's: the Grand Hotel, the '82 fire, the Kate and Doc, and the original bar.","Big Nose Kate's is the archive's Tombstone file — the saloon that was the hotel."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Big Nose Kate's is the archive's Tombstone file — the OK Corral's eve.","A saloon keeps its register — the file's suggestion being that Kate's hold is the night before: the Clantons who slept there, the fire that changed it, and the bar that the Earps used."]}],"name":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon","aliases":[],"type":"SALOON","type_label":"Saloon","cats":["FRONTIER_HISTORY","HAUNTED_PLACE","HISTORIC_TAVERN"],"groups":["hauntings","lodging"],"desc":"Saloon built over the Grand Hotel’s foundations—still haunted, per lore, by its swamper.","full_desc":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon is a saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, built in 1880. Saloon built over the Grand Hotel’s foundations—still haunted, per lore, by its swamper. The presence its accounts keep returning to is the one they call the swamper. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Tombstone","county":null,"state":"Arizona","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":31.7125,"lon":-110.0683,"coord_kind":"EXACT","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":1880,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"New record from encyclopedia/official-source pass; VERIFY task auto-queued for primary-source corroboration.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":70,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0.85,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":1327,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"Staff report the Swamper—who lived in the basement—still working the bar and cellar. Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, a saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, keeps the story on the menu alongside everything else it serves. It circulates as local folklore — the kind communities keep rather than verify. Named ghosts are the ones that last — this one has lasted.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":"The Swamper","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_Kate%27s_Saloon","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The building stands on the Grand Hotel site where Doc Holliday’s companion Kate lived. The saloon in Tombstone, Arizona has a documented past — this entry belongs to that layer, not the lore. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The detail is preserved in 'Big Nose Kate’s Saloon'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_Kate%27s_Saloon","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Staff report the Swamper—who lived in the basement—still working the bar and cellar. An old saloon in Tombstone, Arizona gives the account a setting with real history behind the bar. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. Sources including 'Big Nose Kate’s Saloon' keep the claim in circulation. It's the version the place will be remembered by, whether or not it's the true one.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_Kate%27s_Saloon","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The Swamper","claimed_identity":"The Swamper","verified":null,"summary":"Staff report the Swamper—who lived in the basement—still working the bar and cellar. Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, a saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, keeps the story on the menu alongside everything else it serves. 'Big Nose Kate’s Saloon' carries the account. The lore has a face now: The Swamper. The telling survives; the proof stays folklore.","behavior":"Staff report the Swamper—who lived in the basement—still working the bar and cellar.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_Kate%27s_Saloon","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Big Nose Kate’s Saloon","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_Kate%27s_Saloon","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}