Now, nearly two decades since the film's initial release, the film will be rereleased in Blu-ray format where can be reborn for a whole new audience.

Unlike many western films, Tombstone is based on true events in one of the Wild West's most famous towns.

"It's a pleasant surprise that the film was not a Hollywood set and the place actually exists," said Tim Fattig who works at the O.K. Corral, the site that inspired the film's climactic gunfight.

Though many scenes in the film were shot in Old Tucson and at other locations throughout Arizona, the film itself was written with an attention to detail both regarding the climate in the city of Tombstone and the lives of the participants involved in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

"Hopefully the new release will help a new generation re-discover this town and the town's history," Fattig said.

Juliet Stromberg, who's also a life sciences associate professor, said since she began monitoring the river at a series of sites in 1993 that she has seen the decrease in stream flow and groundwater levels result in changes to plant and animal life in the ecosystem.

He owns the Running N Bar Ranch in St. David, and says ranchers are basically environmentalists.

"We only get so much ground," Monzingo said. "We have to take care of it." For Monzingo, part of taking care of his land means paying attention to the San Pedro River.

Even though he does not pump surface water from the river like some ranchers in St. David, he still has reason to be concerned about the river.

"This area is my livelihood," Monzingo said, adding that he depends on groundwater from the San Pedro to water his livestock and small farm.

The idea that the San Pedro could be representative of other rivers across the nation is one of the reasons why it has become one of the most heavily-researched river systems in the nation, maybe even the world, said Thomas Maddock, head of the University of Arizona Department of Hydrology and Water Resources.

"I think the climate's probably going to hit it the hardest, although ultimately the groundwater pumping will be the real issue," he said.

But Maddock and Thomas Meixner, associate professor in U.A.'s hydrology department, said getting people to recognize that groundwater pumping is a problem might prove difficult.

"One of the struggles convincing people that the pumping will, sort of, take out the river, if you will, is that it won't happen today," Meixner said. "It's going to be a very subtle, gradual shift."

Robert Webb, a soil scientist, hydrologist and ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has tracked groundwater records along the river.

"We have to ask ourselves: what is the best use of the land?" he said. "There are two ways people are extracting water from the San Pedro — diversion of surface water and pumping ground water from the thousands of wells right along the river. It's going to come down to value of what's more important along river. Is it people or agriculture, agriculture or ecological system or can we all get along? That's the question we're facing."

Meko and his team recorded a sharp dive in the amount of water that reached the valley in the mid-1990s due to a lack of rainfall in the mountain ranges that feed the river.

Looking at variations in tree rings, Meko has seen a history of dry and wet phases around the San Pedro River, including droughts in the '50s, '60s, '70s, and in present day.

During a hummingbird banding session April 21 – where hummingbirds were banded with unique, numbered metal sheets – volunteers and staff of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO) captured, weighed and banded 16 hummingbirds – the highest number of birds so far this banding season.

"We were very fortunate to have caught as many hummingbirds as we did," said Sheri Williamson, director of the SABO. "They are very curious but suspicious, intelligent, observant and very alert. They will figure out that there's something funny going on and whether they enter the trap or not depends on how brave they are."

During each banding session, food is used to lure the tiny creatures into a radio-controlled bonnet trap. The net is dropped over them as they feed, where they are then forced into a lingerie-like wash bag and taken to Williamson for measurements.

With the future state of the river in question, the same holds true for all that the river nourishes as a lifeline flowing through Southeast Arizona, including thousands of species of plants and animals, as well as humans.

The new activity, known as geocaching, has been around for 10 years. A cache is a container hidden anywhere in the world and may contain a logbook or personal treasures. The idea started when Dave Ulmer of Beaver Creek, Ore., buried a bucket at a stash point containing random items. He posted the location on the Internet and told people to go out and find them with GPS technology.

Within a 50-mile radius of Tombstone, there are between 800 and 1,000 caches, according to local cachers.

The reason the sport is still relatively new stems from a ban during the Clinton administration on civilians using highly accurate satellite-navigation systems in the U.S. The ban was lifted to bring benefits to transportation safety, scientific and commercial interest, including NASA operations.

"We get to use million dollar government equipment to find Tupperware," said Josh "TacoDust" Hawley, who works at the O.K. Corral.

Tucson retirees Dianne and Larry Axthelm have spent the last 10 years touring the country in their 35-foot RV, but regularly drive to Tombstone by car.

This time, their reservation at the Wells Fargo RV Park on Fremont Street landed on Founders Days, so they drove their nearly $60,000 motor home.

Dianne Axthelm said she and her husband are always looking out for local hotspots when they travel, even though they have travel guides. Covering the guidebook activities can sometimes take the whole day, but it helps to be able to rest in the comfort of your own home after a long day.