Boot Hill Tombstone Salt and Pepper Shakers: "Salty O'Day" and "Pepper Tate", Made in Japan
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A Japanese souvenir that turned Boot Hill into a dinner-table joke
The Boot Hill tombstone salt and pepper shakers are a pair of cream ceramic shakers shaped like arched headstones, each printed with a joke epitaph: "Here Lies Salty O'Day, 1861–1881, Hoss Thief" on the salt and "Here Lies Pepper Tate, 1860–1881, Hanged by Mistake" on the pepper. They were made in Japan and carry only a small foil label reading JAPAN. No maker's name is stamped on them. One pair listed in 2026 still has a green round label reading "Fairway, Made in Japan," the name of an importer or distributor that couldn't be traced further.
"Boot Hill" was a common name for Old West burial grounds. The two famous ones became tourist stops in the 20th century. Tombstone, Arizona, opened its graveyard in 1878, stopped most burials around 1883, renamed it "Boothill" in the late 1920s to draw visitors and restored it from the 1940s. Dodge City, Kansas, used its Boot Hill from 1872 until the city had the bodies moved in 1879. In 1932 a retired Dodge City dentist, Oscar Simpson, filled the site with fake graves, cement faces and boots and humorous epitaphs, a formula copied by roadside Boot Hills across the West. The Boot Hill Museum opened on the site in 1947.
Pepper Tate's verse isn't original. It closely follows a real marker at Tombstone's Boothill for George Johnson, "hanged by mistake" in 1882, which says the town was wrong but strung him up anyway. Salty O'Day's "rope necktie" and "old oak tree" verse wasn't found on any real marker, and no record of either name turned up. They're puns on salt and pepper.
The shakers weren't sold by one cemetery. Matching pairs turn up with a place name printed at the foot (Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma), with a gold "Fabulous Las Vegas" sticker, or with "Sea Lion Caves, Oregon Coast." Gift shops ordered stock souvenirs and had their own town added. This pair has no place name, so where it was bought isn't known.
A second design uses the same two names on square-topped headstones lettered "Boot Hill": Salty O'Day, 1840–1868, who "made his draw a bit too slow," and Pepper Tate, 1834–1861, who "rustled beef." Copies of that one are printed for Old Tucson, the Grand Canyon and Arizona.
Blank, town-name and square-top versions
From this pair and about 30 listing photos checked October 29, 2026. The epitaphs are the same on every arched pair; what changes is the foot, the lettering color and the labels.
| Version | Marks | Tells | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arched, no place name This pair | Foil JAPAN label; one pair has a green round Fairway Made in Japan label | Rust-brown lettering, green grass tufts at the foot, prickly pear on the back, agave on each side | About 3–3¼ in. |
| Arched, town or state name Same mold | Same labels | Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Arizona or Oklahoma printed at the foot; or a gold Fabulous Las Vegas sticker; or Sea Lion Caves, Oregon Coast | Same |
| Arched, black lettering Color variant | Same labels | Black instead of rust-brown text, seen with and without New Mexico at the foot | Same |
| Square-top headstones Different design | "Boot Hill" across the top | Salty O'Day 1840–1868 and Pepper Tate 1834–1861 with different verses; Old Tucson, Grand Canyon or Arizona at the foot | Taller, flat-topped |
- Salt or pepper. Salty O'Day is the salt. Hole counts vary: this pepper has four and this salt three, while another listed pair has three and one or two.
- Stoppers. Each base has one round hole. Some pairs keep cork stoppers, and one Fairway-labeled pair has clear plastic plugs. This pair has none.
- The base is unglazed. The bottom rim shows bare tan clay that stains easily; the inside of the base is glazed white.
- Other Boot Hill shakers aren't this set. Cast metal headstones from Boot Hill, Kansas, plastic cowboy boots and other joke-epitaph pairs with different names (such as Salty McQuaid and Pepper Wyatt from Texas) are separate souvenirs.
Two cream headstones with rust-brown epitaphs and green cactus
Each shaker is a cream or off-white glazed ceramic slab shaped like an arched headstone: flat front and back, rounded top, straight sides and a flat rectangular base. The front carries the epitaph in rust-brown (warm red-brown) capitals: small "BOOT HILL" in an arch at the top with a short rule under it, "HERE LIES," the name in large, tall, narrow block capitals, the dates, a one-line charge, and a four-line verse. Two small green grass tufts sit at the bottom corners of the front.
The back of each shaker has a large green prickly pear cactus with dotted pads, drawn in a loose stamped outline. Each narrow side has a spiky green agave at the foot. The shaker holes are pierced through the top of the arch.
- Front: epitaph in rust-brown capitals with green grass tufts at the foot.
- Back: green outlined prickly pear cactus, low and centered.
- Sides: green spiky agave plant at the foot of each side.
- Top: small round holes pierced in the arch.
- Bottom: recessed white-glazed panel with one round stopper hole, framed by an unglazed tan rim.
- Labels: small rectangular foil label, blue with silver letters reading JAPAN, on the salt.
- This copy: lettering clear and complete, light toning and grime on the glaze, brown staining on the unglazed rims, stoppers missing, foil label on the salt intact. No chips or cracks show in the photos.
Pepper: BOOT HILL / HERE LIES / PEPPER TATE / 1860-1881 / HANGED BY MISTAKE / HE WAS RIGHT / WE WAS WRONG / BUT WE STRUNG HIM UP / AND NOW HE'S GONE Salt: BOOT HILL / HERE LIES / SALTY O'DAY / 1861-1881 / HOSS THIEF / A ROPE NECKTIE / AN OLD OAK TREE / AND SALTY WASN'T / WHAT HE USED TO BE Bottom label (salt): JAPANRead from this pair. Town-name copies add one line at the foot.
- Boot Hill salt and pepper shakers
- Salty O'Day Pepper Tate shakers
- Here Lies Salty O'Day
- Hanged by Mistake salt and pepper
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- Gravestone epitaph salt and pepper
Copies for sale right now
A pick from about 30 live eBay listings of the arched Salty O'Day and Pepper Tate pair, checked October 29, 2026. Asking prices, not sales. eBay's sold prices need a sign-in, so they aren't here. Asks ran $3 to about $41; most were $8 to $25 before shipping. Etsy had a few more pairs at $12 and up.
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Who made the Boot Hill Salty O'Day and Pepper Tate shakers?
A Japanese maker who didn't mark them. Copies carry only a small foil label reading JAPAN. One pair has a green round "Fairway, Made in Japan" label, the name of an importer or distributor that couldn't be traced further.
Were Salty O'Day and Pepper Tate real people?
No record of either was found. The names are puns on salt and pepper. Pepper Tate's verse borrows from a real marker at Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona, for George Johnson, "hanged by mistake" in 1882.
Are they from Tombstone or Dodge City?
Neither town name is on them. The same shakers turn up with Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma printed at the foot, a Fabulous Las Vegas sticker, or Sea Lion Caves, Oregon Coast. They were stock souvenirs sold at many Western tourist stops. This pair has no place name.
How old are they?
They aren't dated. The JAPAN label means after 1921, when US customs stopped accepting "Nippon." Sellers date them to the 1950s and 1960s, but no catalog or ad was found to confirm a year.
Which one is salt?
Salty O'Day is the salt and Pepper Tate is the pepper. On this pair Pepper Tate has four holes and Salty O'Day three; hole counts vary from pair to pair.
How big are they?
Sellers measure them at about 3 to 3¼ inches tall and about 2 inches wide.
What are Salty O'Day and Pepper Tate shakers worth?
On October 29, 2026, about 30 live eBay listings asked $3 to about $41, and most asked $8 to $25 before shipping. Pairs with stoppers or a place name ask a little more. These are asking prices, not sales.
- Owner's photos of this pair, including the epitaphs, the cactus decoration and the JAPAN label
- Cemetery Travel: Boot Hill posts, for Dodge City's Boot Hill years (1872–1879) and removal of the bodies, Tombstone's founding in 1878, its renaming in the late 1920s, and the George Johnson and Lester Moore epitaphs
- Wikipedia: Boothill Graveyard (Tombstone), for about 250 burials, the end of most burials around 1883 and restoration from the 1940s
- Wikipedia: Boot Hill, for the name as a generic term for Western burial grounds
- Roadside America: Boot Hill and Museum, for Oscar Simpson's 1932 fake graves and humorous epitaphs at Dodge City
- Boot Hill Museum: History, for the museum's founding by the Dodge City Jaycees in 1947
- Gotheborg: Nippon, for the 1921 end of "Nippon" as an accepted country mark
- eBay: pair with Fairway label, for the green "Fairway, Made in Japan" label and plastic plugs
- eBay: pair with cork stoppers, for original corks and hole counts
- eBay: Texas pair, Albuquerque pair, Arizona pair and Oklahoma pair, for the place-name versions
- eBay: Old Tucson square-top pair and Grand Canyon square-top pair, for the second design with the same names
- eBay search for "salty o'day pepper tate", giving about 30 live listings, seller heights and asking prices on October 29, 2026