Ethel Robertson Macia, at age two.

The Arcade Inn, one of the first adobe buildings constructed in Tombstone, was originally built merely to serve as an office and a boarding house for the Vizina Mining Company. However, a homesick young mother’s kindness would plant the seed eventually turning it into a world-record holding locale.
In 1885, a newly married couple from Scotland, Henry and Mary Gee, moved into the inn’s boarding house. A homesick Mary struck up a friendship with the inn’s caretaker, Amelia Adamson. After the Gees finished building their permanent home, Mary’s family sent her a box of plant cuttings from Scotland, including a couple of white Lady Banksia roses. Mary gave a cutting of the rose to Amelia, who planted the bud on the Arcade Inn’s patio.
In 1880, Alice and Chris Robertson set out from Leadville, Colo., in a covered wagon for Tombstone, where they hoped to make their fortune in the silver mines. Arriving on Christmas Eve, Alice set up housekeeping in their wagon until a house could be built. After giving birth to eight children, Alice died in 1895 at the age of 31, leaving Chris and the couple’s five surviving children behind. Responsibilities fell upon Ethel, the oldest child, to help keep the family together while their father worked.  
Chris then moved his family to Pearce, where he established a mercantile and livery stable. He sent Ethel to the University of Arizona in 1897. Tragedy struck two years later, when Chris witnessed a train robbery near Cochise Station and was shot to death by one of the robbers.
Although she was under 21, the court granted Ethel guardianship of the Robertson estate and her four siblings. With her dream of a formal education finished, Ethel returned to Tombstone and went to work with her 15-year-old sister, Edith. The pair worked at the Cochise County Court House followed by a stint recording the tax rolls by hand.
During 1902, Ethel met James Herbert “Bert” Macia, who was in charge of a crew sinking a shaft into the Grand Central Mine in one of the hills around Tombstone. The couple married on Feb. 4, 1904. Their first child, Iris, was born in 1908, followed by two more children, Jeanne and James Jr.
The Macias eventually acquired the Arcade Inn. While Bert worked in the mines, Ethel operated the inn. By that time, the nearly 20-year-old rose tree was taking over much of the patio and attaining worldwide attention. Bert trained the rose bush over trellises and built supports from wooden posts and metal pipes. In 1937, the Arcade Hotel was renamed the Rose Tree Inn. In 1941, the Macias’ sold the property to their daughter Jeanne and her husband Burton.
In 1951, Bert died and his mining collection became part of the Macia Memorial in the Cochise County Court House. Ethel devoted her energies to the preservation of Tombstone’s history and rode as queen of the first Helldorado parade in 1929. She was also a charter member of the Tombstone Restoration Commission.
Ethel, serving as Tombstone’s historian, appeared on the NBC program “Wide Wide World” in 1955. Her memory was flawless. She lived most of her 83 years one block from where her parents had parked their wagon on their first night in Tombstone, Dec. 24, 1880.
Ethel Robertson Macia, the Lady of the Rose, died in Tombstone in August 1964.
Tombstone’s Rose Tree Museum is home to the world’s largest and second-oldest Lady Banksia rose tree, covering approximately 8,500 square feet. The oldest Lady Banksia resides in Queen Elizabeth’s Kew Gardens in London. The flower is named for Lady Banks, the wife of the director of the Kew Gardens.  
In 1930, Robert Ripley visited Tombstone and wrote about the Guinness Book of World Records-listed rose tree in his column, “Believe it or Not.”
– Jane Eppinga. Photo courtesy of the Macia-Devere family.