Doc and Marty go to the abandoned Delgado mine, located at Boot Hill Cemetery, and use dynamite to blast their way into the mine.
They locate the DeLorean when they find a cross beam with Doc's initials, blocking up a side tunnel.
As they prepare to tow the time machine back to Doc's laboratory, Doc's dog Copernicus starts whimpering.
Going to investigate and see what is troubling Copernicus, Marty walks over and to his shock, finds a tombstone with the inscription, "Here Lies Emmett Brown, Died September 7, 1885".
Marty realizes that this means Doc died about a week after he wrote the letter to Marty and left it with Western Union.
The tombstone says it was "erected in eternal memory by his beloved Clara", of which neither Marty nor the 1955 Doc have a clue.
Most troubling to Doc is that the tombstone notes he gets "shot in the back by Buford Tannen over a matter of 80 dollars".
Marty and 1955 Doc take a picture of the tombstone, and then go to the local archives to try to find more information.
They learn that Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) was a notorious gunman who got his nickname "Mad Dog" from his short temper and his tendency to drool.
He bragged that he had killed 12 men (not including Indians or Chinamen), but this claim cannot be substantiated because in 1884, Buford killed a newspaper editor who had written an unfavorable story about him.
Marty and Doc also find information about the McFly family living in Hill Valley in 1885.
Marty is skeptical about the possibility that the "Emmett L. Brown" on the tombstone is Doc, but Doc says it can't be him because the Browns did not first show up in Hill Valley until 1908....and then they find a photo of Doc posing next to the under-construction clock on the clock tower.
Even though Marty has been told to return to 1985, he tells 1955 Doc that he is instead going to 1885 and save Doc from being killed by Buford.
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