TheWild , Wild Westwould not be the , well , Wild West that we be intimate today without the O.K. Corral and the famous gunfight that come out there on a later October afternoon in 1881 .
The romanticized translation of the American cowboy , tin stars , quick tie gunplay , saloons on stale streets , and unending desert landscapes would n’t hold such a firm place in our consciousness if not for this infamous encounter . The one between tough - nosed law officer and some hard - headed outlaws in the townspeople of Tombstone , near theMexican borderin the Arizona Territory .
But just to clear up : The gunplay was n’t even in a cattle pen at all . It turns out , the shootout admit place in a vacant lot , next to a photo studio and a boarding theater .
2d dot of clarification : Nobody ever call the standoff " the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral " until Hollywood sunk its claw into the story in the belated 1950s . The lethal scrap was well - known by historian , but to them it was just a fight . It was n’t " the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral " until 1957 ’s Burt Lancaster - Kirk Douglas blockbuster , " Gunfight at the O.K. Corral . "
Which , you have to admit , does voice right smart cooler than " Gunfight in a Vacant Lot . "
" That does n’t play well . But ' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral ' is magic . It ’s all in a name . Everything ’s in the name , " saysMarshall Trimble , Arizona ’s official state historian . " I ’ve write about 25 books and the unvoiced part of the whole thing is coming up with a attention-getting name . "
The Backstory of Tombstone
In true Western manner , the casting of the actual - life competitiveness is easily break into two groups .
The"Good Guys"were the peace officer in an otherwise anarchic part of the Arizona Territory . They were Tombstone Marshal Virgil Earp , his sidekick Morgan and Wyatt ( both formally special officer ) , and temporary policeman ( and Wyatt Earp admirer ) John Henry " Doc " Holliday .
The"Bad Guys"were sleep with as the " Cowboys , " a cow - rustling , gymnastic horse - thieving group of no - good blighter who did n’t like the Fe - handed Earps or anything to do with the law of nature . They were Billy Claiborne , brothers Ike and Billy Clanton , and brothers Frank and Tom McLaury .
These two groups hated each other .
longsighted story short . Between 1879 and 1880 , Tombstone ’s universe exploded with prospectors searching for silver ore and the town require jurisprudence enforcement . townspeople leaders want men like Virgil and Wyatt Earp because they had solid reputations as gunfighters and lawman .
But the Clanton and McLaury families , who were striking ranchers , make their own coalition , bonk as the Cowboys , and they were against the Earp brothers and the law , even though the Earps had support from Tombstone ’s leading businessman , including Mayor John Clum and minelaying tycoon E.B. Gage .
Needless to say , the two groups had a account of ladder - ins . The Cowboys did n’t recognize Virgil Earp as marshall or his sound authority , and the Cowboys despised the fact that Earp and his " lawmen " often used possibly redundant - legal methods to impose the natural law .
The Gunfight of All Gunfights
In late 1881 , it was against the law to carry weapon within the Tombstone town limits . Virgil Earp let that be cognize to the Cowboys . And that ’s how matter startle that day .
After some threats and two shooting iron - tanning — the Earps did n’t take any guff from scofflaw , and both Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury tasted a little frontier justness from the grip of the Earps ' shooting iron in the first place that day — the two group squared off at about 3 p.m. Oct. 26 . Most estimation put the two chemical group not much further than 6 feet ( 1.8 meters ) aside . There were spate of guns present . Holliday carried a shotgun .
" When [ the Cowboys ] came into township and Billy [ Clanton ] saw his brother Ike had been hit , and Frank saw his pal Tom had been cocked , they were spoiling for a conflict then , " Trimble says . " They made undetermined scourge that they were go to kill the Earps . They were overheard , and that ’s what economise the Earps and Doc from perchance go to a execution trial . "
Here , we jump ahead to the firsthandwitness accountof John H. Behan . He was the sheriff of Cochise County , a political challenger to the Earps and a protagonist to many of the Cowboys , and one of many interviewed afterward during a hearing into the gunfight . This good manners of theArizona Memory Project(typos part of the official transcript ):
Over the years , dozens and twelve of story have been written on the combat , many bank on firsthand account like Behan ’s ( and others , here ) . Some say that at least one of the Cowboys was unarmed . Others refute that title . Questions arose as to who fire the first shot , and who shot whom . But the cost of the gunplay is not in question .
Once everything had quiesce down , three Cowboys — Billy Clanton , just 18 or 19 years old at the meter , and both McLaury brothers — were dead .
The conflict lasted no more than 30 seconds .
" That was kind of how it play out . In the end , Morgan Earp almost had a disastrous wound . The bullet just lose his spine . But it went right unclouded through his back , " Trimble says . " Virgil took a collision in his leg . And Doc just fix a mark .
" Wyatt come through without a dent . Just like he does in the movies . "
The Fallout From the Gunfight
Four sidereal day after the scrap , Ike Clanton — who had fled once bullets started flying — accuse the Earps and Holliday of slaying , and Tombstone Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer held a hearing into the throwdown . Behan plunk for the Cowboys , but others supported the Earps and Holliday .
The verdict , Trimble says , may have hinge on the testimonial of Addie Bourland , a local dressmaker , who contradict the Cowboys who claimed that they had their deal up and should not have been fired upon . An excerpt from her testimony , viaFamous Trials , by the University of Missouri - Kansas City ’s Douglas O. Linder :
Despite the damnatory — and quite probably false — testimony from Ike Clanton and others , Spicer eventually found that the Earps and Holliday were well within their right and declare that no trial was necessary .
Ike Clanton , bent on on revenging the death of his brother and the other Cowboys , is loosely thought to be behind theassassination effort on Virgil Earpin December of that class and themurder of Morgan Earp , who was gun down in a Tombstone billiard night club in early 1882 . After Morgan ’s cleanup , Wyatt Earp tracked down some of Clanton ’s cohorts , killing a yoke . Clanton was kill by a police detective in Springerville , Arizona Territory , in 1887 while resisting hitch .
Wyatt was the last of the O.K. Corral survivors . Hedied in Los Angeles in 1929 , at years 80 .
The Gunfight as Legend Today
The shootout gain near mythic position in 1931 , after Stuart Lake — a former press federal agent for president Theodore Roosevelt and a Hollywood author — interviewed Wyatt and print a loose biography titled " Wyatt Earp : Frontier Marshal . " Then came the picture show . ATV series on Wyatt Earp ’s life-time and times(starring Hugh O’Brian ) ply from 1955 to 1961 .
Among the thespian who have portrayed Earp ( include Lancaster in the 1957 moving picture , polar Douglas playing the part of Doc Holliday ): Henry Fonda ( " My Darling Clementine , " 1946 ) , James Garner ( " Hour of the Gun , " 1967 ) , Kurt Russell ( " Tombstone , " 1993 ) , Kevin Costner ( " Wyatt Earp , " 1994 ) and Val Kilmer ( " Wyatt Earp ’s Revenge , " 2012 ) .
Clanton ’s testimonial in the Spicer hearings was the basis of several latter - solar day recountings of the fight that threw Wyatt Earp ’s reputation into question .
" I think it ’s the psychological science that people care to conceive that a right hombre ca n’t be that good . And Wyatt was n’t , " Trimble says . " Wyatt had a little shady past — all of them did .
" I evidence people , these were sporting men . Wyatt Earp , Doc Holliday , Bat Masterson … these guys were sporting world . They ran around with lady of pleasure , gambled , hung out with an unsavory lot . But Wyatt came from good stock . He came from a good family . Wyatt was a whole lot better than the others . He was just a Cartesian product of his time . "
Tourists now swarm into Tombstone to see reenactment — four times a day , except on Thanksgiving and Christmas — ofthe Gunfight at the O.K. Corral . Beyond Tombstone that face - to - facial expression confrontation between a lawless bunch of cowboys and a hardened bunch of lawmen has yield Arizona and the entire West a huge part of its identity . Larger even than that , for many visitors , the gunfight is a shot of America .
" A lot of Arizonans just roll their heart when they see these reenactments . But I never complain . And I ’ve seen one C of them , " Trimble says . " The tourists just love it . They come over here and they want to come to Tombstone , because you ca n’t issue forth to America without coming to Tombstone .
" Gunfighters are America ’s rendition of King Arthur ’s Knights of the Roundtable . They are the warriors . People are entrance by them , because they had a codification of their own . And it ’s an independence — a gratis - spirited independence . It ’s what everybody wishes they could be but are n’t . "
