The Legend of the OK Corral

Finally the stuff that movie legends are made of - the OK Corral where the single most bloody and most celebrated episode in Tombstone's rugged history took place.

Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Virgil and Morgan, along with Doc Holliday ended once and for all the murder sprees, cattle rustling and highway robbery of the Clanton/McLowery Boys.  Along with the James Gang in Minnesota, the OK Corral remains the classic massacre of western outlaws.

Prior to the OK Corral shootout, Tombstone was known mostly for its mines, and millionaire-citizen Ed Schieffelin.  In one single day, it became the gunfire capital of the Southwest, and legendary as the place where the gunsmoke never clears.

Then Earp as city Marshall and the Clanton had been feuding for the longest in American history.  Earp's brothers along with Marshall Williams, the Tombstone agent for Wells Fargo and the ailing Doc Holiday went up against Ike and Billy Clanton, John Ringo, Frank and Tom McLowery, and Tombstone's crooked sheriff, John Behan.

The Earps were dressed as any professional law enforcer would have been - in single breasted black frock coats, flowing black ties, and slouch hats.  Short hair, clean shaven, except for their handlebar mustaches, they were the epitome of the good guys.

Next time...the outcome at the OK Corral

This is Familiar!

Enter the familiar mining town scene - wild and crazy overnight.

Long before the secret was out and covered wagons in droves began arriving, Arizona was unfriendly to any pioneers.  Many lost their lives to the murderous Apache, to the elements, and to whiskey and accidents.

But when the wagons began arriving at Tombstone, they kept coming.  By 1879, Tombstone was organized and emerged overnight as a metropolis in an otherwise wild country.  Stage coach service was established from Tuscon to Benson.  Main streets bore the names Tough Nut, Allen and Fremont.  Saloons like the Alhambra, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental sprang up along with the prostitutes who serviced them.  Gamblers in well tailored frock coats arrived as soon as the final proof of "civilization" was apparent.

The five newspapers were born the Epitaph, the Evening Gossip, the Prospector, the Nugget, and the Expositor.  Tombstone became like the mining towns of the rest of the Wild West - wild and unruly.

Next time - Interesting characters and places of the new town