January 14, 2019

Ninety years ago yesterday, on Jan. 13, 1929, “Wild West” lawman Wyatt Earp died at age 80 in his home in Los Angeles. Earp gained fame for his role in the famous “gunfight at the O.K. Corral” in Tombstone, Arizona, on Oct. 26, 1881. The gunfight involved members of an outlaw gang called the “Cowboys” and the Earp brothers—Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil. Wyatt was a deputy United States marshal; Morgan was a police officer; and Virgil was marshal of Tombstone. Aiding the Earp brothers in the fight was gambler, gunfighter, and dentist Doc Holliday—a famous Wild West personality in his own right. At that time, the silver mining town of Tombstone was infamous for its crime and various vices.

Famed “Wild West” lawman Wyatt Earp died 90 years ago on Jan. 13, 1929. Credit: © Jon Van Hasselt, Sygma/Corbis

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on March 19, 1848. He grew up in Iowa and California. As a young man, Earp worked as a buffalo hunter. During the 1870′s, he was a police officer in Wichita and Dodge City—another town known for lawlessness—in Kansas.

This photograph shows Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881, the year of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The town had a population of about 4,000 people. Credit: Public Domain

Earp moved to Tombstone in 1879. He worked there as a stagecoach guard, card dealer, and deputy U.S. marshal. In 1881, a feud developed between the Earps and the Cowboys gang led by Ike and Billy Clanton. The feud peaked in October, when the Earps and Doc Holliday faced off against the Cowboys in the streets of Tombstone. In a quick gun battle (some say 30 seconds), Billy Clanton and two other gang members—Tom and Frank McLaury—were killed. Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps, but the charges were dismissed. The feud did not end there.

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Tombstone is located in the southeastern corner of Arizona. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Two months after the famous gunfight, in December 1881, Virgil Earp was badly wounded in an ambush thought to have been sprung by members of the Cowboys. In March 1882, Morgan Earp was murdered in Tombstone. Wyatt Earp then led a vigilante gang that killed several members of the Cowboys. Wyatt’s adventurous life later took him to various points in the West, where he worked as a saloonkeeper, prospector, and at various jobs linked to law enforcement. Wyatt eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he consulted on motion picture Westerns and began working on his memoirs.