On this date in 1881, the feud that had been brewing between the Earps and the Cowboys came to a head in Tombstone, AZ. Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp, along with their friend Doc Holliday, confronted Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McClaury, and Billy Claiborne in a lot next to the OK Corral. Ike Clanton (who was unarmed) and Billy Claiborne fled the scene unscathed. Billy Clanton and the McClaury brothers stayed and shot it out with Holliday and the Earps. The gunfight lasted maybe 30 seconds, and when it was over, two of the Earps (Morgan and Virgil) and Doc Holliday were wounded, and Billy Clanton and the McClaury brothers were dead.
Further reading:
My 2007 blog post on the gunfight (with pictures from my trips to Tombstone)
Wikipedia: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
OK Corral Famous Gunfight Site
Wyatt Earp’s Testimony Re: The Gunfight at the OK Corral
Reblogged this on Brittius.
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Thanks.
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You’re welcome.
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John D.:
Always nice to see the place you were lucky enough to visit…REAL history up close and personal.
And that one History Channel show that reenacted the “close-quarters” that the gunfight ACTUALLY took place in was an eye-opener.
Good Post.
Stay safe out there
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I’ve been there three times now, and I’d go back again of I could afford it.
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I guess Ike Clanton and Billy Clairborne saw the movies and knew what was going to happen.
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If they’d seen the Star Trek episode “Spectre of the Gun,” they might have played it differently. But I don’t think it would have worked out for them as well as it did for Kirk and Company.
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