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    Tombstone Tragedy
    Tombstone Tragedy
    Tombstone Tragedy
    Ebook52 pages55 minutes

    Tombstone Tragedy

    By James W. Bancroft

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    About this ebook

    Based on eyewitness accounts, this is a concise and informative description of the incident which came to be known as the gunfight at the OK Corral. The difficulty which ended in a deadly confrontation of firearms left six men dead or wounded and secured their names in the annals of America's Old Wild West; but why did the situation get out of hand?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames W. Bancroft
    Release dateSep 5, 2012
    ISBN9781476329789
    Tombstone Tragedy
    Author

    James W. Bancroft

    In the four decades James has been writing he has produced more than a hundred books and articles, the subjects of which reflect his varied interests. When he is not writing James enjoys singing, playing and listening to music.

    Read more from James W. Bancroft

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      Book preview

      Tombstone Tragedy - James W. Bancroft

      Introduction

      Based on eyewitness accounts and reports in the two Tombstone newspapers of the day, this is a concise and informative unbiased account of the tragic incident which came to be known as the gunfight at the OK Corral. The difficulty which ended in a deadly confrontation of firearms on the Wednesday afternoon of 26 October 1881, near the Old Kinderhook Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, left Frank and Tom McLaury and teenager Billy Clanton dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday wounded. But why did the situation get so out of hand?

      Virgil was a United States Marshal, and Wyatt and Morgan were sworn in as deputies. They were no-nonsense men, and Doc Holliday, who could be hot-headed at times, was staunchly loyal to them. Together they protected the business interests of the town, particularly their own. However, acts of banditry were giving the region a reputation of lawlessness, and prominent citizens were feeling insecure and losing confidence in their peace officers.

      The Clantons and McLaurys were believed to be ‘cowboys’, a term used to identify outlaws involved in criminal activity. The two factions had clashed in this capacity and threats had been made towards the Earps. The gang were: ‘experts with firearms,’ so the Earps took the threats to their lives seriously, and they wanted to deal with the difficulty on equal ground. The lawmen were itching to teach the cowboys a lesson, at the same time enhancing their reputation, and therefore some kind of confrontation was inevitable.

      Eyewitnesses testified that Ike Clanton had armed himself and made threats at the Earps and Holliday as the fateful day progressed. It was probably bravado, but the Earps retaliated and assaulted Ike and Tom, and Ike was arrested and received a hefty fine. The threats and intimidations from both sides had continued in the courtroom.

      When Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury rode into Tombstone less than an hour before the gunfight, they were not fully aware of the severity of the situation their brothers and the lawmen had created. However, being informed of the hostility displayed by the Earps, it seems they had decided to get their business done and ride out of town. They visited a gun shop, which, under the circumstances was not a wise thing to do, and they retained their weapons for self assurance, which was against the ordnance laws and gave the Earps a reason to confront them. Several individuals deliberately provoked the Earps to ‘do their duty’ and disarm the gang, but they could not have expected the outcome to be so deadly.

      When the tension reached boiling point and the stern-faced Earps and Holliday set off on their march along Fremont Street, they almost certainly believed it was going to be the fair fight they wanted - four men against four; all armed as far as they knew! As the two parties faced each other neither faction could have realised that the next bloody thirty seconds would secure their names in the annals of the history of America’s Old Wild West.

      Tombstone

      The south-east region of Arizona was originally explored by the Spanish conquistador Coronado, where he travelled seeking the ‘Lost cities of gold’. It was acquired for the United States from Mexico by the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. The region consists of extensive areas of desert, and the name in native Indian language means ‘few springs’ or ‘dry belt.’ Tombstone is south-west of Tucson, and the state of Arizona became the fifth largest in the United States.

      Soon after Ed Schieffelin arrived at Camp Huachuca with a party of soldiers in 1877, he left the fort to try his hand at prospecting. His apprehensive comrades told him that the only rock he was likely to collect among the parched hills and hostile Apaches in the region would be his own tombstone. However, he was working the hills east of the San Pedro River in the south-east portion of the Arizona Territory, when he came across a vein of rich silver ore on a high plateau called Goose Flats. He made claim to Toughnut, Lucky Cuss and Contention mines and, remembering his doubting comrades, he called it the Tombstone claim. The Tombstone Mill and Mining Company was established in January 1879, and Tombstone -‘The Town too Tough to Die’ - began to expand. Rumours of rich strikes soon established Tombstone as a boom town.

      A town site company was formed, and in March 1879 Solon Mather Allis laid out the town, which built up in the shape of designated

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