It was Wild in the West

Tombstone today is very much like it was back when the west was won.

The 26th of October, 1881, will always be marked as one of the crimson days in the annals of Tombstone. A day when blood flowed as water and human life was held as a shuttlecock, a day always to be remembered as witnessing the bloodiest and deadliest street fight  that every occurred in this place or probably in the territory.

-Tombstone Nugget, October, 1881

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second gunfight between outlaw cowboys and lawmen that is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the American Wild West. The gunfight took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Wikipedia gives us many of the details:

It was the result of a long-simmering feud between Cowboys Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury, and opposing lawmen: town Marshal Virgil Earp, Assistant Town Marshal Morgan Earp, and temporary deputy marshals Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight unharmed, but Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed.

The fight has come to represent a period in American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws, largely unopposed by law enforcement that were spread thin over vast territories, leaving some areas unprotected.

Despite its name, the historic gunfight did not take place within or next to the O.K. Corral, but in a narrow lot next to Fly's Photographic Studio, six doors west of the rear entrance to the O.K. Corral on Fremont Street.

About thirty shots were fired in thirty seconds. Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday, but they were eventually exonerated by a local judge after a 30-day preliminary hearing, and then by a local grand jury.

The gunfight was not the end of the conflict, according to Wikipedia. And on December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed in a murder attempt by the outlaw cowboys. On March 18, 1882, Morgan Earp was shot through the glass door of a saloon and killed by the cowboys. The suspects in both incidents furnished solid alibis and were not indicted. Wyatt Earp, newly appointed as Deputy U.S. Marshal in the territory, took matters into his own hands in a personal vendetta. He was pursued by county Sheriff Johnny Behan, who had a warrant for his arrest.

This is all lived and relived multiples times a day at various spots in town. It’s become an industry and people drives in on buses to live this little piece of history.

Jo and I arrived in town early and made our way to the courthouse which now is a museum and is run by the Arizona State Parks. It’s a good display of  life back then, with lots of artifacts, including guns and photographs of life in Tombstone. Its reason for existing was the silver mine just off Main Street.

We walked the streets and loved the feeling of a Wild West town that lives on in the covered sidewalks on Main Street. The collection of cowboys who lounge on the sidewalks and troll for business. You’re greeted with lots of “Howdy, partners. Welcome to Tombstone.”

You can get a drink at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. Kate was named because she was nosy, not because her proboscis was an unusual size.

We took in the sights and then mounted our Honda and moseyed out of town. On our way back to Benson, we passed through St. David, a tiny town with a quite beautiful Benedictine monastery. We stepped into the coolness of the adobe structure and found a cool, quiet place away from the searing sun.

There’s a meditating pool off to the side of the monastery where giant koi fish  pushes their noses to the surface in the off chance you have come to feed them.

Fluted columns rise 
straight into the sky 

at the Chiracahua 

Mountains National 

Monument.

Earlier in the week, we drove many miles to the Chiracahua Mountains where we followed in the footsteps of the great Apache chiefs Geronimo and Cochise. Both of them tried to fight off the encroaching white horde that made its way across the prairie and into the desert of Arizona.

This made their last stand in these startlingly beautiful mountains. The Apaches fought relentlessly against European colonization – beginning with the Spanish in the 1500s. They quickly learned to handle horse and weapons acquired from the newcomers. Ultimately, the Chiracahua Apaches surrendered and were settled on reservations in Oklahoma and New Mexico.

We felt the spirit of those warriors as we hiked the paths up and down rugged cliff paths where the winds were blowing at more than 35 knots.