Welcome to the "Wyatt Earp History Club". We talk about the history of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the O.K. Corral Shootout. Our theme music video is to the left.
Our club meets on group phone calls at 7:00 PM. You can call-in to listen and also tell your favorite stories about the history of Wyatt Earp. To join a club meeting, please call (857) 232-0158 and then enter the code 479087. You can talk by entering on your phone keypad the keys 5* to unmute your line.
Below is a short book about the history of Wyatt Earp.
Al Young
Club Founder
Wyatt Earp History Club
Call/text: (520) 338-1004
Tucson, Arizona
Email: alyoung2007@yahoo.com
HISTORY OF WYATT EARP
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Wyatt Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp was involved in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen shot three outlaws with the Cochise County Cowboys. He is often regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was the Tombstone City and Deputy U.S. Marshal that day and had far more experience in combat as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier.
In 1874 Earp arrived in the boomtown of Wichita, Kansas, where his reputed wife opened a brothel.He was appointed to the Wichita police force and developed a solid reputation as a lawman but was fined and "not rehired as a police officer" after getting into a physical altercation with a political opponent of his boss. Earp immediately left Wichita, following his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas, where he became an assistant city marshal. In late 1878 he went to Texas to track down an outlaw and met John "Doc" Holliday, whom Earp credited with saving his life.
Throughout his life, Earp moved between boom towns. He left Dodge in 1879 and moved with his brothers James and Virgil to Tombstone, where a silver boom was underway. The Earps clashed with a group of outlaws known as the "Cowboys". Wyatt, Virgil, and younger brother Morgan held various law-enforcement positions that put them in conflict with Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, Ike Clanton, and Billy Clanton, who threatened to shoot the Earps on several occasions. The conflict escalated, culminating in the shootout at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881, where the Earps and Doc Holliday shot three Cowboys. During the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and hurt, and Morgan was shot. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and others formed a federal posse that shot three more Cowboys whom they thought were responsible. Wyatt was never wounded in any of the gunfights, unlike his brothers Virgil and Morgan or Doc Holliday, which added to his mystique.
After leaving Tombstone, Earp went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Marcus, and they lived as husband and wife. They joined a gold rush to Eagle City, Idaho, where they owned mining interests and a saloon. Back in San Francisco, Wyatt raced horses, but his reputation suffered irreparably when he refereed a boxing match and called a foul, which led many to believe he fixed the fight. Earp and Marcus joined the Nome Gold Rush in 1899. He and Charlie Hoxie paid US$1,500 (equivalent to $49,000 in 2021) for a liquor license to open a two-story saloon called the Dexter and made an estimated $80,000 (equivalent to $2,606,000 in 2021). Around 1911, Earp began working several mining claims in Vidal, California, retiring in the hot summers with Josephine to Los Angeles. He made friends among early Western actors in Hollywood and tried to get his story told, but he was portrayed only very briefly in one film produced during his lifetime: Wild Bill Hickok (1923).
Wyatt Earp was known as a Western lawman, gunfighter, and boxing referee, he had earned notoriety for his handling of the Fitzsimmons–Sharkey fight and his role in the O.K. Corral gunfight. This changed only after his death when the extremely flattering biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake was published in 1931, becoming a bestseller and creating his reputation as a fearless lawman. Since then, Earp's fame and notoriety have been increased by films, television shows, biographies, and works of fiction. Wyatt Earp has many devoted admirers. His modern reputation is as the Old West's toughest gunman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp
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