The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a thirty-second gunfight between lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that occurred at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona, United States. It is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the American Old West.
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by prospector Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It became one of the last boomtowns in the American frontier. The town grew significantly into the mid-1880s as the local mines produced $40 to $85 million in silver bullion, the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years. It is best known as the site of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and presently draws most of its revenue from tourism.
Billy Claiborne was an American outlaw cowboy, drover, miner, and gunfighter in the American Old West. He killed James Hickey in a confrontation in a saloon, but it was ruled self-defense. He was present at the beginning of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but was unarmed and ran from the shootout. Only a year later, while drunk, he confronted gunfighter "Buckskin" Frank Leslie and was killed.
Joseph Isaac Clanton was a member of a loose association of outlaws known as The Cowboys who clashed with lawmen Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp as well as Doc Holliday. On October 26, 1881, Clanton was present at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory but was unarmed and ran from the gunfight, in which his 19-year-old brother Billy was killed.
John Harris Behan was an American law enforcement officer and politician who served as Sheriff of Cochise County in the Arizona Territory, during the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and was known for his opposition to the Earps. Behan was sheriff of Yavapai County from 1871 to 1873. He was married and had two children, but his wife divorced him, accusing him of consorting with prostitutes. He was elected to the Seventh Arizona Legislative Assembly, representing Yavapai County. In 1881, Wyatt Earp served for about five months as undersheriff of the eastern half of Pima County. When Wyatt resigned, Behan was appointed to fill his place, which included the mining boomtown Tombstone. When Cochise County was formed in February 1881, Behan was appointed as its first sheriff. Tombstone became the new county seat and the location of Behan's office. Sadie Marcus was his mistress, possibly as early as 1875 in Tip Top, Arizona, and certainly from 1880 until she found him in bed with another woman and kicked him out in mid-1881.
Newman Haynes Clanton, also known as "Old Man" Clanton, was a cattle rancher and father of four sons, one of whom was killed during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Two of his sons were involved in multiple conflicts in Cochise County, Arizona Territory including stagecoach robbery and cattle rustling. His son, Ike Clanton, was identified by one witness as a participant in the murder of Morgan Earp. Billy Clanton and Ike were both present at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in which Billy was killed. "Old Man" Clanton was reportedly involved with stealing cattle from Mexican ranchers and re-selling them in the United States. Records indicate he participated in the Skeleton Canyon Massacre of Mexican smugglers. In retaliation, Mexican Rurales are reported to have ambushed and killed him and a crew of Cowboys in the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre.
The Tombstone Epitaph is a Tombstone, Arizona, monthly publication that covers the history and culture of the Old West. Founded in January 1880, it is the oldest continually published newspaper in Arizona.
Charleston is a ghost town in Cochise County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. It was occupied from the late-1870s through the late-1880s, and was located in what was then known as the Arizona Territory. Located on the west bank of the San Pedro River, Charleston's economy was based on milling silver ore mined from nearby Tombstone in the community of Millville, located directly across the river.
Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park is a state park of Arizona in the United States. Located in Tombstone, the park preserves the original Cochise County courthouse. The two-story building, constructed in 1882 in the Victorian style, is laid out in the shape of a cross and once contained various county offices, including those of the sheriff, recorder, treasurer, and the Board of Supervisors as well as courtrooms and a jail. Inside, the courthouse contains a museum with numerous artifacts from the town's history while outside, a replica gallows has been constructed in the courtyard to mark the spot where seven men were hanged for various crimes. The park was one of the first to be designated as a state park and in 1959 was the first to open following the 1957 establishment of the Arizona State Parks Board.
Hereford is a populated place in Cochise County along the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is southeast of Sierra Vista and is a part of the Sierra Vista-Douglas micropolitan area. The elevation is 4,193 feet at the location of the original townsite at the far eastern end of the unincorporated area; the residential area runs for another 8 miles west from this location, blending into the unincorporated area of Nicksville at an elevation of approximately 4800'. Hereford Station Post Office is located at the far western end of Nicksville, at the foot of the Huachuca Mountains.
Camillus "Buck" Sydney Fly was an Old West photographer who is regarded by some as an early photojournalist and who captured the only known images of Native Americans while still at war with the United States. He took many other pictures of life in the silver-mining boom town of Tombstone, Arizona, and the surrounding region. He recognized the value of his photographs to illustrate periodicals of the day and took his camera to the scenes of important events where he recorded them and resold pictures to editors nationwide.
The O.K. Corral was a livery and horse corral from 1879 to about 1888 in the mining boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, in the southwestern United States near the border with Mexico.
The Cochise County Cowboys is the modern name for a loosely associated group of outlaws living in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona in the late 19th century. The term "cowboy", as opposed to "cowhand," had only begun to come into wider usage during the 1870s. In that place and time, "cowboy" was synonymous with "cattle rustler". Such thieves frequently rode across the border into Mexico and stole cattle from Mexican ranches that they then drove back across the border to sell in the United States. Some modern writers consider them to be an early form of organized crime in America.
Cochise County in southeastern Arizona was the scene of a number of violent conflicts in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West, including between white settlers and Apache Indians, between opposing political and economic factions, and between outlaw gangs and local law enforcement. Cochise County was carved off in 1881 from the easternmost portion of Pima County during a formative period in the American Southwest. The era was characterized by rapidly growing boomtowns, the emergence of large-scale farming and ranching interests, lucrative mining operations, and the development of new technologies in railroading and telecommunications. Complicating the situation was staunch resistance to white settlement from local Native American groups, most notably during the Apache Wars, as well as Cochise County's location on the border with Mexico, which not only threatened international conflict but also presented opportunities for criminal smugglers and cattle rustlers.
Schieffelin Hall is a building from the American Old West in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, the largest standing adobe structure still existent in the United States southwest. It was built in 1881 by Albert Schieffelin, brother of Tombstone founder Ed Schieffelin, and William Harwood as a first class opera house, theater, recital hall, and a meeting place for Tombstone citizens.
The Ten-Percent Ring was a title given by the newspaper editors of The Tombstone Epitaph in 1881 to Johnny Behan and his friends for stealing about ten percent of the local Tombstone, Arizona taxes in the 1880s. Milt Joyce (1847–1889), owner of the Oriental Saloon and chairman of Cochise County, Arizona supervisors, was also seen as a leader of the Ten Percent Ring. The Tombstone Epitaph was started by John Clum in 1880. The newspaper outlined the corruption charges of Johnny Behan the Cochise County sheriff. When Johnny Behan was the Cochise County sheriff one of his duties was collecting prostitution, gambling, liquor, and theater taxes. As part of his pay, he received 10% of all proceeds collected. There was much talk in the town about the graft political corruption of the sheriff. For this many saw Behan as the head of the Ten Percent Ring and a friend of the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. Others accused of membership in the ring was Artemus Fay (?–1906), owner of the Tombstone's first newspaper, the Tombstone Weekly Nugget and Harry Wood (1848–1896) a writer for the Weekly Nugget and an under-sheriff of Behan. Along with stealing tax funds, the Ten Percent Ring helped in election fraud and helping the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. Behan so focused on taxes, that he was very soft on crime. Soon after Behan became sheriff, Virgil Earp was appointed Tombstone city marshal and had his brothers Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp become special deputy policemen. Behan and the Earps were at conflict as Behan supported the outlaw Clanton and McLaury families. After the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the murder of Morgan Earp, Behan did nothing to find the killers of Morgan Earp. Rather than look for Morgan's killers, Behan put out warrants for U.S. marshal Virgil Earp and Wyatt for killing outlaws. On January 31, 1882, Behan was arrested for collecting bills totaling $300 twice, arraigned in front of Justice Stilwell, and discharged due to a technicality. Behan failed to win re-election as sheriff in November of 1882; he would not serve as a peace officer again. Later, he was appointed as the warden of the Yuma Territorial Prison and had various other government jobs until his death in 1912. Milt Joyce departed Tombstone in 1883. On October 10, 1880 Joyce and Doc Holliday had a shoot-out at the Oriental. Joyce died in 1889 at the age of 42 in San Francisco, where he was the owner of the Baldwin Billiard Parlor in 1883 and later the Cafe Royal in San Francisco. Harry M. Woods, a Pennsylvania Infantry Union Veteran, moved to from Tombstone to Nogales, Arizona where he was a tax collector until his death in 1896. After Artemus Fay departed the Weekly Nugget, which burned in the great fire of 1882 and did not re-open, he worked at the Nugget Mine in Dos Cabezas and start a short-lived paper there, the GoNote. After the death of his wife, Fay moved to Flagstaff and started a newspaper there.
The Bisbee Historic District is located in Bisbee, Arizona, and has all the essential features of a prosperous, early twentieth century mining town.
