Deadwood, South Dakota
My brother and I sat in the back of whatever Oldsmobile my dad was driving that year and sweltered in the unairconditioned heat and humidity of the midwest. Adding to that joy was the fact that my dad measured progress, and I guess enjoyment, in how many miles he could cover in a day. So, anything that looked interesting as a stopping point for us certainly looked like a waste of time and less miles covered to my father. So, the trips entailed zooming down the highway staring out the car windows at nothing really until we got to our destination where we would literally spend a few hours looking at the purpose of the trip and then we would turn around and head home.
One summer's obligatory trip was to the Badlands of South Dakota. We stopped in Deadwood and that is all I remember! LOL
So, I am learning about Deadwood umpteen years' after our visit there. Won't you join me?
Welcome to Deadwood!
Deadwood puts you in the middle of history. The entire city of Deadwood is a national historic landmark. Authentic re-creation of turn-of-the-century street lamps light the way through accurately, carefully restored architecture. The famous and infamous have left their marks here. Follow their footsteps as you explore the beauty and history of this one-of-a-kind Wild West town. The population was 1,380 at the 2000 census.
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Pioneer gold prospectors, both sides of the Battle of Little Big Horn,
buffalo hunters and a princess gather peaceably in Deadwood in 1927.
The city of Deadwood, seat of Lawrence County, in the Black Hills of Western South Dakota was incorporated in 1876. The city was named for the dead trees that were found in the narrow canyon (Deadwood Gulch) where you'll find the historic Main and Sherman streets, with many streets built up its steep sides.
Deadwood had the first telephone exchange in the state of South Dakota. Established by Paul Rewman in March of 1878, calls between Deadwood and Lead were 50 cents at the time, 25 cents cheaper than a stage ride between the cities, and much faster. The completion of the line was promptly celebrated as reported by the Pioneer with a large bonfire, gathering, and a grand ball at the Grand Central Hotel.
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Deadwood - Where Wild Bill Hickok Was Shot
James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a legendary figure in the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized. His moniker of Wild Bill has inspired similar nicknames for men named William (even though that was not Hickok's name) who were known for their daring in various fields. Hickok's horse was called Black Nell and he owned two Colt.44 guns.
Hickok came to the West as a stage coach driver, then became a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, and professional gambler. Between his law enforcement duties and gambling, which easily overlapped, Hickok was involved in several notable shootouts, and was ultimately killed while playing poker in a Dakota Territory saloon.
Early life
Wild Bill Hickok was born in Homer, IL (name later changed to Troy Grove, Illinois) on May 27, 1837. His birthplace is now the Wild Bill Hickok State Memorial, a listed historic site under the supervision of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. While he was growing up, his father's farm was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad, and he learned his shooting skills protecting the farm with his father from anti-abolitionists. Hickok was a good shot from a very young age.
In 1855 Hickok, then 18, had a fight with Charles Hudson which resulted in both falling into a canal. Mistakenly thinking he had killed Hudson, Hickok fled and joined General Jim Lane's Free State Army ("The Red Legs") where he met then 12 year old William Cody, later to be known as "Buffalo Bill", who at that time was a scout for Johnston's Army. Due to his "sweeping nose and protruding upper lip", Hickok was nicknamed "Duck Bill". In 1861, after growing a moustache following the infamous McCanles incident, and not without some encouragement from himself, he was to become known by the nickname he is most famous for, "Wild Bill".
In 1857, Hickok claimed a 160 acre tract of land in Johnson County, Kansas (in what is now the city of Lenexa) where, on March 22 in 1858, he was elected as the first constable of Monticello Township, Kansas. In 1859 he joined the Russell, Waddell, and Majors freight company as a driver. The following year he was badly injured by a bear and sent to the Rock Creek Station in Nebraska to work as a stable hand while he recovered. In 1861 he was involved in a deadly shoot-out with the McCanles gang at the Rock Creek Station after 40 year old David McCanles, his 12 year old son and two farmhands called at the station's office to demand payment of an overdue second installment on the property, an event still under much debate. Hickok and his accomplices, the station manager Horace Wellman, his wife and an employee J.W. Brink were tried but judged to have acted in self defense despite reports that none of the "McCanles gang" were armed. McCanles was the first man Hickok killed in a fight. On several later occasions, Hickok was to confront and kill several men while fighting alone.
Hickok invented the practice of "posting" men out of town. He would put a list on what was called the "dead man's tree" (so called because men had been lynched on it) while constable of Monticello Township. Hickok proclaimed he would shoot them on sight the following day. Few stayed around to find out if he was serious.
Civil War and scouting
When the Civil War began, Hickok joined the Union forces and served in the west, mostly in Kansas and Missouri. He earned a reputation as a skilled scout. After the war, Hickok became a scout for the U. S. Army and later was a professional gambler. He served for a time as a United States Marshal. In 1867, his fame increased from an interview by Henry Morton Stanley.
During the Civil War, "Buffalo Bill Cody" served as a scout with Robert Denbow, David L. Payne, and Hickok. The men formed a friendship that would last decades. After the war, the four men, Payne, Cody, Hickok, and Denbow engaged in buffalo hunting. When Payne moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1870, Denbow joined him there while Hickok served as sheriff of Hays, Kansas. Hickok was rumored to have appeared in a stage play put on in 1873 by Bill Cody entitled "Scouts of the Plains." When Bill Cody started the Buffalo Bill shows, Denbow traveled with Cody all over Iowa with the Buffalo Bill shows.
Lawman and gunfighter
On July 21, 1865, in the town square of Springfield, Missouri, Hickok killed Davis Tutt, Jr. in a "quick draw" duel. Fiction later typified this kind of gunfight, but Hickok's is in fact the first one on record that fits the portrayal. The incident was precipitated by a dispute over a gambling debt incurred at a local saloon and likely exacerbated by the fact there was a long standing dispute over a mutual girlfriend Susannah Moore. Several weeks later Hickok was interviewed by Colonel George Ward Nichols and the interview was published in Harpers New Monthly Magazine. Using the name "Wild Bill Hitchcock" the article recounted the hundreds of men Hickok personally killed and other exaggerated exploits. The article was controversial wherever Hickok was known and led to several frontier newspapers writing rebuttals and is credited as the reason for Hickok's failure to be elected Marshall of Springfield. Leaving Springfield he was recommended for the position of Deputy United States Marshall at Fort Riley Kansas. At this time the Western Plains were involved in Native American wars and Hickok also served as a scout for George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry.
In 1867 Hickok took a break from the west and moved to Niagara Falls where he tried his hand at acting in a stage play called "The Daring Buffalo Chases of the Plains". He proved to be a terrible actor and returned west to be elected sheriff and city marshal of Ellis County, Kansas on August 23, 1869. In his first month in Hays, Kansas he killed two men in gunfights. Nothing is known of the reasons and little else apart from their names. The first was Bill Mulvey who "got the drop" on Hickok. Hickok looked past him and yelled "Don't shoot him boys" which was enough distraction to win him the fight. The second was Sam Strawwhim. On July 17, 1870, also in Hays he was involved in a gunfight with disorderly soldiers of the 7th US Cavalry, wounding one and mortally wounding another. He later failed to win re election. On April 15 1871, Hickok became marshal of Abilene, Kansas, taking over for former marshal Tom "Bear River" Smith, who had been killed on November 2nd, 1870. The outlaw John Wesley Hardin was originally befriended by Hickok and the two often gambled and went "whoring" together, until he shot a snoring hotel guest for disturbing his sleep and had to leave town. In his autobiography (written several years after Hickok's death) Hardin claimed to have disarmed Hickok using the famous Road agent's spin during a failed attempt to arrest him for wearing his pistols in a saloon. This story is considered to be apocryphal, or at the very least an exaggeration, as Hardin claimed this at a time when Hickok couldn't defend himself, and Hardin was considered to be boastful and a liar.
While working in Abilene, Hickok and Phil Coe, a saloon owner, had an ongoing dispute that later resulted in a shootout. Coe had been the business partner of known gunman Ben Thompson, with whom he co-owned the Bulls Head Saloon. On October 5, 1871, Hickok was standing off a crowd during a street brawl, during which time Coe fired two shots and Hickok ordered him to be arrested for firing a pistol within the city limits. Coe explained he was shooting at a stray dog but suddenly turned his gun on Hickok who fired first and killed Coe. Hickok caught the glimpse of movement of someone running toward him and quickly fired two shots in reaction, accidentally shooting and killing Abilene Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams, who was coming to his aid, an event that haunted Hickok for the remainder of his life.
Hickok's retort to Coe, who supposedly stated he could "kill a crow on the wing", is one of the West's most famous sayings (though possibly apocryphal): "Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting back? I will be." However, due to his having accidentally killed deputy Mike Williams, Hickock was relieved of his duties as marshal less than two months later.
In 1876 Hickok was diagnosed with both glaucoma and gonorrhea. It was apparent that his markmanship and health had been suffering for some time as despite earning a good income from gambling and displays of showmanship only a few years earlier, by this time he had been arrested several times for vagrancy. On March 5, 1876 Hickok married Agnes Thatcher Lake, a 50-year-old circus proprietor. Calamity Jane claimed in her autobiography that she was married to Hickok and had divorced him so he could be free to marry Agnes Lake. Hickok soon left his new bride to seek his fortune in the goldfields of South Dakota.
Shortly before Hickok's death, he wrote a letter to his new wife, Agnes Lake Thatcher, which reads in part: "Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife—Agnes—and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore" and "My dearly beloved if I am to die today and never see the sweet face of you I want you to know that I am no great man and am lucky to have such a woman as you".
Death
As most Wild West buffs are aware, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was killed by Jack Mc Call in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, on August 2, 1876. Hickock was shot in the back of the head while playing poker and holding Aces and eights (two pairs) ever since known as the "dead man's hand."
The first newspaper report of Hickok's death was published in Deadwood's only newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer, on August 5, 1876. The headlines read:
ASSASSINATION OF WILD BILL HE WAS SHOT THROUGH THE HEAD
BY JOHN MC CALL
WHILE UNAWARE OF DANGER
ARREST, TRIAL, & DISCHARGE
OF THE ASSASSIN
WHO CLAIMS TO HAVE AVENGED
A BROTHER'S DEATH
IN KILLING WILD BILL
The text read: "On Wednesday about 3 o'clock the report stated that J.B. Hickok (Wild Bill) was killed. On repairing to the hall of Nuttall and Mann, it was ascertained that the report was too true. We found the remains of Wild Bill lying on the floor. The murderer, Jack Mc Call, was captured after a lively chase by many of the citizens, and taken to a building at the lower end of the city, and a guard placed over him. As soon as this was accomplished, a coroner's jury was summoned, with C.H. Sheldon as foreman, who after hearing all the evidence, which was the effect that, while Wild Bill and others were at a table playing cards, Jack Mc Call walked in and around directly back of his victim, and when within three feet of him raised his revolver, and exclaiming, "damn you, take that," fired; the ball entering at the back of the head, and coming out at the centre of the right check causing instant death, reached a verdict in accordance with the above facts "
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Martha Jane Cannary-Burke, better known as Calamity Jane (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), was a frontierswoman and professional scout best known for her claim of being a close friend of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans.
Early life: 1852 – 1870
Cannary was born on May 1, 1852 as Martha Jane Cannary in Princeton, Missouri, the oldest of six children, having two brothers and three sisters. Robert W. and Charlotte Cannary are listed in the 1860 census living in Ravanna, Mercer County, Missouri. Robert packed his family and moved by wagon train from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana in 1865. Charlotte died along the way in Black Foot, Montana in 1866 of "washtub pneumonia". In the spring of that year, Robert took his six children on to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City in the summer. They were there a year before he died in 1867. At the tender age of 15, Martha Jane took over as head of the family, loaded up the wagon once more, and took her siblings to Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory. They arrived in May of 1868. From there they traveled to Piedmont, Wyoming, on the Union Pacific Railroad.
In Piedmont, Martha Jane took whatever jobs she could to provide for her large family. She worked as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a dance-hall girl, a nurse, and an ox team driver. Finally, in 1870, she found work as a scout at Fort Russell.
From her autobiography of 1896, Martha Jane writes of this time:
- "While on the way, the greater portion of my time was spent in hunting along with the men and hunters of the party; in fact, I was at all times with the men when there was excitement and adventures to be had. By the time we reached Virginia City, I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age. I remember many occurrences on the journey from Missouri to Montana. Many times in crossing the mountains, the conditions of the trail were so bad that we frequently had to lower the wagons over ledges by hand with ropes, for they were so rough and rugged that horses were of no use.
- "We also had many exciting times fording streams, for many of the streams in our way were noted for quicksands and boggy places, where, unless we were very careful, we would have lost horses and all. Then we had many dangers to encounter in the way of streams swelling on account of heavy rains. On occasions of that kind, the men would usually select the best places to cross the streams; myself, on more than one occasion, have mounted my pony and swam across the stream several times merely to amuse myself, and have had many narrow escapes from having both myself and pony washed away to certain death, but, as the pioneers of those days had plenty of courage, we overcame all obstacles and reached Virginia City in safety."
Accounts from this period described Cannary as being "extremely attractive" and a "pretty, dark-eyed girl." Cannary received little to no formal education but was literate. She moved on to a rougher, mostly outdoor adventurous life on the Great Plains.
Scout: 1870 – 1876
Wearing the uniform of a soldier, Martha Jane began her career as a scout. According to her biography, she joined with Custer. As historians have since discovered, she was prone to exaggerations and lies about her exploits, and no evidence exists that Custer was ever at Fort Russell. One source states she more likely served with General George Crook, stationed at Fort Fetterman, Wyoming.
Whichever account is true, this is the time she started dressing like a man. She states:
- "Up to this time, I had always worn the costume of my sex. When I joined Custer, I donned the uniform of a soldier. It was a bit awkward at first, but I soon got to be perfectly at home in men's clothes."
Cannary did serve in one campaign in which Lt Colonel Custer was involved, following the spring of 1872. Custer and Generals Miles, Terry and Crook were dispatched with their forces to handle Indian uprisings near present day Sheridan, Wyoming, which would be called the "Mussel Shell Indian Outbreak", and is also referred to as the "Nursey Pursey Indian Outbreak". This is the only confirmed opportunity Calamity had to meet Custer, although it is unlikely that she did.
Following that campaign, in 1874, her detachment was ordered to Fort Custer, where they remained until the following spring. During this campaign (and others involving Custer and Crook together), she was not attached to Custer's command.
Acquiring the nickname
Cannary was involved in several campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native Americans. One story, told by her, has her acquiring the nickname "Calamity Jane" in 1872 by rescuing her superior, Captain Egan, from an ambush near Sheridan, Wyoming, in an area known then as Goose Creek, Wyoming. However, even back then not everyone accepted her version, and in another story it is said that she acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to "court calamity". One verified story about "Calamity Jane" is that in 1875 her detachment was ordered to the Big Horn River, under General Crook. Bearing important dispatches, she swam the Platte River and traveled 90 miles (145 km) at top speed while wet and cold to deliver them. Afterwards, she became ill. After recuperating for a few weeks, she rode to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and later, in July 1876, she joined a wagon train headed north, which is where she first met Bill Hickok, contrary to her later claims.
Deadwood and Wild Bill Hickok: 1876 – 1881
Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy.
In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There, she became friends with, and was occasionally employed by, Dora DuFran, the Black Hills leading Madame. She became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having travelled with them to Deadwood in Utter's wagon train. Jane greatly admired Hickok (to the point of infatuation), and she was obsessed with his personality and life.
After Hickok was killed during a poker game on August 2, 1876, Calamity Jane claimed to have been married to Hickok and that Hickok was the father of her child (Jane), whom she said was born on September 25, 1873, and whom she later put up for adoption by Jim O'Neil and his wife. No records are known to exist which prove the birth of a child, and the romantic slant to the relationship might have been a fabrication. During the period that the alleged child was born, she was working as a scout for the Army. At the time of his death, Hickok was newly married to Agnes Lake Thatcher, formerly of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
However, on September 6, 1941, the U.S. Department of Public Welfare did grant old age assistance to a Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick (name of her 3rd husband), who claimed to be the legal offspring of Martha Jane Cannary and James Butler Hickok, after being presented with evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson's Landing, Montana Territory, on September 25, 1873, documentation being written in a Bible and presumably signed by two reverends and numerous witnesses. The claim of Jean Hickok McCormick was later proved to be spurious by the Hickok family. (Rosa, Joseph- "They Called Him Wild Bill")
Jane also claimed that following Hickok's death, she went after Jack McCall, his murderer, with a meat cleaver, having left her guns at her residence in the excitement of the moment. However, she never confronted McCall. Following McCall's eventual hanging for the offense, Jane continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and at one point she did help save several passengers of an overland stagecoach by diverting several Plains Indians who were in pursuit of the stage. The stagecoach driver, John Slaughter, was killed during the pursuit, and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on to its destination at Deadwood. Also in late 1876, Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.
Final years: 1881 – 1903
In 1881, she bought a farm close to Yellowstone Park where she kept an inn. After marrying the Texan, Clinton Burke, and moving to Boulder, she again tried her luck in this business. In 1887, she had a daughter, Jane, who was given to foster parents.
In 1893, Calamity Jane started to appear in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a horse rider and a trick shooter. She also participated in the Pan-American Exposition. At that time, she was depressive and an alcoholic.
By the turn of the century, Madame Dora DuFran was still going strong when Jane returned to the Black Hills in 1903. For the next few months, Jane earned her keep by cooking and doing the laundry for Dora’s brothel girls in Belle Fourche. In July, she travelled to Terry, South Dakota. While staying in the Calloway Hotel on August 1, 1903, she died at the age of 55. In her belongings, a bundle of letters to her daughter were found, which she had never sent. Some of these letters were set to music in an art song cycle by 20th century composer Libby Larsen called Songs From Letters. There is no significant evidence to prove she was the actual author of these letters. She was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery (South Dakota), next to Wild Bill Hickock.
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Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, (March 19, 1848–January 13, 1929) was an American farmer, teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, saloon-keeper, miner, and boxing referee. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, along with Doc Holliday, and two of his brothers, Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp.
Early life
On July 30, 1840, widower Nicholas Porter Earp wed Virginia Ann Cooksey in Hartford, Kentucky. Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on March 19, 1848. Wyatt Earp had an older half-brother, as well as a half-sister, who died at the age of ten months.
On March 4, 1856, Nicholas sold his farm and returned to Monmouth, Illinois, but was unable to find work as a cooper or farmer. Faced with the possibility of not being able to provide for his family, Nicholas chose to become a municipal constable, serving at this post for about three years. Reportedly, he had a second source of income from the selling of alcoholic beverages, which made him the target of the local Temperance movement. Subsequently, he was tried in 1859 for bootlegging, convicted and publicly humiliated. Nicholas was unable to pay his court-imposed fines, and, on November 11, 1859, the Earp family's property was sold at auction. Two days later, the Earps left again for Pella, Iowa.
During the family's second stay in Pella, the Civil War broke out. Newton, James, and Virgil joined the Union Army on November 11, 1861. Only thirteen years old, Wyatt was too young but later tried on several occasions to run away and join the army, only to have his father find him and bring him home. While Nicholas was busy recruiting and drilling local companies, Wyatt—with the help of his two younger brothers, Morgan and Warren—was left in charge of tending an eighty-acre crop of corn. After being severely wounded in Fredericktown, Missouri, James returned home in the summer of 1863. Newton and Virgil fought several battles in the east and later returned.
On May 12, 1864, the Earp family joined a wagon train heading to California. The 1931 book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake, tells of the Earps' encounter with Indians near Fort Laramie and that Wyatt reportedly took the opportunity at their stop at Fort Bridger to hunt buffalo with Jim Bridger. Later researchers have suggested that Lake's account of Earp's early life is embellished, since there is little corroborating evidence for many of its stories.
California
By late summer 1865, Wyatt and Virgil found work as drivers for Phineas Banning's Banning Stage Line in California's Imperial Valley. This is presumed to be the time Wyatt first drank whiskey; he reportedly felt sick enough to abstain from it for the next two decades.
In the spring of 1866, Earp became a teamster, transporting cargo for Chris Taylor. His assigned trail for 1866–1868 was from Wilmington, California, to Prescott, Arizona Territory. He worked on the route from San Bernardino through Las Vegas, Nevada Territory, to Salt Lake City. In the spring of 1868, Earp was hired by Charles Chrisman to transport supplies for the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. This is believed to be the time of his introduction to gambling and boxing; he refereed a fight between John Shanssey and Mike Donovan.
Lawman
In the spring of 1868, the Earps settled in Lamar, Missouri, where Nicholas became the local constable. When Nicholas resigned to become justice of the peace on November 17, 1869, Wyatt was appointed constable in place of his father. On November 26 and in return for his appointment, Earp filed a bond of $1,000. His sureties for this bond were his father Nicholas Porter Earp, his paternal uncle Jonathan Douglas Earp (April 28, 1824 - October 20, 1900) and James Maupin.
On January 10, 1870, in Lamar, Missouri, Earp married his first wife, Urilla Sutherland (1849 - c.1870), the daughter of William and Permelia Sutherland, formerly of New York City. The marriage was short-lived. Urilla is believed to have died either a few months or about a year later. There are two reported versions of her cause of death: one version claims she died of typhus, the other that she died in childbirth.
In August 1870, Wyatt bought a house and land for $50. In November, he resold the house for $75. The later event has been used to estimate the death of Urilla, based on presumption that a widower has less need of permanent residence than a married man expecting children.
Earp was faced with two lawsuits and theft a horse and after some commotion over those Earp disappeared causing the suits to be dropped.
Reappearance
For years, researchers had no reliable account of Earp's activities or whereabouts between the remainder of 1871 and October 28, 1874, when Earp made his reappearance in Wichita, Kansas. It has been suggested that he spent these years hunting buffalo in Kansas and wandering throughout the Great Plains.
He is generally considered to have first met his close friend Bat Masterson around this period, on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River. Nevertheless, the discovery of contemporary accounts that place Earp in Peoria, Illinois, and the surrounding area during 1872 have caused researchers to question these claims. Earp is listed in the city directory for Peoria during 1872 as living in the house of Jane Haspel, who operated a bagnio (brothel) from that location. In February 1872, Peoria police raided the Haspel bagnio, arresting four women and three men. The three men were Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, and George Randall. Wyatt and the others were charged with "Keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame." They were later fined twenty dollars plus costs for the criminal infraction. Two additional arrests for Wyatt Earp for the same crime during 1872 in Peoria have also been found. Some researchers have concluded that the Peoria information indicates that Earp was intimately involved in the prostitution trade in the Peoria area throughout 1872. This new information has caused some researchers to question Lake's accounts of Earp hunting buffalo in Kansas in 1871-74.
Wichita
Like Ellsworth, Wichita was a train terminal which was a destination for cattle drives originating in Texas. Such cattle boomtowns on the frontier were raucous places filled with drunken, armed cowboys celebrating at the end of long drives. Earp officially joined the Wichita marshal's office on April 21, 1875
Earp received several public acclamations while in Wichita. He recognized and arrested a wanted horse thief (having to fire his weapon in warning but not hurting the man) and later a group of wagon thieves. He had a bit of public embarrassment in early 1876 when a loaded single action revolver dropped out of his holster while he was leaning back on a chair and discharged when the hammer hit the floor. The bullet went through his coat and out through the ceiling. It may be presumed from Earp's discussion of the problem in Lake's biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal (published after Wyatt's death) that Wyatt never carried a single-action with six rounds again. In Lake's version, Earp did not admit he had first-hand knowledge of this error.
Dodge City
Dodge City, Kansas became a major terminal for cattle driven from Texas along the Chisholm Trail from Texas after 1875. Earp was appointed assistant marshal in Dodge City, under Marshal Larry Deger, in 1876. There is some indication that Earp traveled to Deadwood in the Dakota Territory, during the winter of 1876-77.
In October 1877, Earp left Dodge City for a short while to gamble throughout Texas. He stopped at Fort Griffin, Texas, where, according to Wyatt's recollection in the Stuart Lake biography, he met a young, card-playing dentist known as Doc Holliday.
Earp returned to Dodge City in 1878 to become the assistant city marshal under Charlie Bassett. Holliday moved to Dodge City in June 1878 and saved Earp's life in August. While Earp was trying to break up a bar-room brawl, a cowboy drew a gun and pointed it at Earp's back. Holliday yelled, "Look out, Wyatt", then drew his gun, scaring the cowboy enough to make him back off.
Celia Anne "Mattie" Blaylock, a former prostitute, had arrived in Dodge City with Earp. She became Earp's companion until 1882. Earp resigned from the Dodge City police force on September 9, 1878 and headed to Las Vegas, New Mexico, with Blaylock.
"Buntline Special"
As a deputy, Earp was known for using a long-barreled revolver to pistol-whip and disarm cowboys who resisted town ordinances against carrying of firearms. Although there is no conclusive proof as to the kind of pistol Wyatt carried, his reported use of a long-barreled pistol, for many years doubted, may have been a reality. The story of the gun, known as the "Buntline Special," begins with the murder of actress Dora Hand (who was also known as Fannie Keenan) in 1878. Hand was shot by a man attempting to kill Dodge City Mayor James H. "Dog" Kelly. Dora was a guest in Kelly’s house and was sleeping in his bed at the time while Kelly and his wife were out of town. Dora was a celebrity, and her murder became a national story. Earp was in the posse which brought down the murderer. The story of the capture was reported in newspapers as far away as New York and California.
According to the newspaper stories, five men were dispatched as a posse to capture the assassin: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, a very young Bill Tilghman, Charlie Bassett and William Duffy. Earp shot the man’s horse, and Masterson wounded the assassin, who was James "Spike" Kenedy, son of Texas cattleman Miflin Kenedy. The Dodge City Times called them "as intrepid a posse as ever pulled a trigger."
It is very likely that Dora’s murder and the tracking down of her assassin were the events which caused Ned Buntline to bestow the gift of the "Buntline Specials." Earp’s biography claimed the Specials were given to "famous lawmen" Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, Charlie Bassett and Neal Brown by author Ned Buntline in return for “local color” for his western yarns. This is technically inaccurate since neither Tilghman nor Brown was a lawman then. Further, Buntline wrote only four western yarns, all about Buffalo Bill. So, if Buntline got any “local color", he never used it.
Lake spent much effort trying to track down the Buntline Special through the Colt company and Masterson and contacts in Alaska. It was a Colt Single Action Army model with a 12-inch (30 cm) barrel, standard sights, and wooden grips into which the name “Ned” was ornately carved. Of those guns awarded, Earp was the only one who kept his the original length that it had when it was awarded to him. Masterson and the others cut the barrel down for easier concealment.
Tombstone
Wyatt and his older brothers James (Jim) and Virgil moved to silver-mining boomtown Tombstone, in the Arizona Territory, in December 1879. Wyatt brought a wagon that he planned to convert into a stagecoach, but on arrival he found two established stage lines already running. Jim worked as a barkeep. Virgil was appointed deputy U.S. marshal, just prior to arriving in Tombstone. The U.S. marshal for the Arizona Territory, C.P. Dake, was based in Prescott 280 miles [about 450 km] away, so the deputy U.S. marshal job in Tombstone represented federal authority in the southwest area of the territory. In Tombstone, the Earps staked mining claims. Wyatt also went to work for Wells Fargo, riding shotgun for their stagecoaches when they held strongboxes.
Eventually, in the summer of 1880, younger brothers Morgan and Warren Earp moved to Tombstone as well, and in September, Doc Holliday arrived.
On July 25, 1880, U.S. Deputy Marshal Virgil Earp accused Frank McLaury, a "Cowboy", (often capitalized in papers as a local term for a cattle-dealer that often was synonymous with rustler) of taking part in the stealing of six Army mules from Camp Rucker. This was a federal matter because the animals were federal property. The McLaurys were caught changing the "U.S." brand to "D.8." by the Army representative and Earp. However, to avoid a fight, the posse withdrew on the understanding that the mules would be returned. They were not. In response, the Army's representative published an account in the papers, damaging Frank McLaury's reputation. This incident marked the beginning of animosity between the McLaurys and the Earps.
About the same time, Wyatt was appointed deputy sheriff for the southern part of Pima County, which was at that time the surrounding county containing Tombstone. Wyatt served in the office only three months.
On October 28, 1880, as Tombstone town-marshal (police chief) Fred White was trying to break up a group of late revelers shooting at the moon on Allen Street in Tombstone, he was shot in the groin as he attempted to confiscate the pistol of "Curly Bill" William Brocius, who was apparently with the group. The pistol was later found to be loaded except for one expended cartridge. Morgan and Wyatt Earp, along with Wells Fargo agent Fred Dodge, came to White's aid. Wyatt hit Brocius over the head with a pistol borrowed from Dodge and disarmed Brocius, arresting him on a deadly weapon assault charge. (Virgil Earp was not present at White's shooting or Brocius' arrest.) Wyatt and a deputy took Brocius in a wagon the next day to Tucson to stand trial, possibly saving him from being lynched. Brocius waived the preliminary hearing to get out of town faster, probably believing the same. White, age 31, died of his wound two days after his shooting, changing the charge to murder.
On December 27, 1880, Wyatt testified in Tucson court regarding the Brocius-White shooting. Partly because of Earp’s testimony (and also a statement given by White before he died) that the shooting had not been intentional, the judge ruled the shooting accidental and set Brocius free. Brocius, however, remained a friend of the McLaurys and an enemy of the Earps.
Wyatt Earp resigned as deputy sheriff of Pima County on November 9, 1880, just twelve days after the White shooting, because of an election vote-counting dispute. Wyatt favored the Republican challenger Bob Paul, rather than his current boss, Pima Sheriff Charlie Shibell. Democrat Shibell was initially determined to be the winner. He appointed Democrat Johnny Behan as the new undersheriff for the south Pima area to replace Earp. Subsequently, after Shibell's victory was found to be due to ballot-box stuffing by area cowboys, Paul was declared the winner of the Pima County sheriff election. By that time, however, it was too late for Paul to replace Behan with Earp as undersheriff, because the southern portion of Pima County had been split off into Cochise County and was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Pima County sheriff.
Both Earp and Behan were applicants to be appointed to fill the new position of Cochise County sheriff. Wyatt, as former undersheriff and a Republican in the same party as Territorial Governor Fremont, assumed he had a good chance at appointment, but Behan had political influence in Prescott. Earp later testified that he made a deal with Behan that if he (Earp) withdrew his application, Behan would name Earp as undersheriff if he was appointed sheriff. Behan testified there was no such deal, but acknowledged that he had indeed promised Wyatt the undersheriff job. When Behan did get the appointment in February 1881, however, he did not appoint Earp undersheriff, choosing Harry Woods, a prominent Democrat, instead. According to Behan, he broke his promise to appoint Earp because of an incident that occurred shortly before his appointment.
The incident arose after Wyatt heard that one of his branded horses, which had been stolen more than a year earlier, was in the possession of Ike Clanton and Billy Clanton. Earp and Holliday rode to the Clanton ranch near Charleston to recover the horse. On the way, they overtook Behan, riding in a wagon. Behan was also heading for the ranch to serve an election-hearing subpoena on Ike Clanton. Accounts differ as to what happened next. Wyatt later testified that when he arrived at the Clanton ranch, Billy Clanton gave up the horse even before being presented with ownership papers. According to Behan's testimony, however, Earp and Holliday put a scare into the Clantons by telling them that Behan was on his way with an armed posse to arrest them for horse theft. Whatever the effect of the incident on Wyatt's relationship with Behan, it certainly damaged the Clantons' reputations and convinced the Earps that the Clantons were horse thieves.
Losing the undersheriff position left Wyatt Earp without a job in Tombstone; however, Wyatt and his brothers were beginning to make some money on their mining claims in the Tombstone area. In January 1881, Wyatt Earp became part owner, with Lou Rickabaugh and others, in the gambling concession at the Oriental Saloon. Shortly thereafter, in Earp's story, John Tyler was hired by a rival gambling operator to cause trouble at the Oriental to keep patrons away. After losing a bet, Tyler became belligerent, and Earp took him by the ear and threw him out of the saloon. It was some time around this period that Earp is alleged to have saved gambler Mike O'Rourke, aka "Johnny behind the deuce", from being lynched after the latter was arrested for murdering a miner. This incident would later add to Earp's legend as a lawman.
Tensions between the Earps and both the Clantons and McLaurys increased through 1881. In March 1881, three cowboys attempted an unsuccessful stagecoach holdup near Benson, during which the driver and passenger were murdered in the gunfire. There were rumors that Doc Holliday, who was a known friend of one of the suspects, had been involved, though the formal accusation of Doc's involvement was started by Doc's companion Big Nose Kate after a drunken quarrel, and she later recanted after she sobered. Wyatt later testified that in order to help clear Doc's name and to help himself win the next sheriff's election, he went to Ike Clanton and Frank McLaury and offered to give them all the reward money for information leading to capture of the robbers. According to Earp, both Frank McLaury and Ike Clanton agreed to provide information for the capture. Subsequently, all three cowboy suspects in the stage robbery were killed in unrelated violent incidents. Clanton then accused Earp of leaking their deal to either his brother Morgan, or to Holliday.
Meanwhile, tensions between the Earps and the McLaurys increased with the holdup of another stage in the Tombstone area (September 8), this one a passenger stage in the Sandy Bob line, bound for nearby Bisbee. The masked robbers shook down the passengers (the stage had no strongbox) and in the process were recognized from their voices and language as Pete Spence (an alias) and Frank Stilwell, a business partner of Spence who was also at the time a deputy of Sheriff Behan's. Spence and Stilwell were friends of the McLaurys. Wyatt and Virgil Earp rode with the sheriff's posse attempting to track the Bisbee stage robbers, and during the tracking, Wyatt discovered the unusual print of a custom repaired boot heel. Checking a shoe repair shop in Bisbee known to provide widened bootheels led to identification of Stilwell as a recent customer, and a check of a Bisbee corral turned up both Spence and Stilwell. Stilwell was found with a new set of wide custom boot heels matching the prints of the robber. Stilwell and Spence were arrested by sheriff's deputies Breakenridge and Nagel for the stage robbery, and later by Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp on the federal offense of mail robbery.
Released on bail, Spence and Stilwell were re-arrested by Virgil for the Bisbee robbery a month later, October 13, on the new federal charge of interfering with a mail carrier. The newspapers, however, reported that they had been arrested for a different stage robbery that occurred (October 8) near Contention city. Occurring less than two weeks before the O.K. Corral shootout, this final incident may have been misunderstood by the McLaurys. While Wyatt and Virgil were still out of town for the Spence and Stilwell hearing, Frank McLaury confronted Morgan Earp, telling him that the McLaurys would kill the Earps if they tried to arrest Spence, Stilwell, or the McLaurys again.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
- Virgil Earp requested that Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday support him and Morgan Earp in preparation for the gunfight. They were both deputized for the occasion. Wyatt spoke of his brothers Virgil and Morgan as the "marshals" while he acted as "deputy."