Shootout at the O.K. Corral

A Blaze of Gunfire in 30 Seconds

The shootout at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight between two rival groups, with Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers on one side and the Clanton and the McLaury brothers on the other side. It took place in the town of Tombstone, Arizona on October 26^th, 1881. The fight itself lasted all of 30 seconds and in the aftermath three of the participants were killed. Even though it was not famous at the time, the gunfight eventually came to symbolize the battle between chaos and order in the “Wild West” of the United States.

Wild West: Land of Opportunity and Chaos

After the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865, the economy hit a slump. Many people living in the population centers of the east coast and the south – cities such as New York, Boston, and Atlanta – struggled to find work and to make ends meet. Searching for new opportunities and maybe even the chance to strike it rich, people began to head west to states such as Arizona, Colorado and California. Precious metals such as gold and silver had been discovered in the west, and with these discoveries came stories of people who struck it rich overnight. 

While there were plenty of chances to make a lot of money, there was also quite a bit of danger in the Wild West since police were few and far between. The towns themselves often didn’t have enough money to pay for police departments, which meant that criminals could run rampant. Thus, murder, robberies, and violence were a part of life in the towns of the American West.

The small town of Tombstone, Arizona was no different than many other places in the Wild West. Silver had been discovered nearby, bringing droves of people into this once quiet desert town. While many of these people came to mine the silver or to just find jobs, there were also those who came to rob, steal and murder.

Brothers in Arms

The Earp brothers had come to Tombstone to try to impose order on the town. Wyatt Earp was a former Kansas police officer who was working as a security guard at bank. Joining Wyatt in Tombstone were his brothers Morgan and Virgil, who was the town marshal. Doc Holliday, a former dentist from Georgia who had become a gambler and a gunfighter, was a good friend of Wyatt’s – Holliday had even saved Wyatt’s life a few years earlier.

The Earp brothers were known as strong, even ruthless, in their attempts to impose law on the town of Tombstone. During their time in Tombstone they had several confrontations with Tom and Frank McLaury as well as with Ike and Billy Clanton, two sets of brothers who lived together on a ranch just outside of town. The brothers were cowboys but they were also thieves and murders. The brothers were responsible for so much of the violence and chaos in the town, that it was only a matter of time before they came to blows with the Earps.

The Shootout

Tom McLaury and Ike Clanton came to town for supplies on the morning of October 25, 1881. While they were in town, they had several violent skirmishes with the Earp brothers and with Doc Holliday. The next day Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and their friend Billy Claiborne rode in to town to help Tom and Ike. Stopping at a local saloon, they met Doc Holliday, who told them that the Earp brothers had pistol-whipped Tom and Ike. The brothers left the saloon in a fury, and they swore revenge on the Earps for what they had done. 

Doc Holliday hurried out of the saloon just after the brothers left, hoping to find the Earps and to warn them. At around 3pm Holiday and the Earps spotted all five members of the gang at the back of the O.K. Corral, in an empty lot behind Fremont Street. The two groups approached each other, but no one yet fired a shot.

There is still some debate about who fired first but many reports claim that Virgil Earp pulled out his pistol and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest. At that point Doc Holliday then fired a shotgun blast at Tom McLaury, hitting him in the chest. Shots now rang out from everywhere, with Wyatt Earp shooting Frank McLaury in the stomach. McLaury however fired a few shots of his own, as did Billy Clanton. At the end of this 30 second battle Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers lay dead; Virgil and Morgan Earp along with Doc Holliday were wounded; Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne had escaped and headed for the hills.

The Smoke Clears: the Aftermath of the Gunfight

John Behan, who was the county sheriff, witnessed the whole fight. Eventually, Behan arrested the Earps and Holliday, charging them with murder. The judge however, dismissed the charges, stating that they “were fully justified in committing these homicides.”

O.K Corral Fun Facts

• Movies that portrayed the shootout include Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), Tombstone (1993), and Wyatt Earp (1994)
• Doc Holliday was sick from Tuberculosis, which he got while taking care of his mom, who was sick with the disease and contagious
• The shootout was not famous until the release of a bestselling biography of Wyatt Earp in 1931 titled “Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal” The biography was mostly fictional but it created interest in the events of the OK Corral
• Wyatt Earp was the longest surviving participant of the OK Corral. He died on January 13, 1929.

{{Brett}}
Founder of LingoMetro, Brett lives in Seattle with his wife and his cat, Tippee.