Gamblers, gunslingers and gold miners first opened the West in the decade before the Civil War. Frontier life was hard and harsh. There was little law and even less justice. Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth IL in 1848.
He had four brothers: James, Virgil, Warren, and Morgan. His father and two oldest brothers fought for the Union during the Civil War.
After the War, the Earp family moved to San Bernardino CA. There the boys soon learned to hate farming. As a teenager, Wyatt got a job as a stagecoach driver and later as a buffalo hunter providing meat for railroad construction workers.
Following the Civil War, railroads completed crossing the continent with a ribbon of steel when Union Pacific and Central Pacific met at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. The first permanent settlements throughout much of the West were railroad towns.
The first prairie towns developed as meeting points for cattle trails and the railroads. Longhorns would be driven north from Texas to the nearest railroad towns where they would be allowed to graze and fatten up before being loaded on trains bound for the East.
These early railroad towns, called "Hells on Wheels", were eager to service the cattle drovers after months on the trail. They consisted largely of gambling halls, saloons, and houses of prostitution. Abilene, Wichita and Dodge City were among the most notorious Kansas railroad towns.
Wyatt got a job as a keno dealer in Wichita. Gambling houses hired tough men as dealers because part of the job was keeping order. Young Wyatt, who proved he could handle the job and the cowboys, was soon hired as a law enforcement deputy to help keep the peace.
By the 1870s, Dodge City emerged as the principal shipping point for the herds from Texas. The town had been founded by saloon owners and liquor dealers. It was wild and wide open. One historian described it as a "town spinning out of control".
Law enforcement in these wild cattle towns meant keeping the peace more than solving crimes.
After going through several marshals, Dodge City hired Wyatt Earp in 1876 to keep the peace.
To assist him, Wyatt hired another gambler and gunman, Bat Masterson, who would become a lifelong friend. During his first year there were just two killings, down from 70 the year before.
Another newcomer to Dodge was dentist Doc Holliday. Although he still practiced his profession, Doc already had a reputation as a hard drinking gambler and dangerous gunslinger. On one occasion a group of cattle drovers arrived in town and decided to take over a saloon. Marshall Earp soon arrived and started busting heads and arresting cowboys.
When one of the Texans drew his gun and pointed it at Earp's back, Doc Holliday, dealing at a nearby table, yelled at Wyatt and shot the wouldbe bushwhacker. Having saved the lawman's life, the two became close, loyal friends.
Next, Wyatt, his brothers and Doc Holliday headed for Tombstone AZ, which had become a notorious haven for outlaws and lawlessness. Virgil Earp was the new town marshal. Wyatt bought a piece of the Oriental Saloon where he worked the gambling tables dealing keno and poker.
Ike Clanton and his brother Billy together with the McLaury brothers, Tom and Frank, were Tombstone toughs who engaged in robbing stagecoaches, cattle rustling and killing resented the Earps and the law 'n order they represented. From the beginning there were numerous incidents between the Earps and the outlaws.
The showdown came in October 1881 at the town's stables, the O.K. Corral. Virgil deputized his brothers Wyatt and Morgan as well as Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson. With the outlaws gathered at the corral, the lawmen went to take them in. Gun fire erupted and when the smoke cleared three outlaws were dead, only Ike Clanton escaped. Wyatt was the only lawman not wounded.
The confrontation did not end there however. A month later Virgil was ambushed and disabled for life as he walked to the Oriental Saloon. A few months after that Morgan Earp was shot and killed. Wyatt blamed Clanton's gang and vowed revenge. Eventually, he and Doc Holliday hunted down and killed several of the men they thought responsible.
After killing Frank Stillwell, whom he blamed for his brother Morgan's death, Wyatt told his lawyer, "I let him have both barrels. I have no regrets". Branded a murderer, Wyatt stayed on the run for some years traveling throughout the West supporting himself as a gambler. He operated a saloon in Nome, Alaska during the height of the Alaska Gold Rush.
In 1901, he moved to Tonopah NV, where he operated a saloon and gambling hall.
Doc Holliday, too, continued to frequent the saloons and gambling joints throughout the West. He engaged in his last gunfight in Leadville in 1884. Acquitted of all charges, Doc passed away three years later.
In the early 1900s, Wyatt settled in California and eventually became a consultant and friend to the early Hollywood cowboy stars.
The last of the Earp brothers, Wyatt died in Los Angeles January 13, 1929 at the age of 80.
A hero of America's frontier, Wyatt Earp was a gambler, a gunslinger, and a lawman. As such, he became a courageous symbol of the men who tamed the West.
