Unbelievable Story of Wyatt Earp The Man Who Took On the Wild West and Won

The legend and life of the man known as Wyatt Earp is as rich and colorful as the saloons and Wild West in which he made his name.

Whilst much of what we know about him is arguably fictional, it doesn’t take away from how inspirational his approach to life was and how he’s been a much-loved figure, to this day.

Renowned for his top skills in tense gunfights and switching up between his roles as buffalo hunter, Deputy Marshall, miner, gambler, and top card dealer to name just a few, it’s no wonder the silver screen has played out his life many a time.

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The list of leading actors who’ve stepped up to fill his boots is long and includes the impressive Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster, James Garner, Kurt Russell, and Kevin Costner.

Born in March 1848, Wyatt Berry Stap Earp grew up with his brothers and sisters on a farm in Iowa before they moved to California in 1864.

It was during this move that he got acquainted with his first gun and with daily practice, became the ace marksman for which he’s now remembered.

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Once in California he tried his hand at buffalo hunting and stagecoach driving and this took him all over the place. In 1870 he married Urilla Sutherland, who very tragically died of typhoid less than a year later.

Despite a rocky start, clashing with the law, he established himself as a solid man, helping out the police on a thieving case, and worked as a card dealer at the Long Branch Saloon.

By the time 1879 rolled around he and his lover, Mattie Blaylock, had headed to Tombstone, Arizona for the boom in silver, along with his brothers and their wives.

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He and his brothers all worked in the police force and struck up an agreement with local farmer and gang member, Ike Clanton in March 1881.

Before all this all broke down into the infamous O.K. Corral fight, Wyatt had started to fall for travelling actress, Josie Sarah Marcus, and he ended up spending the rest of his life with her.

In the wake of the Wild West’s biggest gunfight, the couple fled out West where they lived out their days chasing the gold rushes, earning money through gambling, horse breeding and keeping saloons.

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The agreement they’d reached came about in March 1881 when Wyatt was helping his brother Virgil, the town marshal, pursue some cowboys.

By October of that year, however, tensions were simmering up again as Clanton began making threats. It all erupted on 26 October, 1881, at the O.K. Corral.

On Wyatt’s side were his two brothers, Virgil and Morgan, and best friend, Doc Holliday. On Ike’s side he had his brother, Billy, along with the McLaury brothers, Tom and Frank.

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Ike Clanton had been getting drunk all day the day before, spouting off to anyone who’d lend him an ear that he was going to kill Holliday and the Earps. When Holliday heard this, he confronted him.

In the fight the following day, Clanton’s side suffered most with Ike being the only one walking away with his life and hungry for vengeance.

In December, Virgil was ambushed and killed by a group of mystery men and in March of the following year, Wyatt and Morgan were attacked.

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Morgan died on the spot in a saloon and Wyatt took it upon himself to avenge his brothers’ premature deaths, killing several people before fleeing town with Josie.

Earp lived for another 40 years, traveling across the west, and tried to write a memoir of his life but it wasn’t well received at the time.

With his extensive experience of Wild West adventures he became a source of knowledge for Hollywood Westerns, sharing his stories with much verve and gusto.

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Earp was cremated and had his ashes buried in Josie’s family’s plot, south of San Francisco. When she died in 1944, she was buried in the same place. They didn’t have any children.

After such a colorful and dramatic life, it’s no wonder Wyatt Earp still lives on in the hearts of so many Americans today.

Although a lot of the biography is actually fictional, the character of Wyatt Earp provided so much hope and inspiration to Americans through the Great Depression, and his legend lives on.

The Wyatt Earp Story

A hero, fiercely loyal and tenacious in all that he did, it’s no wonder he will always have a special place in our hearts.

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Top 6 Most Dangerous Areas To Risk Your Life In Las Vegas Like any city, Las Vegas can be dangerous. You have a 1 in 187 chance of becoming a victim of...The story of the friendship of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday is the stuff of legend. Neither man’s story can be told without the other. Together, they fired the imaginations of storytellers in their own lifetimes and created a legend that eventually made the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as resonant as the Battle of Gettysburg in the popular mind.

Their devotion to one another is all the more dramatic because they seem so different. In the legend, Earp is portrayed as a clear-eyed, stalwart lawman: tall, lean and calm—“the Lion of Tombstone”—who sees qualities in Doc others don’t. John Henry “Doc” Holliday, by contrast, is portrayed as a profligate, cold-blooded yet charming killer dying of tuberculosis who, nonetheless, is devoted to Wyatt. The contrast energizes the legend but leaves unanswered how two such different men could become friends in the first place.

They met in Fort Griffin, Texas, in the winter of 1877–78. There was nothing particularly memorable about it. Both were gamblers, one with a growing reputation as a hardnosed cow-town lawman, the other still honing the skills needed to survive in the backwater hellholes he had chosen for his trade. One looked the part of a frontiersman, tall and sure of himself; the other looked out of place, though he already had a reputation as a man who would not back away from trouble. Thin, almost frail, with a persistent cough and a soft Southern drawl, Doc was a mystery. The two of them only had time for an introduction before Wyatt moved on.

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Holliday and his paramour, Mary Katherine Horony (aka “Big Nose Kate Elder”), left Texas for Dodge City, Kansas, in the spring of 1878 to take advantage of the upcoming cattle season. Doc found something there he had not known since leaving behind his native Georgia and his family: a place in a circle of acquaintances whose lives would be linked to his through the years that followed. Bat Masterson, one of them, recalled, “During his year’s stay in Dodge at that time he did not have a quarrel with anyone, and although regarded as a sort of grouch, he was not disliked by those with whom he had become acquainted.” Holliday’s absence from police dockets and newspaper reports underscored his good behavior.

“It was during this time that he also made the acquaintance of Wyatt Earp, ” Masterson added, “and they were always fast friends ever afterwards.” Wyatt himself explained why in a Tombstone, Arizona Territory, courtroom in the fall of 1881: “I am a friend of Doc Holliday because when I was city marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, he came to my rescue and saved my life when I was surrounded by desperadoes.”

In August and September 1878, several dramatic incidents occurred on the streets of Dodge between the Texas cowboys and the local police. In one of them, Earp found himself facing a group of rowdy drovers alone. His pistol was holstered, and his life was in real danger. He recalled that Holliday was playing monte in the Long Branch Saloon when he looked out of the window and saw Wyatt alone and outnumbered. Quickly, Doc asked Frank Loving, the dealer, if he had a pistol. Loving gave Holliday a six-shooter from a drawer. Drawing his own revolver as well, Doc stepped onto the sidewalk and ordered the cowboys to throw up their hands. The move distracted their attention long enough for Wyatt to act. “In an instant I had drawn my guns, ” he recalled, “and the arrest of the crowd followed.”

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Earp never forgot that moment. Within weeks, though, Doc and Kate left Dodge for New Mexico Territory, in search of a healthier climate for Doc. They found relief in Las Vegas, a well-established community in that territory. However, Holliday returned to Dodge City in March and again in May 1879 to assist Masterson in the organization of a group of fighting men for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad during its dispute with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad over the Royal Gorge in Colorado. In September 1879, Wyatt resigned as assistant marshal in Dodge to join his brothers in a move to Tombstone.

Earp reunited with Holliday in Las Vegas. They had

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