Showdown At the O.K. Corral!

October 26, 2010

On October 26, 1881 at 2:30 in the afternoon, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday confronted the Clanton and McLaury brothers at a vacant lot behind the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ. Thirty seconds of gunfire and three deaths became one of the most notorious incidents of the Old West. Marshal Virgil Earp, Deputy Marshals Wyatt, and Morgan Earp attempted to disarm the Clanton clan; gunfire erupted, although some witnesses claimed that the Clantons and McLaurys threw up their hands when ordered to. Billy Clanton and Frank and Thomas McLaury died, and Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded. After a thirty day murder trial, the presiding judge dismissed the charges stating that the Earps and Holliday had acted in self defense.

Experience the gunfight with these nonfiction and fiction books:

Hollywood and the O.K. Corral: Portrayals of the Gunfight and Wyatt Earp by Michael F. Blake
And Die In the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight by Paula Mitchell Marks
Wyatt Earp: the O.K. Corral and the Law of the American West by William L. Urban
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral by Nelson C. Nye
O.K.: The Corral, the Earps, and Doc Holliday: a novel by Paul West

You can watch the famous gunfight in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Or imagine yourself there with your own soundtrack by listening to Songs of the West, which features four CDs full of songs sure to bring out the cowboy (or cowgirl!) in you.

Jordan P.
Edgerton Branch