Legends of the West: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

*Includes pictures of important people, places, and events. .

*Explains the origins of the Gunfight and the controversial details that continue to be debated today.

*Includes witness accounts and newspaper accounts of the gunfight. 

*Includes a Bibliography for further reading. 


“The 26th of October, 1881, will always be marked as one of the crimson days in the annals of Tombstone, a day when blood flowed as water, and human life was held as a shuttle cock, a day to be remembered as witnessing the bloodiest and deadliest street fight that has ever occurred in this place, or probably in the Territory.” – The Tombstone Nugget


Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the “Wild West”, which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors’ Legends of the West series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. 


The Wild West has made legends out of many men through the embellishment of their stories, but one of the most colorful stories of them all is the fateful Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The West’s most famous gunfight, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral involved two of the West’s most legendary figures, and though the gunfight lasted less than a minute, it is still widely remembered as the climactic event of the period, representing lawlessness and justice, vendettas, and a uniquely Western moral code. Fought in the middle of Tombstone, Arizona, the gunfight pitted Wyatt Earp, his brothers Morgan and Virgil, and Doc Holliday against Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury. By the time the 30 second gunfight was over, the McLaury brothers were dead in the street and Billy Clanton had suffered a painful and fatal gunshot wound to the chest. Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded, as was Holliday.


Though it is the West’s most famous gunfight, it is also one of the West’s most controversial events. In Tombstone, the initial reaction after the gunfight was that the Earps and Holliday were heroes. The Tombstone Epitaph’s described the shootout, "Wyatt Earp stood up and fired in rapid succession, as cool as a cucumber, and was not hit." The San Francisco Examiner suggested that Tombstone’s residents be grateful to have the Earps on their side of the law. However, plenty of people in Tombstone believed that the three dead men were murdered in cold blood, and they wondered why the Earps would ever ask a hothead like Doc Holliday to help them disarm the McLaurys and the Clantons. The local undertaker displayed the three corpses in their coffins in his window with a sign that read, "Murdered in the Streets of Tombstone.” 


To this day, the motives behind the gunfight, and exactly how it all went down, remain heavily debated, but the aftermath of the gunfight is much better known. For Wyatt Earp, the aftermath led to assassination attempts on his brothers, one of which was successful, touching off the “Earp Vendetta Ride”. It also ensured that Doc Holliday would become a legend of the Wild West. Legends of the West: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral comprehensively covers the fight, including the origins behind the feud, theories over what happened, and the aftermath and legacy of it all. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral like you never have before, in no time at all.