I see this historical event every year on this date. And at other times, too.
The famous “Gunfight at the OK Corral.”
My question is, why and how did this get to be so iconic and famous?
Maybe younger generations don’t know a thing about it. I don’t know. But even still, the renowned shootout has been immortalized in many movies, including Frontier Marshal (1939), Shootout at the O.K. Corral (1946), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), Tombstone (1993) and Wyatt Earp (1994).
The event happened on this date, on October 26, 1881, in of all places, Tombstone, Arizona. Mostly, a couple of brothers, the Earp brothers, faced off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in this legendary shootout at the O.K. Corral. Maybe the names had something to do with it. Tombstone, Arizona. The O.K. Corral. If the gunfight had been at Oak Road in Springfield, Idaho, between the Smith Brothers and the Adams Gang, fewer people would have noticed. The Gunfight at Oak Street, and no one cares.
Anyway, around 3 p.m. on this date in 1881, the Earps and Holliday spotted the five members of the Clanton-McLaury gang in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral. The famous gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and around 30 shots were fired. No one knows for sure who fired the first shot. Not that it matters. But most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest, while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom McLaury’s chest.
When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead. Also, Virgil and, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday were wounded. Ike Clanton and Claiborne had run for the hills. I guess Doc Holliday was standing around picking his teeth.
Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, who witnessed the shootout, charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. A month later, however, a Tombstone judge found the men not guilty. So there it is. Ta. Da.
You may think I’m a bit loony-tunes when I say this. But.
I think all this hype about the Wild, Wild, West has a lot to do with America’s current gun problem today.
Everyone back then carried guns. And you could get shot pretty easily for stepping on the wrong toe. This whole “macho-ism” thing gave men, white men, a feeling of power. And then, as the stories traveled of gunfights and shootouts, and cowboys and outlaws, the entire culture was romanticized.
Men wanted to be “tough” like the cowboys.
And no one felt “safe” unless they carried a gun.
This mindset has trickled down through the generations. Being in a “gang” became a cool thing to do.
And today, we are overrun by gun deaths, gang violence, and crime in general, where guns are concerned.
Is it all a product of the O.K. Corral Legend and the stories like it?
It’s a thought.
Howdy, pardner.
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“Cowboys and men are two totally different breeds.”
– Cowboy Proverb
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“I’m not afraid to die like a man fighting, but I would not like to be killed like a dog unarmed.”
– Billy the Kid, in an 1879 letter to New Mexico Territory Governor Lewis Wallace
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“If you climb in the saddle, be ready for the ride.” – Unknown
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OK? Not at this Corral. Not today, either.
