Wyatt Earp

Born in 1848 Monmouth Illinois, when the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Wyatt Earp ran away from his family farm to fight for the Union army, only to be brought home by his father before Wyatt could enlist. After the Earps moved to San Bernardino California by wagon train in, Wyatt married Urilla Sutherland in early 1870, losing her to typhoid before the year was out.

Western Drifter

Devastated by the loss, Wyatt drifted to Dodge City Kansas—known as the “Wickedest Little City in the West”—befriending well-known gunman and gambler, Doc Holliday, before taking on the job of town marshal from 1875 to 1876. Leaving Dodge City in 1879 with his longtime companion and former prostitute Mattie Blaylock, Wyatt teamed up with his brother and town marshal Virgil Earp in Tombstone Arizona, which was then a lawless boomtown in the midst of a silver rush.

The Conflict Builds

In March of 1881, while in hot pursuit of a group of outlaws who robbed a stagecoach, Wyatt struck a deal with local rancher Ike Clanton, who said he had ties to the outlaws, but when Clanton turned against the Earps, the situation quickly escalated to the now infamous Gunfight at O.K. Corral. During the standoff, Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers—Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt—faced off against the Clanton gang, including Ike and his brother Billy, plus Tom and Frank McLaury, and while Morgan, Virgil and Holliday were all wounded in the one-minute gun battle, Billy and the McLaurys were killed.

Stares Down Murder Charges

After the gunfight was over—including dropped murder charges for Wyatt—Virgil and Morgan were shot by unknown assailants in two separate revenge attacks, taking the life of Morgan before Wyatt wisely moved farther west. Settling in California with Josephine Marcus for the next forty years, Wyatt pursued a multitude of careers, including gambling, saloon-keeping, mining and real estate speculation, passing away in Los Angeles on January 13th of 1929, at 80 years of age.

A Wild West Legend

When author Stuart Lake published Wyatt’s first major biography in 1931—entitled Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal—the wildly successful book established Wyatt Earp as a folk hero for millions of Americans during the hardscrabble years of the Great Depression, spawning movies and TV series about Wyatt’s life, which starred such A-list actors as Henry Fonda, James Garner and Kevin Costner, making the life and adventures of Wyatt Earp, a leading figure during the mythic days of the American Wild West.