Anthony F. Hughes presents the first in a two-part feature on the most famous showdown in Wild West history …
The settlement known as Tombstone (Arizona) didn’t feature on any white man’s map prior to the year 1877 – it, back then, was part of an expanse of desert that was then a territory of the USA.
The Apache Indians roamed at will over this great wasteland. It, as such, was viewed as a no-go area for mineral prospectors who wanted to hold on to their scalps.
There was, however, one man who was prepared to take a chance with his. His name was Ed Schieffelin.
Schieffelin, before he set off for Apache country had told an army officer of his intention. The army man reckoned that Ed was loco and that all he would find out there in “no-man’s-land” would be his Tombstone. Loco or not, Ed headed off anyways with his burrow, pick and shovel, etc. and started digging on top of what was really an isolated, elevated ledge of bedrock in the desert.
He struck one huge deposit of silver and then another one and in the spring of 1878 he, his brother and a friend of theirs had another major strike in the adjoining area. When Schieffelin went to the Federal agent in Tuscan (Ariz) to register his first strike he remembered what the army officer had said to him he named it ‘Tombstone’.
In 1879, the first stamp (separation) mill went into operation in the nearby San Pedro Valley which had a plentiful supply of water.
At that stage the news was well and truly out – men in search of riches headed for the new Tombstone and its surrounds. Wyatt, Virgil and James Earp were among the early fortune seekers, the Trio arrived there on December 1st, 1879.
Wyatt had voluntarily resigned from his position as Dodge City Town Marshal the previous September, and he and James had gone to Prescott (Ariz) to meet up with Virgil who was working at a mine there.
The three of them soon headed for Tombstone and when they got there Wyatt, once again, was wearing a lawman’s badge.
When the party, on their way to Tombstone, visited Tucson, the then Pima County Sheriff, Charles Shibell (who was well aware of Wyatt’s reputation), persuaded Wyatt to become a Deputy Sheriff with responsibility for the new boom camp and its surrounding district.
The job turned out to be a very rewarding one financially for the new Deputy, his cut from taxes, fees etc. amounted to approximately $700 a month.
When the Earp contingent arrived in Tombstone there were about 500 wealth seekers already in place.
While a few of the early arrivals had, between them, cobbled together about half a dozen adobe dwellings, the vast majority slept in tents or covered wagons or Apache-style wickiups or just simply under the stars with a blanket atop.
Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own
