Earps and OK corral

• Tombstone, Arizona

  A "cow town" where cowboys often drank and gambled
• Northern businessmen

  • Did not agree with the cowboys' behaviour
  • Wanted Arizona to be a peaceful place where people could do business
  • Wanted sheriffs and lawmen to police the town and control the cowboys' behaviour
• Vigil Earp

  Elected as sheriff
• Wyatt and Morgan Earp


  Served as deputies
• Rivalry between the Earps

  A group of ranchers and cowboys, led by the Clanton and McLaury families
• Confrontation on 26 October 1881

  1. Virgil Earp disarmed Clanton

  2. Clanton was fined for carrying a gun, as the town had created a law banning weapons

  3. Clanton was angry and met with his family and the McLaurys

  4. A gunfight broke out at the OK Coral between the Earps, and the Clanton and McLaury families

  5. Three men were killed and two were injured
• After the gunfight


  A series of tit-for-tat killings continued
• In 1882


  1. Morgan Earp was murdered

  2. Wyatt Earp shot two cowboys who he believed to be responsible for his brother's murder

  3. Public opinion turned against the Earps

  4. They decided to leave town for their own safety
• The story of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral is another example of the continuation of lawlessness in the American West