Welcome to Wyatt Earp Country

Cochise County, 1880 Welcome to Wyatt Earp Country

Wyatt Earp Country. It made him famous. Today he is returning the favor. Inquiries from all over the globe to the Arizona Historical Society weigh on the side of Wyatt Earp and his adventures. This is a paradox. The inevitable debunkers claim he was only an obscure frontier nonentity. Yet, when the U.N.'s British envoy used his name synonymously for "hip-shooting" the whole world understood. The answer lies in the enchanted duality of Wyatt Earp's fate. He was blessed by the gods with both a rare charisma and a rare biographer. An identical fate probably explains all folk heroes. Homer gave us Ulysses.

6268-square miles of pungent, incredibly picturesque high desert, is famous. However, a little known fact is that it cloaks a number of fascinating accessible sites related to the Earp saga. Many could be easily reached by visitors but are seldom visited. Why? Well, because very few know about them. Most have heard of Tombstone, and it is well worth seeing. But much also transpired in the rugged hinterlands-the vast undulant sprawl of Wyatt Earp Country.

The Earps came to this country in December, 1879; four doughty brothers, James, 38; Virgil, 36; Wyatt, 31; and Morgan, 28; all blond, handsome, and blue-eyed, all six footers except James, the oldest. They came, like all the rest, seeking a fortune-or at least a living-in the new Silverado, Tombstone. They planned to open a stage line, but found the field already crowded. They turned then to other pursuits. Five days after their arrival they filed a mining claim, the First Northern Extension to the Mountain Maid. By the end of 1880 they'd filed nine others and many water and timber claims, in addition to investing extensively in town lots. But developing all this took money. Alas for the TV image of Wyatt as a Boy Scout, he and his brothers soon were again involved in their professions as gamblers (respectable then) and saloonkeepers (not quite respectable). One can safely bet their saloons didn't need bouncers. The Earp boys were all inured to violence, in the Civil War, or as lawmen, or both. Wyatt brought with him a reputation as a gunslinging cow town cop, picked up in Wichita and Dodge City, both of which had police forces reputedly able to keep the peace in hell.

Not surprisingly, when Tombstone later ran out of lawmen who couldn't be scared off by the scores of hardcases infesting it, the Earp boys eventually again packed stars. Virgil Earp, in fact, came to Tombstone as a U.S. deputy marshal, and Wyatt shortly became a deputy sheriff, in July of 1880. Finally, in June, 1881, Virgil was appointed Tombstone's chief of police.

An uncurried crew of cattle rustlers had operated unfettered in southeastern Arizona before Tombstone became prominent, led by names still remembered today (largely because Wyatt Earp killed them): Old Man Clanton, Curly Bill, and John Ringo. Their forte was stealing Mexican cattle and bringing them across the border to sell in the U.S. Then, as Tombstone grew more prosperous, they added stagecoach robbery. The fly in their ointment was to be the Earps.

Wyatt Earp Country

With this roisterous crew around Tombstone and vicinity, the days (and nights) would have been sufficiently violent in any event. But unrestrained lawlessness got a big boost gratuitously.

By weird happenstance, it was a love triangle that set the forces of law in Cochise County at cross-purposes and stymied law enforcement.

Before this happened, a county first had to be created; Cochise County was sawed off the eastern edge of Pima County in February, 1881. Under territorial law, the first officers in new counties were gubernatorial appointees. Almost all of these, in the case of Cochise County, were old Arizona politicians. John Harris Behan, a smiley, glad-handing Irish Democrat, originally from Missouri, was, somewhat surprisingly, appointed sheriff by Republican Governor John C. Fremont. But the appointment is less surprising when one learns that Behan's business partner, John Orlando Dunbar, (himself appointed county treasurer), was a former neighbor and crony of national Republican big gun, James G. Blaine. Governor Fremont had undoubtedly gotten his instructions from above. Otherwise, he probably would have appointed the Republican applicant for sheriff, Wyatt Earp.

Behan, no fighting man, had hoped to make Wyatt his undersheriff and his brothers deputies. If this had happened, Tombstone may have been justified in changing its name to Tranquility. But then a deadly love triangle cropped up. The lady involved was Josephine Sarah Marcus, a vivacious, slumberous-eyed beauty of 19. She came to Tombstone in October, 1880, expecting (Left, above and below) Rucker Lake, at the southern end of the Chiricahua Mountains, commemorates old Camp John A. Rucker. It was from this post that troopers went out to fight the second and final Apache war. And it was there, too, that the Earp saga in Arizona got its start. Some of the original buildings, such as the barn, bottom, left, and the officers' quarters, bottom, right, are still in good condition ing to become Behan's wife. Instead, he convinced her to move in and become his "playmate" Very soon she widened her horizon to include Wyatt Earp, who made Johnny Behan look like "small punkins" as a man.

Wyatt's name is synonymous today with "gunfighter," but he could have been famous for womanizing, as well. He didn't chase them, however, they chased him. Mrs. Hatton, wife of a Wichita attorney when Wyatt was a cop there, described him as the "handsomest" man in townalso the "politest," two traits apt to attract any woman. Further, he had that fey quality, charisma. Everyone who knew him said people could sense his mere entry into a room. Crown this with the courage of a tiger, and it is not surprising he led the life he did, especially in Tombstone, where he soon turned the head of the jealous sheriff's lovely concubine.

Shortly after young Josie hit Tombstone, she was startled awake one night by a fusillade of gunshots. Town marshal Fred White was killed, shot in a melee by an outlaw (later famous) nicknamed Curly Bill. She learned the next day that Wyatt had rushed to the scene and dropped Curly with a pistol barrel swatted smartly over his head. And, in the same unceremoni-ous manner, he dragged several of Curly's unruly pals over to join their friend in the "cooler!"

This was a man to attract any woman, and especially an adventurous warm-blooded temptress. When Wyatt left Tombstone 17 months later as a fugitive, she gladly followed him, eventually to become the third Mrs. Wyatt Earp. Behan was certainly aware of his lady's cooling heart, and the reason, or he'd have made Wyatt his undersheriff, as promised.

Whatever else he was, or wasn't, smiling Johnny was a good hater. In looking for allies against Wyatt, he turned to the willing outlaw element. They were more than eager to help. The Earps had dumped their apple cart once already, even before the Marshal White killing. An Earp posse, in July, 1880, had traced stolen government mules from Camp Rucker to the ranch of rustler associates Tom and Frank McLaury, on Babocomari Creek.

With Behan as sheriff, outlaw activities were merely winked at, since Behan had learned early on that the public was too busy trying to make a fortune to notice what the politicians were up to. The Cowboy Gang, as the outlaw confederation came to be called, grew contemptuous of the law, with the sheriff as their man. A showdown was shaping up that never would have occurred with a strong, honest man in the sheriff's office.

Wyatt Earp Country

In addition to the Cowboy Gang, another lawless faction was the Tombstone Townlot Co. In league with venal mayor Alder Randall, this concern conspired to misappropriate townlots and milk extortionate fees for titles from those legal occupants awaiting city incorporation to obtain ownership. In the face of this pro-liferating lawlessness, now operating right on their doorsteps, it is not surprising that the businessmen of Tombstone formed a vigilante group. Its nominal head was Mayor John Clum. Its real clout was the Earps.

The Earps were busy tending their own business interests, too. Wyatt had resigned as deputy sheriff in mid-November, 1880, to look after peacekeeping for the Oriental Saloon's gambling concession, in exchange for a piece of the lucrative action. His brother Virgil, however, still retained his commission as U.S. deputy marshal. Therefore, when highwaymen tried to rob the Kinnear and Co. stagecoach, enroute from Tombstone to Benson on March 15, 1881, and killed the driver and one passenger in a wild rifle fusillade, the Earps joined the pursuit, led by Virgil. Behan and a few deputies grudgingly joined them, not necessarily to catch anyone, as soon became obvious. Quite the contrary.

The site of the holdup was about one mile north of Old Contention, now a ghost town, and about 200 yards east of Drew's Station, both of which have visible ruins.

No thanks to Behan, the Earps caught the highwayman, Luther King. He soon "sang" due to a shrewd ploy by Wyatt Earp, who told him that the mistress of the infamous gunman, Doc Holliday, had been killed by the wild shooting during the holdup attempt. Everyone knew what to expect from Doc if that were true. King, in panic, named his cohorts as Billy Leonard, Harry Head, and Jim Crane, pleading that he'd only held the horses.

King was soon brazenly allowed to walk out of Behan's jail. Nor was that the worst. Behan's undersheriff, Harry Woods, who had allowed the escape, was also the editor of the Nuggett, an anti-Earp newspaper in Tombstone and an inspired propagandist. In the Nuggett, he diaboli-cally trumped-up the fabrication that Wyatt's notorious pal, Doc Holliday, actu-ally had been involved in the robbery and therefore had connived King's escape before he could squeal on him too. This blew the lid off.

Wyatt, who hoped to get elected sheriff in 1882, envisioned his political ship sinking if the story about Doc stuck. He used a Wells Fargo reward as bait to catch the "Born of the glamour and magic of Apache Land... [Tombstone] has been the avatar of all that romance has woven of the great American Southwest.... With the news of [Edward] Schieffelin's 'find' began a rush such as has seldom been surpassed in the history of the United States.... Lured by the story of treasure came a pioneer host...drawn from every corner of the civilized world... to build, between the Mule and Dragoon mountains, one of the most vigorous and cosmopolitan communities the Occident has ever beheld.... "Men builded homes and business houses until, within a brief span of months, what had been a bleak, untrod plateau, was a city of broad streets, flanked with substantial buildings and teeming with a virile, hustling swarm of humanity.... "The richness of the mines built Tombstone steadily larger... until the little desert city became known and famed the wide world over.."

From Tombstone, by William Hattich, 1903. Reprinted by the University of Oklahoma Press, 1981.

Wyatt Earp Country

actual robbers, after he was engaged to crack the case. He promised the reward to Ike Clanton and the McLaury brothers, in return for assisting him to entrap the fugitives. Ike, although a blowhard, was privy to all the outlaw doings because he was the son of the head of the gang, N. H. Clanton.

Wyatt's scheme backfired disastrously, a fact ironically at the root of his fame. Leonard and Head were soon killed in another robbery attempt. Crane was killed shortly after in an ambush, pushing a herd of stolen cattle, accompanied by Old Man Clanton, who was also killed. This ambush, in remote Skeleton Canyon, is usually attributed to Mexicans pursuing their rustled cattle, but the Earps also had a strong motive. The Clanton boys and some of their friends certainly suspected the Earps, and Earp family disclosures to this writer suggest they were right: pursuit of Crane erupted in an unanticipated gun battle in which Doc Holliday and the youngest Earp brother, Warren, who had by then joined his older brothers at Tombstone, were wounded. To make matters worse, word of the planned double cross of Crane et al by Ike Clanton and the McLaurys got out. A showdown was inevitable. The Clantons were seeking revenge and, moreover, Ike and the McLaurys now had to clear their skirts with their own gang. The big shooting match, known today as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, was in the works. It came off on October 26, 1881.

In the aftermath of all the gunsmoke, the Earps and Doc Holliday were examined and exonerated after a lengthy Justice of the Peace hearing. The Earps had killed young Billy Clanton, a towering bully of 19 years, Tom and Frank McLaury, and scared Ike Clanton almost to death. Under the Code of the West, (which means the bullet holes all entered the front of the deceased) justice was undoubtedly served.

Retribution followed one night in December, 1881, when Virgil Earp was ambushed from behind by shotgun wielders and crippled for life. The next blow fell on Saturday, March 18, 1882, when Morgan Earp was shot and killed at night, also from ambush, through a window. The other side had learned that challenging the Earps from the front in daylight was fatal.

A coroner's jury, convened the next morning, identified some of Morgan's murderers. Wyatt suspected others, including John Ringo. Vengeance was going to be his. For the first and only time in his life Wyatt became a ruthless killer and, as it proved, one of the most formidable on record. Prominent among the accused was a bad apple, Frank Stilwell. He ran for Tucson where he tried to ambush Wyatt, who was escorting his convalescent brother Virgil, and Morgan's remains, to the Earp family home in California via the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was Monday evening at dusk. Forty-eight hours had not yet passed since Morgan's murder.

On Tuesday morning, Stilwell's body, filled full of buckshot by Wyatt, was found next to the railroad tracks. Wyatt and the friends who had accompanied him had returned to Tombstone by freight train and buckboard before Stilwell's body was found. That evening Wyatt and a party of deputy marshals rode out of Tombstone. It was his last view of the town; he sat high and defiant in the saddle, mutely daring the sheriff and his deputies to arrest him, knowing they already had a warrant for him for the Stilwell killing. Wyatt, ordinarily on the side of law enforcement, would not allow himself to be taken into custody by Johnny Behan. He thought he'd be murdered in the Tombstone jail.

The following afternoon, Wyatt and his federal posse shot the next coroneridentified killer, Indian Charlie, at South Pass, in the Dragoon Mountains. Then Friday, the 24th, Wyatt shotgunned rustler kingpin Curly Bill, at Mescal Springs in the Whetstone Mountains, and in the same exchange, he gave one, Johnny Barnes, a wound that later killed him. Less than a week had passed and the score was four when Wyatt and his men moved on to Gunnison, Colorado. Wyatt was politically well connected in Colorado (but

Wyatt Earp Country

(Far left) Ruins of the Chandler Milk Ranch. Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton stopped there for breakfast on the morning of October 26, 1881. Later, they rode into Tombstone and were killed in the O.K. Corral gunfight.

(Left) John Ringo's grave. A suspect in the killing of Morgan Earp. Ringo was shot and killed in Turkey Creek Canyon by Wyatt. Ringo's body was found propped up in the tree in the background. (Left, below) Entrance to Skeleton Canyon, where Old Man Clanton was killed.

not necessarily in Gunnison) and could avoid extradition back to Tombstone.But a fifth killing came the next July and was the finale of Wyatt Earp's vendetta. Wyatt secretly returned to Arizona from Colorado and killed outlaw bigwig John Ringo, in West Turkey Creek Canyon, according to Wyatt's own story. Although disputed, Wyatt's is the only logical explanation of Ringo's mysterious death. And Wyatt did have the best motive. At any rate, Ringo's body was found near the road to Morse's sawmill, in Turkey Creek Canyon. He is buried within a few feet of two entwined oaks, in the forks of which his dead body had been propped.

The last big name of the Cowboy Gang was dead-no one remained with the clout to hold the confederation together. The rank and file had already fled the country in droves when the word got out that Wyatt and his posse were sweeping the country in a general cleanup-shooting first and asking questions never. In a few months it was all over. Wyatt Earp was gone never to return. He had cleaned up Cochise County at the price of his own banishment. Later, E. B. Gage, manager of the Tombstone Mine and Milling Company, the city's most important mining interest, said: "What the Earps did in Tombstone, they did with the approval of the best men in the community!" And, although he said that much later, it was true nonetheless.

Some people today claim to feel the lingering presence of Wyatt Earp in Cochise County. Most of them, admittedly, have been steeped in Earp lore. But who can say? Some hardheaded people have sensed a "something" lingering about such places as Skeleton Canyon and South Pass.

Is Wyatt Earp Country an enchanted place? You'll have to judge for yourself.

The Earps of Tombstone A Do-it-yourself Guide to the Places Where Their Deeds Were Done

by Glenn Boyer Sunshine, blue sky, vast rolling grasslands, endless desert vistas, great forests, and rugged mountain-scapes. Southeastern Arizona has it all. Yet, sun and scenery aside, this once was also a dark and bloody ground.

There, over a period of a few hundred years, the land witnessed furious clashes between Mexicans and Apaches, soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, U.S. Cavalry and renegade Indians, cowboys and rustlers, sheriffs and bandits.

Many of the combatants were nameless and their conflicts quickly forgotten-if remembered at all. Only a very few had the stuff of history, the necessary character from which myth and legend could be molded. And of these, near the head of the list, were the Earps of Tombstone.

The Brothers Earp brought gunslinging to a fine art, in this land where the horizon literally seems to roll on forever. And, in the process, they gathered to themselves the status of folk heroes.James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren are gone now, lo these many years, but throughout Cochise County the places where their deeds were done remain, mostly untouched except by the heavy hand of time, left to dream in the warm Arizona sun.

Tombstone. The Bird Cage Theatre, the O.K. Corral, and more. From Tucson take 1-10 forty miles east to U.S. 80, then proceed southeast on U.S. 80 for 25 miles.

Camp Rucker. In July, 1880, an Earp posse first tangled with rustlers Tom and Frank McLaury there over stolen Army mules. To find the well-preserved ruins, turn east off State 666 at the Rucker Canyon sign three miles north of Elfrida. At approximately the 22-mile point on this well-graded gravel road is a Camp Rucker sign pointing left. But don't turn, continue on for six-tenths (.6) of a mile to a gate on the left and a sign that reads "motor travel restricted area." The ruins of the old post are about 200 yards down the dirt road beyond the gate.

Wyatt Earp Country

Drew's Station. About 200 yards east of the ruins of the old station is the site where the Kinnear and Co. stagecoach was held up. The ruins of the station are on private land not open to the public, situated one mile north of Old Contention, now a ghost town, and approximately three-fourths (.75) of a mile east of the San Pedro River.

Skeleton Canyon. Remote and lushly forested, the canyon is where the Earps ambushed Old Man Clanton. It's also the site of Geronimo's final surrender. The Canyon is reached on a marked Forest Service Road just south of Apache (several boarded up buildings) on U.S. 80. Head southeast on this dirt road. Passenger cars will be able to go as far as the Geronimo surrender site, about nine miles. The exact point where Old Man Clanton met his end is unknown.

South Pass. Indian Charlie, one of Morgan Earp's killers, was shot here by Wyatt.

Situated in the Dragoon Mountains, east of Tombstone, it is on private land, not open to the public.

Mescal Springs. Where Wyatt shot Curly Bill. A four-wheel drive vehicle or pickup truck is required for this trip. On State 82, one and three-tenths (1.3) miles west of State 90, turn north at the Sands Ranch sign and continue on this gravel road for three and two-tenths (3.2) miles to the ranch. At this point turn right and proceed through the National Forest gate on the dirt road for one and one quarter miles to the gate to Mine Canyon, marked by a sign; go beyond the gate for onetenth (.1) of a mile to a fork in the road. Turn left here and proceed one and threetenths (1.3) miles to an old windmill tower with an electric pump. About a half-mile farther on is Mescal Springs. Bear right after the windmill and go across the deep wash. A rough road leads to the springs.

Ringo's Grave. Outlaw John Ringo was killed by Wyatt in West Turkey Creek Canyon and his body moved to this site. Turn east on State 181 from State 666 (about 25 miles south of I-10)and proceed east sixteen and five-tenths (16.5) miles (after 12 miles the paved road turns, but continue straight ahead on the gravel road for four and five-tenths (4.5) miles) to Sander's Ranch, the first ranch on the left. About 50 feet north of the road and 100 yards west of the ranch buildings is a turnstile in the fence. The path continues about 150 feet further to the grave (marked with a headstone) on the bank of West Turkey Creek. The site is open to the public.

Tucson. Frank Stilwell, another of Morgan Earp's murderers was killed by Wyatt next to the Southern Pacific tracks. The site is near the intersection of Toole and 6th Avenue, in downtown Tucson, about 230 feet north-northeast of the intersection, on the south side of the Southern Pacific tracks.

IN THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN AND LONG HORIZONS

by Sam Lowe The pavement ends at Bonita. Seems fitting. That's about where civilization ends. A couple of dirt roads wander off in different directions. One leads to the schoolhouse; the other goes into forever. Take the second road. The other one. On the map, it's two thin black lines separated by 1/32nd of an inch of white space, and it goes to Klondyke and Aravaipa, then gets swallowed up in the vastness. But in reality, the road is a path to hidden wealth and uncertain adventure, to majestic peaks and quiet canyons, to historic lore and romantic times that once were but exist now only in history books, shrouded memories, and an occasional roadside marker. And sometimes, as if to offset the hypnotic effect of being surrounded by so much open space, the road leads to a place where the sky falls. It is not a frequent happening, thus it befalls only those whose patience matches the timeless sands. It comes quietly-a few clouds in convention over the Galiuro Mountains, to the west, then more, until they blot out the sun and create their own mood. Dark. Exciting. Ominous. The rains follow.

LONG HORIZONS continued from page 16

A summer sunrise. Rhyolite Canyon, Chiricahua National Monument. Steven Bruno (Following panel, pages 20-21) In that great wide open country.... Near Sonoita. Willard Clay They are not the gentle rains of Peaceful Valley; they are spawned by the union of fearsome thunder and awesome lightning and take on the characteristics of their progenitors.

So these rains do not fall on the valleys; they are hurled to the ground with a savagery that befits the territory.

But when the rains depart, they go in peace. The clouds, having vented their wrath, grumble into the Pinaleno Moun-tains, across to Safford and eventually into New Mexico. And the waters drift across the road in decreasing measure, eventually to be taken captive by the gullies and washes that crisscross the land in such multitudes that they are countless. And though the rains are violent, their departure leaves no noticeable change on the land.

It is too big to be affected. So vast that it reduces the violence of the storm to insignificance. Mount Graham crashes through the clouds unaltered, resuming the position of prominence that goes with being 10,700-feet high. And across the Aravaipa Valley, Kennedy Peak views what has passed without comment.

The departing thunder leaves its echo in the canyons, and the canyons toy with it. Once, twice, then silence it forever. Few will witness the spectacle. The population explosion has left such places as Curtis, Pomerene, Johnson, Bonita, Sunset, Klondyke, Little Dragoon, Cascabel, and other hamlets that exist in this portion of Arizona virtually unscratched. And even if there was fallout from the explosion, most of those tiny villages could double, triple, or quadruple and not encroach upon the openness that surrounds them.

LONG HORIZONS continued from page 19

(Above) Sunrise ridges, Chiricahua Mountains. David Muench (Right, above) Sandhill cranes at daybreak, Willcox Playa. James Tallon (Following panel, pages 24-25) Ruins of the cavalry barracks, Fort Bowie, near Interstate 10, 26 miles west of Willcox. A national historic site, the post was established in 1862 to protect the spring in Apache Pass, the scene of much bloody fighting between whites and Apaches. The fort was abandoned in 1894. Jeff Gnass Thus, a great many of the scenic treasures found in the area retain a sense of virginity. Tainted, slightly, perhaps, but not overly so.

The grassy plains of Patagonia still respond with inland waves when touched by a breeze. And people who study birds go there because it's about as far south as many northern Some species fly in the winter, and it's about as far north as the migrating exotics from the south get.

Tombstone, well-represented and mis-represented by historians and movie-makers, still thrives on the notoriety of a 30-second shoot-out that has lived for more than a century.

Less than 50 miles to the east, the Chiricahua Mountains reach an elevation of 9795 feet and delight historians, geologists, and archeologists because they harbor Indian legends and rise through five life zones, from the lower deserts through grasslands and woodlands, to ever-green forests. The Chiricahuas also keep Cave Creek Canyon fairly well protected from the ravages of commercialism. The canyon, walled with magnificent white cliffs, 1000to 2000-feet high, has often been designated the "Yosemite of Arizona."

LONG HORIZONS continued from page 23

(Above) In the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains, near Sonoita, Arizona. Bill Daniels (Right, above) A spring cloudburst on the desert near Safford. Jerry Sieve (Following panel, pages 28-29) Miller Peak, in the Huachuca Mountains, overlooks the ghost town of Sunnyside and, to the south, the Coronado National Memorial, on the U.S.-Mexican border, in background. David Muench By virtue of its size, which also gives rise to unfounded theories of accompanying wisdom, Mount Graham dominates the area. It is a fitting symbol, rising almost two miles from the desert floor and spanning as many climates as there are between itself and Canada.

From its peak, every other mountain range in the southeast is visually attainable. The Chiricahuas, Galiuros, Dragoons, Santa Ritas, Huachucas, Rincons, Catalinas and some lesser elevations share the sentry duties over a landscape that was shaped by a force given to uneven design.

Nature isn't responsible for all the scenics of the area, however. The Amerind Museum at Dragoon covers 22,000-square feet and houses so many Indian artifacts and other items that no one has ever attempted to count them. Nor has a census ever been taken among the permanent inhabitants of the Saguaro National Monument, located in the largest division of the Coronado Forest, west of Tucson. A good guess, however, might list the total at “too many to count,” an estimate that also applies to the number of windand weather-sculpted rock formations in Texas Canyon near Benson, and the similar rock populations of the Chiricahua National Monument.