What Was The Real Wyatt Earp A Hero

The movie Tombstone is based on the legendary historical event that made Wyatt Earp famous, the shooting at the O.K. Corral. But what if the movies got it wrong, history has just been altered to fit the big screen, that’s the real question.

Tombstone is a small town in Arizona. People believed the only thing you would find there was your own grave. Tombstone was founded in 1877 when Edward Schlieffen “discovered a motherlode of sliver eventually yielded millions of dollars in silver; soon the town was filled with fortune-seeking miners as well as con-artists, claim jumpers, gamblers and gunmen” (“Wyatt Earp” 1). This is how the real town of Tombstone was created, but with the sudden silver boom that attracted so many, it also attracted the

But like any hero, Wyatt has his faults like anyone would, for example the real Wyatt Earp was known for binding the law to fit his needs to obtain so called justice. “He arrived in the city with his brothers Morgan and Virgil and their wives at the end of 1879, leaving a good, if somewhat patchy record of police work in county’s such as Wichita and Dodge City” (Nolan 46). The real Wyatt Earp personality compared to movie character. “Earp who was more inclined to settle disputes with words or fights than with bullets, proved skilled at the job” (“Earp Wyatt” 2). This shows the contrast of different personalities in the movie compared to real Wyatt. In the movie Tombstone, the viewer is shown how Wyatt is not afraid to share his opinions and will fight if someone thinks otherwise. The viewer is also shown that this version of Wyatt Earp doesn’t mind physical violence. He can also in some cases be the cause of such violence. Even though this version of Wyatt Earp one thing that has stayed constant in history and in the movie Tombstone is the role of the famous gunfighter, Doc Holliday. Doc Holliday is long-time friend of Wyatt Earp, both in the movie and in history. “Doc” was John Henry Holliday’s nickname. Most people referred to him as Doc, who was a former dentist turned gambler, tuberculosis suffer and once famous

Corral. This small and very short shooting unlike in the movie is what caused Wyatt to gain his fame. The tension between the Earp Brothers and Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury and also Billy Claiborne was well known all over the town of Tombstone because everyone in Town knew that the Clanton Brothers were responsible for robbing a stage coach. This was around the time Wyatt’s brother Virgil became sheriff and U.S. Marshall of Tombstone. With this sudden robbery, Virgil decided to outlaw the use of firearms inside the city limits of Tombstone. This new law infuriated many people in town but mostly, infuriated the “Cowboys”, which was what the Clanton, McLaury Brothers and Billy Claiborne called themselves. They rebelled against this new law and refused to abide by Virgil’s authority. This caused tension to rise around the small town. It seemed to begin to build because the Earp Brothers refused to let the Cowboys roam free and allow them to do as they pleased. “But when Ike Clanton got into an argument with Doc Holliday in a saloon on the afternoon of October 25, 18881, he set in motion a series of events that would lead to a showdown – the gunfight at O.K. Corral” ( Wyatt Earp” 2). So when Virgil, as Sheriff of Tombstone, told them they had to follow the law, the Cowboys took that as a threat to their life style, which angered them. So as U.S Marshall and Sheriff of Tombstone, Virgil had to