{"id":24216,"date":"2021-05-06T23:29:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T06:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=24216"},"modified":"2021-10-30T05:16:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T12:16:26","slug":"intosaguarostucson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/intosaguarostucson\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Saguaros of Tucson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, I had it all wrong. A friend of a friend had informed me that Tucson, Arizona was still very much part of the Wild West, where people wore no masks, did not participate in social distancing and everything was wide open. I found the opposite to be true, despite my chagrin of all indoor museums closed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThe Tucson highways led to experiences deep into the Sonoran Desert. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In my week-long stay in Tucson, I found its citizens to be gracious, wearing masks and sensitive to social distancing. A day trip to Tombstone proved to be another experience, in which I’ll address later. Towering saguaro cacti endowed Tucson’s landscape as far as the eye can see; which led to three life reaffirming hikes in the Sabino Canyon Recreation area, located at the northeast corner of the city in the Santa Catalina Mountains. The whole town seemed to be out \u2013 over a million visitors annually \u2013 meandering through Sabino Canyon\u2019s many well-marked trails, some intense and others quite easy, making them ideal for any age and size. Rejuvenation was my theme, and Sabino Canyon was as mesmerizing as a <\/span>carne seca <\/em>taco at El Charro Caf\u00e9. But, more about that later, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nSabino Canyon Stream was a refreshing reprieve after hiking the trails. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 45-minute narrated tram ride leads you up into the mountain foothills, where you can easily walk four miles downhill to the main visitor center, or take hikes on side trails, many leading to the rewards of unique rock formations and the pristine Sabino Canyon Stream, ideal for cooling your dusty hiking heals or even taking a swim. The trams make nine stops, allowing travelers to hop on and off where they wish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The Sabino Canyon offered an endless array of hiking opportunities. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

The saguaro cacti were tall and immense, with their arms reaching high up to the heavens. According to the Sabino Visitor Center, the saguaro cactus is one of the defining plants of the Sonoran Desert and has the distinction of being the largest cactus in the United States. Saguaro are slow growing cacti; a 10 year old plant might only be 1.5 inches tall, but can grow between 40-60 feet tall. The tree-like columnar develops branches (or arms) as they age, although some never grow arms. Saguaros are covered with protective spines, white flowers in the late spring, and red fruit in summer. Some have holes made by birds to nest in, often referred to as saguaro boots.<\/em> Native-Americans perfected the boots as water containers long before the canteen was available. After the saguaro dies its woody ribs can also be used to build roofs, fences, and parts of furniture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The Ronstadt Transit Center pays homage to the Ronstadt family. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

PRESIDIO DISTRICT: TUCSON’S OLDEST NEIGHBORHOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before you begin your Presidio District walking tour, you\u2019ll notice the Ronstadt Transit Center, named for the Ronstadt family\u2019s prominence in the Old Pueblo. Singer Linda Ronstadt’s Tucson roots stem from her great-grandfather, who had emigrated from Germany in the 1840s, leading to a long line of Ronstadt family members who affected the commerce and fabric of the city today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" The 2,000-year-old prehistoric pit house at the Tucson Presidio. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

It should be noted that just after the Spanish arrival in 1775, approximately 90% of the native population died from infectious European diseases in which they had no immunity. The name, Tucson<\/em> is derived from the Tohono O’odham People: Cuk-\u1e62on; <\/em>or Navajo: T\u00f3 Oosts\u02bc\u0105.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Once you park your car, it is essential, almost a mandate, to take a stroll through Tucson\u2019s history with a tour of Presidio San Agust\u00edn del Tucson (Tucson Presidio). Built on land once occupied by ancient Native-Americans, the Presidio marks the birthplace where Tucson was established as a Spanish military fort. A remarkably well-informed docent <\/span>pointed out the thick adobe brick walls, 10-to-12 feet tall, that the Spanish used as fortifications after a large Apache attack. My personal highlight was easily a 2,000-year-old pit house, quite literally a hole in the ground, where people slept for protection against invaders and wildlife predators. An original 150-year-old Sonoran row house provided a glimpse of what life in the Presidio was like for soldiers and other residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Located across the street is Old Town Artisans, established in 1922, which spans an entire city block, housing art galleries and shops in the longest-inhabited set of buildings in all of Tucson (circa 1850s).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"\"El Charro Cafe dining area. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the middle of the block rests the iconic El Charro Caf\u00e9, established in 1922, which constitutes the U.S.\u2019 oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation by the same family. The owner explained that the caf\u00e9 actually serves Arizona-Sonoran Cuisine with a Tuscan interpretation. The tacos are made with carne seca <\/em>grass-fed beef, akin to jerky, which has been pulverized back to life. El Charro is said to be the originator of the chimichanga (deep-fried burrito). Tucson itself was awarded the nation\u2019s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy Designation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The O.K. Corral, the site of the famous shootout \u2013 or was it? <\/span>Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Daytrip in Tombstone<\/strong><\/p>\n

The irony of openly carrying guns without a license in the Tombstone of today was too great not to mention. History tells us that Tombstone was once the very definition of a lawless Western Town, but then cleaned up by Marshal Virgil Earp and his deputies Wyatt and Morgan, by issuing a mandate on not allowing guns in the town proper. Curiously, the infamous gun fight at the O.K. Corral – where the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday attempted to arrest outlaw cowboys for carrying guns – is the major marketing component of the town.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that was then, and this is now, where citizens proudly carry guns and have a homicide rate higher than the Arizona state average. I attempted to interview three Tombstone PR representatives with one simple question: \u201cWhere is the line in the street where one had to check in their guns at the jail or hotel during the days of Earp?\u201d My lack of western tang or perhaps wearing a mask made it clear I was an outsider and received very guarded replies. One man politely ended with, Oh… Tombstone is just a fun and safe family town<\/em>. I decided to leave it at that.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, he was right, Tombstone was fun, beaming with history and folklore.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, in the hope of finding the real story of  the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” I read an article by Casey Tefertiller and Jeff Morey that had appeared in Wild West Magazine<\/em>. You can read “O.K. Corral: A Gunfight Shrouded in Mystery” by clicking the yellow button<\/a> at the end of this article.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\" On the streets of Tombstone. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are seemingly countless books and film versions of the Earp Brothers and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But the best film as art, though hardly accurate, is John Ford\u2019s My Darling Clementine<\/em> (1946) with Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp. And Remember, When the legend becomes fact, print the legend<\/em>. – Taken from Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance <\/em>(1962).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" Back to the saguaros of Tucson. Photo courtesy of Deb Roskamp.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was back to Tucson from there, with my looking forward to another hike among saguaro cacti in Sabino Canyon. Besides, I was informed that El Charro Caf\u00e9 had a franchise restaurant five minutes from where I was lodging.<\/span>
\n<\/a>
\nMORE about O.K. Corral<\/span>

\n


\nO.K. Corral: A Gunfight Shrouded in Mystery<\/strong>
\nBy Casey Tefertiller and Jeff Morey<\/em>
\nCourtesy Wild West Magazine<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n


\nCowboy Billy Clanton still lay dying, his face contorted with pain, when the press began the difficult task of piecing together the details of an October 1881 street battle in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. In later years it would become known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Richard Rule, veteran city editor of the Tombstone Nugget, helped carry Clanton into the house where the young man would pass into history, then returned to the streets to go to work.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith the canny eye of an experienced newsman, Rule began collecting the details of the gunfight, interviewing witnesses and trying to get a handle on what transpired during that fateful half minute and what led up to the battle. It would be a model of frontier journalism and vital to future understanding of perhaps the most debated event of the American frontier.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe saga of the O.K. Corral has been told repeatedly and from many perspectives, often with fictional intrusions and biased analysis. Now, for the first time in 120 years, we may have an authentic understanding of the events that led to the gunfight and what actually occurred in the streets of Tombstone \u2014 with a great deal of help from Richard Rule.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThrough the tense summer of 1881, emotions had grown explosive. Bands of rustlers roamed the backcountry, stealing cattle mostly in Mexico or from Mexican ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico territories and then selling them to apparently legitimate ranchers for resale. The Clanton and McLaury families owned ranches reputed to be headquarters for receiving stolen cattle. This great cattle scam drew little ire from an American population more interested in acquiring wealth in the rich new mining areas than investigating international relations. In addition, Mexico had assessed high taxes on alcohol and tobacco, and smugglers came to southern Arizona Territory to purchase the goods cheaply for resale south of the border. The cash- and jewel-laden smugglers provided an easy target for American bandits.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nAs that fateful year of 1881 progressed, the situation changed. The Mexican government dropped taxes on alcohol and tobacco and then lodged numerous protests with federal and territorial officials to try to stop the outlawry against Mexican citizens. Territorial Governor John C. Fr\u00e9mont, the old pathfinder and the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856, suggested in February that the territorial Legislature fund a state militia to ride against the outlaws and stop the rustling. Legislators hooted down the visionary plan. The Mexican government built a series of forts along the border and began to fight back against the American outlaws. American rustlers George Turner and Alfred McAllister were killed in Mexico during a raid on May 13.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nBack on the U.S. side of the border, citizens also began to grow agitated over outlawry, particularly because of what happened on March 15. Three robbers that day attempted to intercept a stagecoach traveling from Tombstone to Benson, Arizona Territory. Driver Eli \u2018Budd\u2019 Philpot and passenger Peter Roerig were killed. Jim Crane, William Leonard and Harry Head were identified as the robbers.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith Fr\u00e9mont\u2019s militia plan discarded, there was little to counter the rustling and other crimes that gripped southern Arizona Territory. Cochise County Sheriff John Behan and his deputies were charged with battling the rustlers, who became known as the \u2018Cowboys.\u2019 But Behan was at best ineffective and at worst crooked. His deputy Billy Breakenridge would tell how he deputized Cowboy leader \u2018Curly Bill\u2019 Brocius (or \u2018Curley Bill\u2019 Brocious) and used him to help collect taxes. And Wells, Fargo detective James Hume was quoted as saying, \u2018Even the sheriff of the county is in with the cowboys and he has got to be or his life would not be worth a farthing.\u2019 The federal government was represented by U.S. Deputy Marshals Virgil Earp and Leslie Blackburn, with Earp in charge of most of the fieldwork, backed by his brother and deputy Wyatt Earp. Virgil also served as city marshal of Tombstone, which left Wyatt with most of the federal work.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWyatt Earp coveted Behan\u2019s well-paid job as sheriff, and the election would be coming up in the fall of 1882. According to Wyatt, he tried to make a deal with Frank McLaury and Ike Clanton, the most visible of the Clanton brothers and a known friend of the rustling crowd, to tell him the whereabouts of the three stage robbers. This would bolster Earp\u2019s chances in the election, and Ike would receive the reward. Before the deal could be completed, two bartender brothers killed Leonard and Head in a remote New Mexico Territory mining village. An army of Cowboys rode down and killed the brothers in retribution.
\nIn August, another cattle raid in Mexico caused Commandant Felipe Neri to dispatch troops to the border, where they found a group of Americans bedded down on the U.S. side of the crossing at Guadalupe Canyon. The Mexicans crept the few feet across the border and opened fire, killing five, among them stage robber Jim Crane and Newman Clanton, scion of the Clanton clan, who left behind sons Ike, Fin and Billy.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith no deal left for him, Ike Clanton grew increasingly worried. Wyatt Earp knew Ike had made a deal to turn on his Cowboy buddies, information that could have ruined Ike\u2019s standing in the rustling community. With the borders closed, outlawry against Americans grew more commonplace in the backcountry. The Earps emerged as the leading law officers, taking an aggressive stand against the region\u2019s criminal elements. The Cowboys resented their actions. \u2018They met at Charleston and took an oath over blood drawn from the arm of John Ring[o], the leader, that they would kill us,\u2019 Virgil Earp said.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith emotion running stronger than the best saloon whiskey, Ike Clanton came to Tombstone to confront Wyatt Earp and learn whether Earp had been leaking the secret. According to Earp, Ike accused him of telling the secret to his friend John Henry \u2018Doc\u2019 Holliday, a heavy-drinking dentist with a quirky sense of humor. Earp denied the accusation and sent for Holliday, who was in Tucson. Holliday met with Clanton on the night of October 25 in the Occidental Saloon. By the Earp account, Holliday was angry that Clanton had made a false accusation against him. As Ike told it, Holliday called him a \u2018damned liar [who] had threatened the Earps\u2026.He told me to pull out my gun and if there was any grit in me, to go to fighting.\u2019 Clanton, who was unarmed, said that Holliday ordered him to retrieve his gun. Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp appeared to break up the fight, with Wyatt walking Holliday back to his room at Fly\u2019s lodging house.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThen came perhaps the most improbable event of the day. Ike Clanton, after retrieving his six-shooter, sat down to a poker game with Virgil Earp, Tom McLaury, John Behan and one other player. It would be like \u2018Ike\u2019 Eisenhower pitching pennies with Adolf Hitler before the Battle of the Bulge. The game broke up around 7 a.m., with Ike Clanton requesting that Virgil deliver a message to Holliday: \u2018The damned son of a bitch has got to fight,\u2019 Ike supposedly told Virgil. Virgil said he responded: \u2018Ike, I am an officer, and I don\u2019t want to hear you talking that way at all. I am going down home now to go to bed, and I don\u2019t want you to raise any disturbance when I am in bed. \u2018You won\u2019t carry a message?\u2019 Ike asked. Virgil said he would not. \u2018You may have to fight before you know it,\u2019 Ike said as Virgil walked away. Through the rest of the morning, Ike fueled his anger with whiskey, lurching from saloon to saloon to talk tough and make threats against the Earps. \u2018He said that as soon as the Earps and Doc Holliday showed themselves on the street, the ball would open and that they would have to fight,\u2019 said Ned Boyle, bartender at the Oriental Saloon, who went to awaken Wyatt and tell him of the threat. Deputy Marshal Andy Bronk also heard of the threats and woke Virgil. Injudiciously, both Wyatt and Virgil went back to sleep and ignored Ike\u2019s ire.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nAbout noon on the 26th, Virgil and Morgan Earp spotted Ike carrying a six-shooter and a rifle. Virgil crashed his revolver into Ike\u2019s head, then led the bloodied Cowboy to Judge Albert O. Wallace\u2019s courtroom. Wyatt Earp entered the room and said: \u2018You damn dirty cow thief. You have been threatening our lives, and I know it. I think I would be justified in shooting you down any place I would meet you. But if you are anxious to make a fight, I will go anywhere on earth to make a fight with you \u2014 even over to San Simon among your crowd.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u2018Fight is my racket, and all I want is 4 feet of ground,\u2019 Clanton responded. \u2018If you fellows had been a second later, I would have furnished a Coroner\u2019s Inquest for this town.\u2019 Morgan Earp held up Ike\u2019s gun and taunted him, saying he would pay the fine if Ike would make a fight. Ike refused, saying he did not like the odds. Wallace fined Ike $25 for carrying firearms in the city limits. As Wyatt stepped out of the courtroom, he encountered Tom McLaury and engaged in an argument that led to Earp slapping the cowboy with his left hand, then beating him over the head with a six-shooter. Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton rode into town and stopped at the saloon in the Grand Hotel. Cowboy pal Billy Claiborne told them of the beatings delivered to their brothers, and Frank dropped his whiskey glass without taking a sip.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nAs the afternoon continued, the town grew more and more agitated, buzzing with trepidation that a conflict was brewing. The Earps congregated at the corner of Fourth and Allen, in front of Hafford\u2019s Corner Saloon, and watched as Ike and Billy Clanton, along with Frank McLaury, entered Spangenberg\u2019s gun shop. Frank and Billy purchased ammunition, but the proprietor refused to sell a gun to Ike. The Clantons and McLaurys left the gun shop and split up. The McLaurys went off to make collections for cattle they had sold, while Claiborne and Billy Clanton went to retrieve Billy\u2019s horse. They would meet up again a few minutes later, at the O.K. Corral, where witnesses would overhear them making threats against the Earps.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nBack at Hafford\u2019s, townsmen came to the Earps offering assistance and telling of the cowboy threats. City Marshal Virgil Earp said he asked Sheriff Behan to assist him in disarming the Cowboys. Instead, Behan offered to go down and talk to the Clantons and McLaurys to see if he could peaceably disarm them by himself. After Virgil had waited nearly 20 minutes for Behan to make his talk, local businessman John Fonck came to tell the marshal of the Cowboys? actions. Virgil said he would not interfere if they were getting their horses and leaving town, but if they were armed and walking the streets he would have to arrest them. \u2018Why,\u2019 Fonck responded, \u2018they are all down on Fremont Street now.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n


\nVirgil Earp turned to his two brothers, and to Holliday. He handed a short-barreled shotgun to Holliday to conceal under his long gray coat. Holliday then gave his walking stick to the marshal, and the four began the fateful walk that would become part of history. As they strode down Fremont Street, Behan rushed up to them and, according to the Earp brothers, said, \u2018For God\u2019s sake, don\u2019t go down there or you will get yourself murdered.\u2019 Virgil replied that he was going to disarm them. What the sheriff said next is uncertain. Behan would say that he told the Earps, \u2018I was there for the purpose of arresting and disarming them.\u2019 The Earps believed the sheriff said he had already disarmed them, and they then \u2014 apparently disregarding the warning that they would get murdered \u2014 made the mistake of relaxing a little. Wyatt Earp put his six-shooter back in his coat pocket; Virgil shifted his six-shooter off his hip into a more difficult position to draw and held the walking stick in his right hand. When they arrived at the 15-foot-wide vacant lot on Fremont Street where the Cowboys had congregated, the Earps were surprised to see that at least two of the opposition \u2014 Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton \u2014 still carried revolvers, and rifles were visible on the horses. Virgil raised his walking stick and growled, \u2018Throw up your hands, boys, I intend to disarm you.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe shooting began quickly. Two shots, a pause, then the gunfight burst out on different fronts. Holliday surged forward to stalk Tom McLaury, partially hidden by a horse, then fired a shotgun charge into McLaury\u2019s chest. At about the same moment, Ike lurched forward to grab Wyatt Earp. Clanton said he heroically tried to push him out of the way. Earp said he told Ike, \u2018The fight has commenced, get to fighting or get away.\u2019 Ike, whose mouth had aroused the town and inflamed the Earps, then dashed from the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nVirgil took a shot through the calf, most likely from Frank McLaury\u2019s six-shooter. Billy Clanton took a bullet in the chest, probably from Morgan, then a shot in the right wrist. He switched gun hands, leaned back against a building and slowly crumpled to the ground as he continued firing. Morgan stumbled and fell, yelling, \u2018I am hit,\u2019 as a bullet entered one shoulder blade and passed out through the other. He rose, but soon fell again, probably tripping on a mound on Fremont Street where the town was putting in new water pipes. Badly wounded, Frank McLaury tried to use his horse for cover as he lurched into the street. He fired at Morgan, causing his horse to bolt. Unprotected and exhausted, Frank squatted in the street, but when Holliday pursued him, Frank stood, aimed and said, \u2018I\u2019ve got you now.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u2018Blaze away. You\u2019re a daisy if you have,\u2019 Holliday responded, according to the Nugget. McLaury fired, grazing Holliday\u2019s side. \u2018I\u2019?m shot right through,\u2019 Holliday yelled. Frank McLaury staggered farther into the street as Morgan Earp and Doc both fired, Morgan\u2019s shot crashing into the right side of McLaury\u2019s head, Holliday\u2019s into the Cowboy\u2019s chest. McLaury continued to breathe as Holliday ran up and shouted, \u2018The son of a bitch has shot me, and I mean to kill him!\u2019 But it was too late. The fight had been shot out of Frank McLaury. His brother Tom had made it to the corner of Third and Fremont, where he lay dying at the base of a telegraph pole. Frank died in the street. Tom and Billy were carried into a nearby house, where they would survive for only minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith Morgan and Virgil Earp both wounded and Holliday grazed across the side, Wyatt Earp remained the only participant standing, untouched by lead. Behan strode over to Wyatt and said, \u2018I will have to arrest you.\u2019 A witness recalled Earp\u2019s reply: \u2018I won\u2019t be arrested. You deceived me, Johnny, you told me they were not armed. I won\u2019t be arrested, but I am here to answer what I have done. I am not going to leave town.\u2019 And Earp was not arrested \u2014 not then, at least.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nAlmost immediately, journalist Richard Rule and his rivals at the Epitaph began scurrying to collect the news. Both stories were dramatic, colorful and tinged with blood. In the style of the day, they did not present many direct quotes, instead making journalists? assessments of the material. By the Epitaph report, the battle began when two Cowboys pulled their guns and fired the first two shots. The Nugget had it different, saying Frank McLaury made a motion for his gun, which prompted Wyatt Earp to quickly draw and shoot McLaury. Both stories led to a belief that the law officers had been in the right.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWithin 48 hours, the situation would change dramatically. As the coroner\u2019s inquest began, well-liked Sheriff Behan, along with Ike Clanton, Claiborne and several Cowboy friends, testified to a much different beginning to the gunfight. They would report that the Earp party fired the first several shots of the conflict. Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps, and a month-long preliminary hearing began at which both sides would air their versions of the events. By the Earp version, it was self-defense; by the Cowboy account, it was murder.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nBehan would serve as the most significant witness for the prosecution, which tried to have the Earps bound over for a murder trial. Key witnesses at the hearing in advancing the Cowboy version were Wesley Fuller, Billy Allen, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne, who was under a murder indictment himself for an unrelated incident. They laid out a dramatic story of how at Virgil\u2019s command the two Clantons and Frank McLaury thrust their arms in the air to comply, while Tom McLaury threw open his vest to show he was unarmed. Immediately someone from the Earp party screamed, \u2018You sons of bitches have been looking for a fight, and now you can have one!\u2019 Barely had those words sounded when two shots were fired, the first from Doc Holliday\u2019s nickel-plated revolver and the other from another member of the Earp party, probably Morgan. After a pause, the Earps got off several shots before Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton could pull their six-shooters and return fire. Tom McLaury was never armed and never fired. This image of men shot down in the act of surrendering would shock the community as reports appeared in the local press.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWyatt and Virgil Earp would present a much different story. Wyatt would say the fight began after Virgil\u2019s call to disarm: \u2018Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury laid their hands on their six-shooters. Virgil said, \u2018Hold, I don\u2019t mean that. I have come to disarm you.\u2019 They \u2014 Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury \u2014 commenced to draw their pistols. At that moment Tom McLaury threw his hand to his right hip and jumped behind a horse. I had my pistol in my overcoat pocket where I had put it when Behan told us he had disarmed the other party. When I saw Billy and Frank draw their pistols, I drew my pistol. Billy Clanton leveled his pistol at me but I didn\u2019t aim at him. I knew that Frank McLaury had the reputation of being a good shot and a dangerous man, and I aimed at Frank McLaury. The two first shots which were fired were fired by Billy Clanton and myself; he shot at me, and I shot at Frank McLaury. I do not know which shot was first. We fired almost together.\u2019 Neither Wyatt nor Virgil Earp mentioned the statement about the SOBs looking for a fight and getting one.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nBy the Earp version, the fight began in self-defense when the Cowboys, armed in violation of law, made an aggressive move in defiance of a legal order. The Earp version closely reflected the Nugget\u2018s report of the gunfight, while the Cowboy story was in stark contrast to the immediate reporting after the event. When the preliminary hearing ended on December 1, Justice Wells Spicer ruled the case not be bound over for trial. This was decision without exoneration, as most of the key questions were left undetermined. Spicer ruled that there was not enough evidence to assure a likelihood of conviction. The Cochise County Grand Jury would later reopen the issue and concur with Spicer.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe debate has raged on for 120 years as to who fired first. The quest for a true understanding of events has been confused by a series of later writers advancing inaccurate or simply false information from supposed secret sources. Stuart Lake, in his classic Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, stated flatly that the Cowboys drew and fired on the Earps, which is contradictory to the Earps\u2019 own version in the Spicer hearing. Frank Waters, in The Earp Brothers of Tombstone, quoted alleged eyewitnesses who were never called to testify in saying the Earps fired first at surrendering Cowboys. It has since been discovered that Waters tampered with material in the book, diminishing its credibility.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe issue seemed resolved in 1976 when Glenn G. Boyer\u2019s I Married Wyatt Earp appeared, asserting that Josephine Earp, Wyatt\u2019s third wife, had secret information that Doc Holliday had actually fired the first shot and that Earp lied in the Spicer hearing to cover for his friend. However, Boyer has since admitted that this book is not actually Mrs. Earp\u2019s memoir but rather a creative exercise. Boyer further confused the issue with his 1993 Wyatt Earp\u2019s Tombstone Vendetta, in which he now claimed Holliday told a confidant that Earp himself fired the first two shots so quickly they sounded as one. Four years later, Boyer acknowledged that this was also novelistic. The fictional and fantastic later writings must be discarded in order to gain an understanding of what actually occurred on that dusty street on October 26, 1881. By returning to the original sources, we can finally gain a grasp of what started the gunfight that refuses to die.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Behan\/Cowboy version of the initial gunfire is based on the first shot being fired from Holliday\u2019s revolver at the surrendering Clantons and McLaurys. For this to be accurate, Holliday would have needed to stage a sort of juggling act, firing the revolver, then going to the shotgun to shoot Tom McLaury, discarding the shotgun and returning to the revolver as he chased Frank McLaury into Fremont Street. And he would need to have done it without either the witnesses or survivors seeing it. Behan claimed to have his eyes fixed on the Earp party, and the other pro-Cowboy witnesses testified that the Clantons and McLaurys were lifting their hands to surrender.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nHowever, Addie Bourland, a dressmaker watching from her shop across the street, testified that she clearly saw that none of the Cowboys had their hands in the air.Behan\u2019s credibility would emerge as an issue late in the Spicer hearing. Deputy district attorney Winfield Scott Williams testified that the sheriff had inaccurately depicted a conversation with Virgil Earp after the gunfight in which, according to Williams, Behan told Virgil that one of the Cowboys had drawn his gun to start the fight. Equally important, documents were located in 1997 showing that Behan served as guarantor of a loan to Ike Clanton during the Spicer hearing. With Wyatt Earp seeking Behan\u2019s job in the next election, the sheriff had much to gain from seeing his rival face a murder charge.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nAnd then there is Richard Rule. It is one of those flukes of history that the Nugget story ever appeared as it did. Publisher Harry Woods also served as Behan\u2019s undersheriff, but he was off in El Paso fetching a prisoner at the time of the gunfight. This left the talented and experienced Rule to oversee the newsgathering and writing of a story that would be essentially pro-Earp. With the Nugget\u2018s connections to the sheriff\u2019s office, it would be logical to seek out Behan as a source for the story. What makes this even more probable is that the Nugget story, without attribution, states, \u2018The Sheriff stepped out and said: \u2018Hold up boys, don\u2019t go down there or there will be trouble; I have been down there to disarm them.\u2019 Behan would repeatedly insist he told the Earps that he had been down to disarm the cowboys, not that he had actually done the disarming. The article relates details of the conversation Behan had had with the Cowboys. The story further states that Behan \u2018was standing nearby commanding the contestants to cease firing but was powerless to prevent it\u2019 \u2014 a claim that sounds as if it came from Behan\u2019s own mouth. It is hard to imagine the Nugget not interviewing Behan for this story. By Williams\u2019 account, immediately after the gunfight, Behan told Virgil Earp a story similar to the Nugget report before changing his story at the coroner\u2019s inquest.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nFor the Behan\/Cowboy version of the first shots to be true, Doc Holliday would have had to orchestrate an incredible revolver-shotgun-revolver shuffle, an officer of the court would have had to lie under oath and both the Nugget and Epitaph would have had to have missed the biggest story of their existences. This remarkable chain of events is so unlikely as to render it unbelievable.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Postscript:<\/b> Later that evening we did dine alfresco at the El Charro Caf\u00e9. My sister noticed Kevin, an old friend from Seattle, who lives part time in Tucson, drinking a beer while waiting for a takeout order. I stood up and instinctively shook his hand, then resumed eating hand-to-mouth chips and cheese crisps, another  El Charro Caf\u00e9 specialty. The next morning it dawned on me that it was the first time I\u2019d shaken hands with someone since the pandemic. I asked my sister, I\u2019m sure your friend Kevin is fully vaccinated.  She replied, Kevin vaccinated?!  He doesn\u2019t believe that Covid even exits. But then she reassured me that I\u2019ll probably be fine, but will know for sure in ten days or so. The days passed slowly, but on the tenth I found myself to be still alive and well, which gave me further reassurance that the vaccination does truly work.<\/p>\n

\n

Click here for information on Tucson Hotels.<\/a> For Things to Do, visittucson.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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