A Close-up On The Fly O.K. Corral Sign

November 20, 2019
   Thanks to Roy Young of Apache, Oklahoma we have an excellent copy of Fly's 1881 photo panorama of Tombstone.

C.S. Fly's Panorama of Tombstone, 1881

   Back in 1993, when I was doing my first Doc Holliday book (we are now in the third, revised edition), we had a version of this photo which we used to some effect, but as you can see, below, the sign is not visible in the blow-up:

   This morning I had Rebecca Edwards blow up the Roy Young version of this same photo and this is what you can see:

A Blow-up of the Roy Young photo

   Amazing what a good copy can do to bring out detail. This is why we go the extra mile, to get those little details that you need to see.

   One other amazing tidbit is that one of the few surviving buildings in this entire photograph is Pete Spence's house, which was across the street (east) from Virgil's house.

Pete Spence house, 1881

   And, here is the same house today.

Steve Todd photo

   All this coverage will be in our January issue of True West which goes to press this week and will hit subscriber's mailboxes in about three weeks.

"Talent is good. Practice is better. Passion is best."
—Frank Lloyd Wright