July 29, 2025
Running in circles, but then, that is the way of the world. And, by circles, I mean I am back to where I once belonged—to quote the "cute" Beatle. And, where I once belonged is on the hunt for visual coverage of the most infamous thirty seconds in the history of the Old West.
Can I actually tell that convoluted episode in thirty scenes: Hmmm. I think I can. For one thing I have been drawing the whole shebang for over 30 years! Ha.
Where to start. Okay, How about here?
"Hafford's Corner, 2:20 p.m. October 26, 1881"
Unlike the movies where the Earps and Holliday are walking around town like anonymous drifters, the crowd at Hafford's Corner (Fourth And Allen Street in Tombstone) grew quite large with an estimated 150 locals and miners gathering in knots, gossiping like little girls on a schoolyard, expecting a fight and trading rumors and running down the street to where the cowboys were and telling them what was going on at Hafford's Corner.
And, speaking of historians who know this story, Mark Lee Gardner has a little different take on the story as it relates to a certain deadly dentist and his Iowa compadre:
"Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, like anyone else then and now, have their fair share of contradictions and failings. They made their way not in the Old West but in the New West, young towns and camps on the fringe of morality, where money flowed through gambling, prostitution, and rampant speculation. In this New West, a sordid history or lifestyle didn’t preclude respectability. A onetime pimp and horse thief could become an upstanding peace officer. A boozing, gun- toting gambling addict could also be a successful dentist— for a time, anyway— with plenty of satisfied customers. And the two could be friends without anyone giving it a second thought. Wherever Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday found themselves, though, there was one constant. Trouble seemed to follow Wyatt. Doc made his own."
—Mark Lee Gardner, in his forthcoming book "Brothers of The Gun"