50 Fun Facts About Wyatt Earp

In which state was Wyatt Earp born in 1848?

He was born in Monmouth on March 19, 1848, the fourth child of Nicholas Porter Earp, and was named after his father's commanding officer in the Mexican–American War.

Wyatt Earp was named after his father's commanding officer in which war?

Captain Wyatt Berry Stapp led the 2nd Company, Illinois Mounted Volunteers, and Nicholas Earp passed the whole name on to his son.

Who was Tombstone's city marshal at the time of the O.K. Corral gunfight?

Wyatt is usually cast as the central figure, but his older brother held both the U.S. marshal and city marshal posts and chose to enforce the ordinance against carrying weapons in town.

What was the loosely organized Arizona outlaw group opposing the Earps called?

In that region the term meant an outlaw association rather than a cattle hand; legitimate cowmen were called herders or ranchers.

How many outlaws died in the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral?

Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed; Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran. The whole exchange lasted about 30 seconds.

Which Kansas cow town did Earp arrive in during 1874, later joining its police force?

He officially joined the marshal's office on April 21, 1875 at $100 a month, and dealt faro at the Long Branch Saloon on the side.

In 1878 Earp went to Texas tracking which outlaw, and met Doc Holliday on the way?

Rudabaugh had robbed a Santa Fe Railroad construction camp. At the Bee Hive Saloon in Fort Griffin, Holliday, who played cards with the outlaw, told Earp he was headed back to Kansas.

What mineral boom drew the Earp brothers to Tombstone in 1879?

Tombstone had been founded on March 5, 1879 with about 100 people in tents; by the time the Earps arrived on December 1 it already had roughly 1,000 residents.

Which Earp brother was murdered while playing billiards in March 1882?

Gunmen fired through a door window from a dark alley; he died 40 minutes later. The killing triggered the Earp vendetta ride.

Which of these men was never wounded in any of the Tombstone-era gunfights?

His brothers were shot and Holliday was grazed, but Wyatt walked out of every exchange untouched, a fact that fed his mystique after death.

Earp's reputation suffered after he refereed an 1896 boxing match between which two fighters?

He called a foul on Fitzsimmons in the eighth round and awarded the bout to Sharkey; 15,000 fans booed and many believed the fight was fixed.

Earp and Charlie Hoxie opened which saloon during the Nome Gold Rush?

Built in September 1899, it was Nome's first two-story wooden building and its largest saloon, and reportedly earned the partners about $80,000.

Around 1911 Earp began working mining claims near which California town?

The Earps' cottage there was the only home they ever owned; they worked the Happy Days gold mine in the Whipple Mountains and summered in Los Angeles.

The only film to portray Earp during his lifetime was a 1923 picture about which figure?

Despite befriending Hollywood cowboys to get his story told, Earp appeared only briefly as a character in Wild Bill Hickok (1923).

Who wrote the flattering 1931 bestseller Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal?

Published two years after Earp died, the book created his reputation as a fearless lawman; his widow Josephine made sure it left out his earlier common-law wife.

What job did 16-year-old Wyatt help his brother with after the family reached California in 1864?

His brother drove for Phineas Banning's stagecoach line in the Imperial Valley; Wyatt then became a teamster hauling cargo from Wilmington to Salt Lake City.

Earp learned gambling and boxing while hauling supplies for which railroad in 1868?

Working the railhead in Wyoming Territory, he also built a reputation officiating boxing matches, a sideline that would haunt him decades later.

In Lamar, Missouri, Earp took over which office from his father in 1869?

Nicholas Earp resigned the post on November 17, 1869, and Wyatt was appointed in his place, his first job in law enforcement.

Earp's first wife, Urilla Sutherland, died of which disease while pregnant?

They were married by Wyatt's father in January 1870; her death later that year sent him into a spiral of lawsuits and criminal charges.

In 1871 Earp was charged with stealing what in the Indian country?

Arrested by a deputy U.S. marshal, he posted no bail but sold his property, escaped through the jail roof and fled to Peoria, Illinois.

In 1872 a newspaper gave Earp which unflattering nickname after a brothel arrest?

He had been arrested aboard a floating brothel called the Beardstown Gunboat; the label lumped him with beggars and 'worse-than-tramps'.

Earp told his biographer he spent the winter of 1871–72 doing what, with no evidence to support it?

Historians think the story conveniently covered the period he was being arrested for pimping in Illinois and Missouri.

What ended Earp's first Kansas police job in April 1876?

Bill Smith accused him of using his office to hire his brothers; Earp beat him, was fined $30, and the council voted not to rehire him.

Which Dakota Territory boomtown did Earp travel to in September 1876, finding all the claims taken?

He stayed the winter anyway, hauling firewood into camp with his horses and clearing about $5,000 in profit before returning to Dodge City.

In January 1876 Earp's revolver fell from its holster in a Dodge City saloon and did what?

He had left the hammer resting on a loaded chamber; the .45 round 'got up a lively stampede from the room'.

Which comedian hit the floor when shots were fired into Dodge City's Comique Theater in 1878?

Earp and Bat Masterson fired at the fleeing riders; George Hoyt fell wounded and died weeks later after his leg was amputated.

Which famous Dodge City lawman helped Earp run faro tables at Tombstone's Oriental Saloon?

Owner Milt Joyce had given Earp a quarter-interest in the faro concession in exchange for acting as manager and enforcer.

Earp was hired in 1880 to guard stagecoach strongboxes for which express company?

Agent Fred J. Dodge hired him; he later passed the job to his brother Morgan when he became a deputy sheriff.

Which outlaw's gun went off while town marshal Fred White tried to disarm him in October 1880?

Earp pistol-whipped him on the spot and later testified the shooting was accidental, which helped free him; Brocius became an enemy anyway.

Who beat Earp to the job of Cochise County sheriff in 1881?

Earp testified the two had a deal: he would withdraw if made undersheriff. The appointment went to Harry Woods instead.

In the 1880 sheriff election, Shibell's outlaw backers allegedly cast ballots in whose names?

Precinct 27 in the San Simon Valley returned 104 votes, 103 of them for Shibell, from an area with perhaps 10 eligible voters.

Earp named an 1880 mining claim after which common-law wife?

The June 1880 census lists her as his wife. She later became addicted to laudanum and died by suicide in 1888.

How long did the gunfight in Tombstone last?

The two parties started only 6 to 10 feet apart in a narrow lot between the Harwood House and Fly's boarding house.

Which justice ran the month-long hearing that cleared the Earps after the gunfight?

He took testimony from about thirty witnesses and ruled on November 30 there was not enough evidence to indict.

Whose hat was found near where Wyatt's older brother was ambushed in December 1881?

The shotgun blast maimed Virgil's left arm, yet seven witnesses placed Clanton in Charleston and he was acquitted.

How much did Earp pay each member of the posse on his vendetta ride?

The riders included Doc Holliday, Texas Jack Vermillion and 'Turkey Creek' Jack Johnson; Wells Fargo helped fund them.

Whose body turned up beside the Tucson railroad tracks on March 20, 1882?

A coroner's jury named him one of Morgan's assassins; Earp and five other federal lawmen were indicted for his murder.

At Iron Springs, Earp killed Curly Bill with which weapon?

Curly Bill had fired first and missed; Earp's return blast hit him in the chest from about 50 feet and he fell at the water's edge.

Which wealthy rancher gave the Earp posse fresh mounts and refused payment?

His Sierra Bonita Ranch ran more than 500 brood mares; he congratulated Earp on killing Curly Bill and suggested making a stand there.

In 1888 Earp told historian Hubert Howe Bancroft he had killed over a dozen of what?

Coroners credited his posse with four deaths on the two-week vendetta ride; the rest of the tally rests on Earp's word.

In Eagle City, Idaho, the Earps paid $2,250 for what to house a dance hall and saloon?

The 50-foot white tent became The White Elephant. Eagle City is now a ghost town in Shoshone County.

During San Diego's 1880s real estate boom, how much profit could Earp make in a night?

He bought four saloons and gambling halls offering 21 games, including faro, keno and monte; the boom collapsed and the city shrank from 40,000 to 16,000 by 1890.

Earp won a race horse named Otto Rex in what way?

It started a long interest in racing; he later competed in and won a harness race himself in Santa Rosa.

Josephine claimed she and Earp were married in 1892 by the captain of whose yacht?

Baldwin owned the Santa Anita race track that Earp frequented. No public record of the marriage has ever been found.

Eight years after the 1896 fight, who admitted being paid $1,000 to make Sharkey look fouled?

Dr. B. Brookes Lee confessed, 'I fixed Sharkey up to look as if he had been fouled.' It came too late to repair Earp's name.

Earp served as marshal of which Alaskan town for only ten days?

He and Sadie spent the winter there before heading up the Yukon; a friend later lured him to Nome by calling his store income 'chickenfeed'.

Which writer did Earp know from Nome and accompany to a Raoul Walsh film set in 1916?

At dinner afterward Charlie Chaplin dropped by to greet them, and was said to be especially impressed by the former Tombstone marshal.

Which two Western film stars served as pallbearers at Earp's 1929 funeral?

Newspapers reported that Mix cried during the service. Josephine did not attend, which infuriated family friend Grace Spolidora.

Earp's ashes were secretly buried in a Jewish cemetery in which California town?

Josephine placed them in the Marcus family plot at Hills of Eternity; the grave is now the most visited in the cemetery and its stone has been stolen more than once.

Which actor, then playing Earp on TV, offered a reward for the gravestone stolen in 1957?

The stone turned up for sale at a flea market. Kevin Costner later offered to buy a larger one, but the Marcus family declined.