The gunfight at the OK corral never actually occured at the OK corral

The OK corral after it was burned down a few years after the shootout.

When most people think of a gunfight they think of long fights with screeching woman on the sidelines, and out of all of the gunfights of the old west one stands out in most peoples minds: the shootout at the OK corral. Although this shootout is famous, it is not what most people expect it to be.

The gunfight at the OK corral occurred at around 3:00 pm, on Wednesday, October 26 1881. After a number of events leading up to the fight Earp brothers (Morgan, Virgil and Wyatt), Doc Holliday, Billy Claireborne, the two Clanton brothers (Billy and Ike) and the two McLaury brothers (Frank and Tom) fired shots at each other in Tombstone, Arizona. The fight was less than spectacular. It was over within thirty seconds (wow), and six of the men fighting ended up dead. On top of that the shootout wasn't fought at the OK corral, is was fought around the block.

So why ever the gunfight at the OK corral is so famous just blows my mind, but I felt like I should share the truth of this famous western story with you all! I hope you'll come back for more stories of the old west!

The traveling dead

Many cowboys live very interesting lives, but one outlaw had a more interesting afterlife. Elmer McCurdy died in 1911, but wasn't buried until 1977. This was because he spent his death not resting in peace, but attending carnivals and sideshows across America.

Elmer McCurdy robbed a train in 1911, but rather than make off with thousands of dollars he made off with...forty six dollars. Then, to add to his misfortune he was shot by a sheriff before escaping. He was embalmed like a mummy and sold to a carnival. For over sixty years, McCurdy’s body was transferred to various Wax Museums and Haunted Houses around America. One haunted house even turned down the body because "it was not realistic enough". The mummy ended up at long pike amusement park in Long Beach, California. While filming for "The six million dollar man" in 1976 a finger fell off revealing human tissue. After the Los Angeles coroners office concluded the body was Elmer McCurry he was buried at the Boot Hill cemetery in Kansas.

Certainly McCurdy didn't exactly "Rest In Peace" but he created quite a story! Come back for more stories of the west!

Jesse James great train robbery

An icon of the old west is the ruthlessness of it all. The wars between cowboys and Indians, a gunfight in the town square, and of course train robberies. One train robbery in particular wasn't famous for the amount of money that was taken, but for the sheer boldness of it.

On July 21st, 1873, a gang of men loosened a section of track on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway. They were none other than notorious outlaw Jesse James, and his gang. Jesse James is most famous for his bank robberies but this robbery would make him one of the first men to hold up a moving train. The bandits tied a rope to the track and when the train rounded a corner, they dislodged the rail and sent the train flying off the track, killing the engineer. James and his brother boarded the train and found a safe owned by the U.S. Express Company. They expected it to be filled with gold but instead it filled with a mere two thousand dollars, so the gang robbed the passengers on the train to make up for the lost money.

The boldness of robbery a moving train was a relatively knew idea, but for an outlaw like Jesse James it was no big deal. Hopefully you'll come back for more stories of the old west!

The State of Deseret

For my next post I thought I'd talk about the formation of a western state. The state I'm talking about is Deseret, you've never heard of it have you? That's probably because Deseret was a proposed state that failed to make it past the drawing boards.

(Utah Historical Society)

Desert was a state proposed by Mormon settlers in 1849. As you see by the picture the state would be absolutely enormous.  It included Nevada, Utah, Arizona and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. It would have been the largest state in the United States of America. But many Americans were scared of having such a large area of America controlled by Mormons. Many Americans believed that Mormons were planning on building a Theocracy of their religion. Others were against the Mormon practice of polygamy (marriage between more than two partners). Eventually the plan to create Deseret collapsed and the Mormons compromised with the creation of Utah.

The state of Deseret is just of the many States that have been proposed, and it's definitely one of the more interesting ones. So  come back for more stories of the old west!

Camels used to roam the desert?

Since this blog is about stories about the old west I figure that I should start out with a rather unique story. Did you know that camels used to roam the deserts of Texas? Yeah, weird. Back in 1856 the US army realized that the Texas desert temperature was very similar to the deserts of Egypt, so they imported camels to the US to be used by the army. The camels were very objective to the move by disobeying orders and spitting, but the experiment was deemed a success. After the civil war the US camel corps was disbanded and many of the camels were sold, but others ran away.

Reading this story reminded me of a similar story I watched on travel channels "Mysteries at the Museum". It was a story called "The Legend of the Red Ghost". Back in the 1880s, there was a story told of a large four legged red haired creature with a "devil-looking creature" strapped to its back. the creature trampled a woman, leaving her dead. The Red Ghost continued to terrorize citizens and many similar stories began ton appear. Then, when one man shot the creature dead, it was discovered that the Red Ghost was actually a camel with a human skeleton strapped to its back. The fact that there was a dead human attached to a camel raised many questions. It was found out that many young men in the army feared the camels, so they would be tied to the animal so they would become more comfortable with them. It is possible that one of the camels may have run off with a soldier tied to its back, and the soldier might have died of dehydration.

Well, I thought this was a very interesting story that shows the true wackiness of American history. Come back for more stories of the old west!