Wyatt Earp Fought Here, but the Corral Isn't O.K.

NY Times ^ | August 8, 2005 | ANDREW POLLACK

[The Right Stuff]

Tombstone is very interesting, Dodge City less so unless you want to pay to go into the replica boomtown. Bodie, in California is worth seeing also.

[Drawsing]

Fort Huachuca

Gesundheit

[Cincinatus' Wife]

LOL

[Cincinatus]

Indeed -- the Jameses were Confederate guerilla partisans, riding with Quantrill, either a modern Robin Hood or a bloodthirsty cutthroat, depening on your political proclivities.

[Pharmboy]

Ha! My first Monday smile--thanks.

[OldArmy94]

Another pic from circa 1881

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I thought that was the old 20 mule team borax wagon...although I thought that was from the California desert. Ronald Reagan was the host of that show from the 1950s. You may be too young to remember that one.***

I remember the show. DEATH VALLEY DAYS. The host was "The Old Ranger." Many years later, Ronnald Reagan was host, but I noticed that the credits still listed the old ranger as the host.
I figure the show was updated for new audiences with the new host. There was also a third host whose name I don't remember.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

He was a bloodthirsty killer!!!

Quantrill's Raiders (1958)

********************************

Steve Cochran, Diane Brewster, Leo Gordon, Gale Robbins

Director: Edward Bernds

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A lot of desperadoes came out of Missouri, like the James brothers.  There was a reason for this -- the great brutality of the fighting there during the Civil War.  There was considerable debate about whether or not Quantrill was a soldier or just an outlaw, but he did only hit targets associated with the Northern cause.  But, regardless of his motivations, Quantrill was a very bloody and brutal operator.  

The moive deals with a planned attack on a Kansas arsenal.

---

Background:

1854 -- Kansas-Nebraska Act, introduced by Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Congress establishes the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. All territories can decide whether to permit or prohibit slavery. Act is condemned by abolitionists.

1854 -- Republican Party is formed as a reaction against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It calls for the abolition of slavery, high protective tariffs, and a transcontinental railroad.

1855 -- settlement of Kansas under Douglas doctrine of "popular sovereignty" leads to bloody war between pro- and anti-slavery factions for control of the territorial government ("Bleeding Kansas")

1856 -- President Pierce recognizes pro-slavery legislature in Kansas Territory

1856 -- Border Ruffians (pro-slavery) sack Lawrence, Kansas. In return, abolitionist John Brown, with four of his sons and three other men, murders five pro-slavery colonists at Pottawatomie Creek. Civil war continues between Free State and pro-slavery factions until federal troops restore peace.

1857 -- Kansas elects Free State legislature. Pro-slavery delegates meet at Lecompton, Kansas, and draw up constitution rigged so that slavery could not be eliminated from the territory.

1857 -- President Buchanan consents to Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, thereby splitting the Democratic Party

1858 -- people of Kansas reject the Lecompton Constitution, and the territory becomes non-slave

1859 -- Abolitionist John Brown with 21 men seizes the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry

1858 -- William Clarke Quantrill comes to Kansas as a young man from his home state of Ohio where he was a suspected thief and murderer. His extremist Southern leanings became evident when he formed a troop of border ruffians to sack pro-Union farm owners, burning their crops, firing their homes and often hanging the farmers. He was an educated man, but one with a burning desire to get rich quick and he blamed others for his failure to become wealthy. Hiding behind the mask of a decent school teacher by day, by night he committed acts of brutal violence.

1859 -- Kansas ratifies anti-slavery constitution at Wyandotte

1861 -- with the war's outbreak, Quantrill gathers his followers en masse, clothing them in regulation gray uniforms and forming his own private guerrilla army.

1863, August 10 -- when Quantrill learns that the authorities in the town of Lawrence, Kansas, are spearheading a plan to bring about his demise, he plans a raid on the town.

1863, August 13 -- a rattletrap jail in Kansas City collapses, killing several female political prisoners from Missouri who were relatives of Quantrill's guerrillas and of fellow guerrilla "Bloody Bill" Anderson.

August 18-- Union General Ewing issued General Orders No. 9, detailing the program to free the slaves of disloyal Missourians in the Border District, and General Orders No. 10, arranging for the deportation of the families of guerrillas from the state.

August 21 -- Quantrill's men hit Lawrence, Kansas, murdering 150 civilians, and burning 100 buildings to the ground. The burned and mangled corpses litter the streets of Lawrence when Quantrill's men ride away, just a few hours after they had arrived.

Among Quantrill's men are Frank and Jesse James and their cousin, Cole Younger (all later famous as outlaws).

August 25 -- Gen. Ewing issues General Orders No. 11.(9) in reaction to Quantrill's murderous raid on Lawrence, Kansas; it results in the evacuation of most of the residents of four counties in the state: Bates, Jackson, Cass, and part of Vernon.

1864, Sept -- brutal slaughter and mutilation of over 100 unarmed Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri by Blood Bill Anderson (the most savage and sadistic of all the Civil War guerrillas), who is associated with Quantrill

A Union scouting party catches Anderson on the run and kills him with more than two dozen bullets in his chest. Upon learning the news, Quantrill experiences a sense of dread about his own future.

1865, June -- death of Quantrill; a federal patrol blows him off his saddle in Kentucky severely wounding him; they toss him into a local jail, where he slowly bleeds to death

---

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Union Republicans while the Clanton cowboys were ex-Confederate Democrats. ***

Many years ago I saw an interesting photo in a western magazine. It was a photo of the Earps and Clantons together in a friendly game of cards.
This was before they had a falling out.

[HiJinx]

This piece makes one wonder if Tombstone should remain on our soutern Arizona places list.

Absolutely. No, it isn't what you would have seen in the 1880's. Nevertheless, Tombstone is still a great place to visit...even better to base out of to see some of the other wonders in our little neck of the woods; places like the Ramsey Canyon Preserve, Texas Canyon, Coronado National Monument, the historic mining town of Bisbee, and the Hoo-Doos in the Chiricahuas.

I'll ping a couple of others who've been here to help you with your vacation plans...

[Pharmboy]

Great pic...you can almost taste the dust. Thanks.

[old3030]

The third host may have been Dale Robertson.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The third host may have been Dale Robertson.***

I believe you are right! But the end credits still listed the Old Ranger as host.

[Theodore R.]

Yes, there was the "Old Ranger," AND Reagan, Robert Taylor, and Dale Robertson all at one time hosting Death Valley Days. Those were interesting half-hour programs.

[Theodore R.]

I was in Tombstone on a windy Saturday in August 1986. I remember that the town claims the largest rose bush in the world too. And I saw the Bird Cage but do not remember being able to see the corral: perhaps it was closed up. I remember how small in population the town was at the time.

[jpl]

"Here lies Les Moore
four slugs from a .44
no Les, no more."

[ozzymandus]

I saw it in the early 60's when I was a kid, and it was a dirty, cheesy little tourist trap then. Pretty impressive to a little kid, though!

[VRWCmember]

The only other movie that comes close to beating "Tombstone" was "Hour of the Gun", which focused on events after the gunfight.

Another excellent movie -- not about Tombstone -- about the James and Younger gangs was "The Long Riders" with the Keach boys, the Carradine boys, and the Quaid boys playing sets of brothers. The final shootout scene in that movie was one of the most graphic and brutal slow-mo shootout scenes I've ever watched. All in all, it was a great movie.

[VRWCmember]

[Spok]

"no one knows how Ringo died."

At least the movie had him dying at the base of a tree with a head wound. The last theory I read was that the guy who found the body and apparently knew Ringo may have shot him as he slept.