Funny you should say that. Not that Wyatt never open carried in his career, but the gunfight at the OK Corral, pitting lawmen against the cowboys, symbolized city folks against rural. The impetus of the whole thing was gun control, with Wyatt's group coming to take guns away from the cowboys.
The cowboys open carried in rigs similar to what is seen in the movies. The lawmen, as city folk, carried their handguns concealed, in large overcoat pockets or tucked in belts.
Well, actually leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral, it was actually different law enforcement agencies against each other.
After Stilwell's body was found the next morning, the Tucson Justice of the Peace issued arrest warrants for the five lawmen suspected of the extra-judicial murder. When the men returned to Tombstone, Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan had received a telegram notifying him of the Tucson warrants, and attempted to detain the five members of Earp's federal posse named in the warrants, but they ignored him. Still carrying arrest warrants for Curly Bill Brocius and others, they left Tombstone to pursue further Cowboys implicated in the attacks.Behan formed a Cochise County sheriff's posse consisting of deputies Phineas Clanton, Johnny Ringo, and about twenty other Cowboys and Arizona ranchers. Based on the local warrants, they followed the Earp posse and set out to arrest them.