Do any of the guns used in the gunfight near the O.K. Corral exist? If so, where are they?

Do any of the guns used in the gunfight near the O.K. Corral exist? If so, where are they?

K. Harding
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Wyatt Earp expert Casey Tefertiller says Frank McLaury’s and Billy Clanton’s six-shooters were identified by their serial numbers at the Spicer Hearing, which was held to determine whether Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday should go on trial for murder (they were exonerated). Neither of these weapons have surfaced, and weapons belonging to the Earps and Doc Holliday were not identified, which means any collector’s or museum’s display of weapons claiming to have been used by them at the gunfight can’t be validated. Tefertiller adds, “It did not seem like a big deal at the time. Nobody thought folks would be talking about it a century later.”

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Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian. His books include The Arizona Trilogy and Law of the Gun.

If you have a question, write:

Ask the Marshall,

PO Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327

or e-mail him at marshalltrimble@sccmail.maricopa.edu