The Missing Mules

The first confrontation between the Earps and McLaurys.

July 25, 1880. A contingent including several soldiers, a Wells Fargo agent, and Deputy US Marshal Virgil Earp (photo) and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan is on the search for stolen army mules. They find them at the Babocomari Ranch of Tom and Frank McLaury. Cow-boy Frank Patterson heads off a showdown by promising to return the animals. The promise is not kept. It’s the first confrontation between the Earps and McLaurys–and it will culminate in an empty Tombstone lot 15 months later.