Wyatt Earp - Move To Tombstone, Arizona

Move To Tombstone, Arizona

Wyatt's older brother Virgil was in Prescott, Arizona Territory, in 1879 and wrote Wyatt about the opportunities in the nearby silver-mining boomtown of Tombstone. In the fall of 1879, Wyatt, his common-law wife Mattie Blaylock, his brother Jim and his wife, and Doc Holliday and his common-law wife Big Nose Kate, all left for Arizona. They stopped in Las Vegas in New Mexico Territory and at other locations, arriving in Prescott in November. The three Earps moved with their wives to Tombstone while Doc remained in Prescott where the gambling afforded better opportunities. Tombstone had grown from less than 100 souls, when created in March 1879, to about 1000 when the Earp group arrived in November. On November 27, 1879, three days before moving to Tombstone, Virgil was appointed by Crawley P. Dake, U.S. Marshal for the Arizona Territory, as Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Tombstone mining district, some 450 kilometres (280 mi) from Prescott. The Deputy U.S. Marshal in Tombstone represented federal authority in the southeast area of the Arizona Territory.

Wyatt brought horses and a buckboard wagon that he planned to convert into a stagecoach, but on arrival he found two established stage lines already running. In Tombstone, the Earps staked mining claims and water rights interests, attempting to capitalize on the mining boom. Jim worked as a barkeep. On December 6, 1879, the three Earps and Robert J. Winders filed a location notice for the First North Extension of the Mountain Maid Mine. When none of their business interests proved fruitful, Wyatt was hired in April or May 1880 by Wells, Fargo & Co. agent John Clum as a shotgun messenger on stagecoaches when they transported Wells Fargo strongboxes. In the summer of 1880, younger brothers Morgan arrived from Montana and Warren Earp moved to Tombstone as well. In September, Wyatt's friend Doc Holliday arrived from Prescott.