Wyatt Earp on Deadwood

God, this show just gets better and better. Based on the sneak preview of this Sunday's episode, Wyatt and Morgan Earp will soon grace the camp.

Wyatt Earp, you might remember, was involved at the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral.

And what were they doing in Deadwood? Well, the real history is the guide.

From Black Hills Visitor Magazine:

Wyatt and Morgan left Dodge City for Deadwood on September 9, 1876, in a wagon drawn by the best four-horse hitch money could buy, heading for new opportunities in the booming Black Hills. ... The brothers arrived in Deadwood to find ... Deadwood gulch was jammed with prospectors, miners, promoters and fortune hunters. After looking over the situation, Morgan decided to return to Dodge City before winter closed in.

Wyatt was convinced that a sober man could prospect for gold dust at the gaming tables of Deadwood saloons. It also been reported (one account from Seth Bullock's son) that the Earps had been recruited as "muscle" by some party in Deadwood to help with mining claims, and didn't just show up looking for color....It is rumored that the reason Wyatt left was that he and Deadwood’s sheriff Seth Bullock did not see eye to eye on an issue.

Read the rest here.

For more -- The Wyatt Earp Museum

Wikipedia on the Gunfight at OK Corral

POSTSCRIPT:

Is all of the above just BUNK?

I have it on a reliable authority that there's more fiction than fact in the above account. From my correspondent:

Fact is, the only information about Wyatt in Deadwood, came from Stuart Lake's book.  Lake interviewed Wyatt twice before he died.  All he had in his notes that that Wyatt went to Deadwood sometime in late 1877 and left in the spring of 1878.  He drove a wood wagon...that's it...nothing more.  There was so little info that Lake left it out of his first book all together.   That brochure is nothing but hype and filler.

And the only thing I can add is that fact and fiction are blended beautifully on Deadwood and if nothing much is really known at this late date, then it's all a big white canvas on which the show's producer and writers may write large. 

For more Clews on Deadwood see --

This post, wherein I whine about the show's f*****g demise

or

This post, wherein I relay the tale of the "Huckster" character from the first season of Deadwood

Comments

[J Franklin]

In a recent book published in 1998 by a descendant of Doc Holiday. It is said, Holiday was in Deadwood in 77 gambling when Wyatt arrived and knowing his brother from a brothel he ran in other parts, became friendly with Wyatt while there. I wonder if the Deadwood script writers are going to go after this little tid-bit?

[The Bookhouse Boy]

I read somewhere else that Mark Twain stopped by Deadwood sometime in 77. Oh, I'd like to see them touch that.

[Chase]

big deadwood fan myself (big westerns fan too)

Maybe its just me, but I dont like the way wrote Morgans character.

on another note, which movie did you like better, tombstone or wyatt earp?
its hard for me to choose...if i could, i would blend the casts...keep costner as wyatt, keep val kilmer as doc holliday, etc