Shoot-Out at the Vacant Lot...

between Harwood's House and Fly's Loding House.  Of course if historians called it this you wouldn't really think twice about it or even be interested in reading about it.  So maybe that was a bad choice of title.  Oh well.  What am I talking about you ask?  The Shoot-Out at the O.K. Corral of course.  I have to admit that I agree with author and historian John Richard Stephens.  It should have been called "the Gunfight in Tombstone."  But alas this discussion isn't telling the story now is it?  There is so much to this story that I will break it up into a few post so as not to overwhelm you. 
In the southeast corner of Arizona is a little town called Tombstone.  On October 26, 1881 the famous gunfight took place.  In November of 1879 the Earps arrived in Tombstone.  At that time the population was about 900.  That was almost double what it was two months prior.  In the next two months it doubled again.  By the time of the shoot-out Tombstone's population as up to about 5000.  This was do to the major influx of money from nearby silver mines. 

Lingering hostilities from the Civil War created friction between townspeople and country folk.  The country folk were ranchers, cowboys, rustlers, and bandits who mostly where Southerners from Texas.  The townspeople were largely Northerners who came there to advance themselves and create an Eastern-type society where they were at the top.  They wanted things nice and orderly and quiet.  On the other hand the cowboys, were drunks and hell-raisers who came in off the range to party.    Mainly they wanted to get drunk, find a prostitute and shoot up the place.  Add the mining and gambling factions into this and an already volatile situation was made worse. 

Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan, Warren, and James Earp were townspeople.  They had come to Tombstone with their wives to get ahead and establish themselves at the top of society.  Since Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan had all worked in law enforcement in the past they continued to do so in Tombstone.  When Tombstone's marshal was killed by William "Curly Bill" Brocius, Viril took the job.  He was also a U.S. marshal.  Wyatt and Morgan occasionally worked as policemen and Wyatt was planning on running for county sheriff in the next election. 

Policework pay was adequate, but it still wasn't uncommon for those in law enforcement to also work in gambling establishments.  This helped to supplement their income.  The Earps did the same.  Wyatt primarily thouht of himself as a saloonkeeper.  He had a piece of the ambling concession at the Oriental Saloon.  James, the oldest, was also a saloonkeeper, and Warren primarly was a laborer, although he did doa little policework for Virgil while he was in Tombstone.  At the time of the shoot-out Warren was away from Tombstone and although James was, he didn't play a part in it.  At this time Morgan was mostly riding shotun on the Wells Fargo stage to Benson. 

John "Doc" Holliday, a former dentist, who when he discovered he was slowly dying from tuberculosis, headed out west and turned to gambling to make a living.  Gambling was a considered an honorable profession and successful gamblers were highly respected.  Doc was successful, but he was tempermental, belligerent, and an alcoholic, in addition to having a quick temper.  He becamed involved because he was a close friend of Wyatt's and he'd had a few altercations with the rustlers himself.