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00:02Tombstone, Arizona.
00:07Site of the legendary shootout at the O.K. Corral.
00:14Today, this is a quiet, law-abiding town.
00:18With few surface signs of what makes Tombstone so notorious in Wild West history.
00:25What really happens here 140 years ago?
00:28And why?
00:30Everything you've seen about the city of Tombstone in the movies and on television is completely wrong.
00:37Now, new evidence from secret tunnels can reveal what triggers the spectacular rise and catastrophic fall of the ultimate frontier
00:46town.
00:47We're down 100 feet right now below the surface.
00:51And modern-day weapons analysis can expose the truth behind the Wild West's most famous gunfight.
01:02With all those 30 rounds shot in 28 or so seconds, why only three people killed?
01:09To solve Tombstone's mysteries, we'll deconstruct the streets of this Wild West town to uncover hidden fortunes.
01:19And break down the O.K. Corral gunfight second by second, shot by shot.
01:25To unearth the true story of this frontier outpost's most famous moment.
01:42In the heart of Arizona's high desert sits the ultimate Wild West town.
01:49Tombstone.
01:51Tombstone.
01:52Tombstone.
01:53Tombstone.
01:54Tombstone.
01:54Tombstone.
01:55Tombstone.
01:56Tombstone.
01:56Tombstone.
01:57Tombstone.
01:57Tombstone.
02:03Tombstone.
02:05Tombstone.
02:15Tombstone.
02:16years. The legend of Tombstone has overshadowed the true facts in the true story. To be quite
02:22honest, that true story is so much more interesting than anything Hollywood has put out to date.
02:30The story of Tombstone begins in 1877 as pioneering settlers push forward the American
02:37frontier. In only three years, they turn a barren plateau into a boomtown that boasts grand theaters,
02:51a bowling alley, 14 churches and gambling halls, and over 100 saloons. A horse stable called the
03:01O.K. Corral becomes the site of the most famous shootout in the Wild West. The deadly duel
03:09catapults Tombstone to instant fame that lasts to this day. But nearly a century and a half since
03:17the bloodshed, what's the truth behind the legend? City historian Don Taylor wants to find out.
03:36But finding Tombstone's original locations requires detective work. Because two major fires destroy
03:45most of the town's earliest buildings. The fire in 1881 actually started right across the street
03:52here. It started when a bartender went to check a barrel of whiskey to see if it had soured. He
03:58stuck his head in there with a lit cigar in his mouth and boom. The O.K. Corral is just
04:05one of the
04:05businesses that burns. So is there any hope of finding this legendary location today?
04:14Luckily, one crucial remnant of pre-fire Tombstone still remains. The street plan.
04:21What you see today is exactly the same layout that was here when Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were here
04:27in the 1880s. You're walking the same streets that all these famous men walked on.
04:35Don uses an original map to match up 1880s Tombstone with today's buildings, searching for the site of
04:43the O.K. Corral.
04:44Corral. You've got the Oriental Saloon here, the Crystal Palace Saloon here, different saloons and
04:52restaurants and stores right along here, a hardware store here. As we head down Allen Street, here is
05:00the O.K. Corral on the map, which is right across the street from where I'm sitting now.
05:14When a visitor would come to Tombstone, they would check their horse, if you will. Stables and corrals
05:20were the parking lots of the day. They would take their horses and put them in here.
05:26According to legend, the infamous gunfight unfolds on Allen Street, outside the O.K. Corral.
05:34But no guns are fired here. Inside the corral, the open space is perfect for a shootout.
05:43But no shots are fired here, either. The true location of the gunfight is behind the corral,
05:51in a narrow vacant lot. Here, lawmen and outlaws are poised, barely 10 feet apart, for the most famous
06:0230 seconds in Wild West history.
06:11But if the gunfight didn't even take place in the corral, what else might be myth?
06:19To find out, researchers need to start at the beginning, to unearth what triggers the town's
06:25notorious shootout.
06:28Nancy Sosa examines the town's newspapers in search of answers.
06:35Her research overturns one big Hollywood myth, that gunfights are a constant feature of Tombstone's
06:42early days.
06:43People think of Tombstone, and they think that we were a violent community. And there
06:50was a death every day. One of the most famous sayings is, Tombstone had a man for breakfast
06:55every morning. Well, if that was the case, then we wouldn't have had a population. Innocent
07:01people were not being killed every day.
07:05But Nancy's analysis of newspaper obituaries shows that there is a marked spike in violent
07:11deaths in Tombstone in a two-year period, coinciding with when the OK Corral gunfight claims its
07:19three victims. There's approximately 27 people who died from gunshot wounds, or knife wounds, or
07:32murder. 27 to 30 people that died by interesting means in that short period of time.
07:42This spike in violence causes panic among the law-abiding business people of Tombstone.
07:49And they couldn't have chaos. They couldn't have what was going on.
07:53The city records reveal that around this time, Virgil Earp, a member of one of the most famous
07:59families in Wild West history, is appointed Tombstone's marshal.
08:08The five Earp brothers are born into a farming family in the Midwest.
08:19Like many Americans of the time, they leave home and follow their fortunes, chasing money and the
08:25expanding frontier.
08:30By 1880, the Earp brothers reach Tombstone.
08:35They make money running saloons and dealing cards.
08:42But three of the brothers have higher aspirations.
08:46To become men of the law.
08:53The men who hire the Earps are desperate to restore calm to Tombstone's streets.
09:00The scene is set for the most famous gunfight in Wild West history.
09:07The Earps backers are the town's biggest business owners.
09:10They were the ones that were responsible for Tombstone's lifeblood.
09:15Silver.
09:15Silver.
09:17What role does Silver play in Tombstone's legendary gunfight?
09:22And what could a hidden tunnel beneath the town's grand hotel reveal about Tombstone's rapid rise from
09:29the desert?
09:48Tombstone is the ultimate Wild West town.
09:54The legendary location of a 30-second shootout.
09:59The gunfight at the OK Corral.
10:05The most notorious incident in an outbreak of violent deaths in and around the town.
10:11But what triggers this carnage?
10:15A big clue lies buried beneath the town's main street.
10:25A big clue lies buried beneath Big Nose Kate's Saloon is the basement of the Old Grand Hotel.
10:32Sitting on the entrance to a mysterious tunnel that burrows deep into the bedrock.
10:41It's only one of the many passageways crisscrossing 300 miles under Tombstone.
10:50It's only one of the most important things that we've seen in the city.
10:51Their purpose?
10:51To access tons of precious silver buried beneath the town.
10:59How does Tombstone turn hard rock into hard cash?
11:10Historical mining expert Robert Davenport investigates the silver rush that transforms the Barren Plateau
11:17into a boomtown.
11:20It all starts with prospector Ed Shefflin in 1877.
11:26He decides to survey for silver in dangerous Apache territory, sparking a warning from locals.
11:34They told him, the only stone you're ever going to find out there is your own tombstone.
11:38Well, that's what he named his first claim when he found it.
11:43Some of the rocks he probably found on the surface were the chrysocola.
11:48Chrysocola is usually an indicator of copper, lead, zinc, silver, and gold.
11:53So this is probably what Ed was looking for.
11:58Once Ed confirms the rocks contain silver, he digs Tombstone's first mine.
12:04Okay, this is the silver that they were looking for.
12:07What they would do is they would follow the ore bodies.
12:11Using basic tools, miners chase the seams of ore wherever they lead.
12:17Back in the day when Ed Shefflin was down here, this is before they had hardhats, before they had lamps.
12:24So what they would do is they would use a candlestick holder, put it into the wall, put the candle
12:30in,
12:31and these are the tools of the trade back in the day.
12:33This is a drill steel, 130 years old, and a four pound sledgehammer.
12:41So it was a major process getting this done.
12:49Tombstone's miners work 10-hour shifts.
12:52They chisel holes in the tunnel walls, then fill them with dynamite.
12:58After the blasting,
13:01it takes a couple of hours for the dust to settle,
13:06before the next crew clear away the ore.
13:10They load the ore into carts and run it back up to the surface for processing.
13:18Massive silver mills then refine the ore into giant 180-pound ingots, impossible for thieves to easily snatch.
13:33Everything in this mine that you walk through, you go through, that's void, was silver.
13:39Tombstone's rich ore-bearing rocks produce over 1,000 tons of pure silver.
13:46Some of it was so dense, it actually stayed out at over $8,000 to the ton of silver.
13:51So it made it some of the richest in the United States.
13:56It's so dense, it's so dense.
13:57Why does the silver spark the trouble that culminates in the OK Corral gunfight?
14:03Metal worker Spencer Edgerton is an expert in silver.
14:07And why there is so much demand for the metal at this particular time.
14:12It is relatively rare, and it was valued worldwide, and of course it can be polished to a really high
14:18luster.
14:19So those made it valuable in jewelry.
14:22Spencer demonstrates what makes silver so sought after.
14:27What we're doing today is casting silver using the sand casting method of casting.
14:33Inside of this container is silver. We're going to be heating it up to probably close to 2,000 degrees,
14:38and pouring it into this mold. Like gold, silver is a relatively inert metal.
14:45It's already starting to melt.
14:47It doesn't corrode quickly, making it perfect to turn into coins.
14:54At this time, silver forms the basis of the U.S. currency.
14:59So demand for these silver dollars is huge.
15:05In just four years, Tombstone's mines produce silver worth the equivalent of nearly a billion dollars today.
15:14A dusty desert town becomes a rich, sophisticated metropolis.
15:20But the wealth and prosperity also attracts troublemaking outlaws to the frontier town.
15:28It's a very important part of the world.
15:29Sparking conflict with mine owners determined to protect their untapped fortunes.
15:36Buried underground is the ultimate result of this conflict.
15:40The victims of the carnage at the OK Corral.
16:01Tombstone, Arizona, booms on the back of its silver mines.
16:08But the town's fame today comes from the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral.
16:15Can evidence hidden in this graveyard reveal who was actually fighting and why?
16:21This was Tombstone's first city cemetery.
16:25And it started in 1880.
16:27By 1884, it was full.
16:30This is Boot Hill Cemetery.
16:34So-called because many buried here die with their boots on.
16:40Historian Don Taylor investigates what this place can reveal about the true story of the OK Corral.
16:49This cemetery fell into complete disrepair.
16:52In fact, at one point in time, this was the garbage dump.
16:56We have no records of who's buried really where.
17:00On the surface, the cemetery holds few clues.
17:04But the story below ground is very different.
17:10Tombstone's legendary Boot Hill is the resting place for more than 250 of the town's dead.
17:18Tombstone's dead.
17:19Many are killed in cold blood, murdered in acts of revenge, or victims of affairs that turn sour.
17:27Among the dead, three cowboys.
17:3128-year-old Tom McLowry, 32-year-old Frank McLowry, and 19-year-old Billy Clanton.
17:40The three victims of the gunfight at the OK Corral.
17:46But who are they?
17:47And how do they end up dying on the streets of Tombstone?
17:57Don Taylor searches for answers in Cochise County, the vast scrubland that surrounds the city.
18:06In the 1880s, it's the lair of a particular breed of men, the cowboys.
18:13Although mining was the primary economic factor in Cochise County back in the day,
18:18as you can see with the wide open land that we have here, ranching also played a key factor.
18:25Today, I'm outside of Tombstone and looking at the different types of country where the cowboy ranches would have been
18:33back then.
18:35The word cowboy today means almost anyone associated with cattle in the Wild West.
18:42But in this part of Arizona, it refers to members of a very specific gang, indelibly associated with the OK
18:50Corral gunfight.
18:51The word cowboy in Cochise County in the 1880s meant an outlaw.
18:58The cowboys specialize in one particular crime, international cattle theft.
19:09They form raiding parties and sneak across the Mexican border, 25 miles south of Tombstone.
19:19Under cover of darkness, they drive cattle back across the border, avoiding stiff import taxes.
19:29The cowboys fatten up their illicit herds on the grasslands around Tombstone and sell them for a hefty profit.
19:40Much of the meat ends up in Tombstone.
19:43The butchers and restaurants don't ask questions about the source of their steaks.
19:52And as the town of Tombstone grows, there's an insatiable demand for the cowboys' stolen beef.
19:59The demand for beef in Tombstone was growing as exponentially as the population.
20:04The butchers would buy their beef for less than market value,
20:09because obviously the cowboys had nothing invested in it other than a few days of rustling.
20:14But Mexican ranchers start to shoot cowboys on sight.
20:20So the outlaws are forced to steal cattle closer to Tombstone,
20:25setting them on a path that will eventually trigger the gunfight at the OK Corral.
20:32But the cowboys face a problem.
20:36A brand marks each cow that shows which specific ranch they belong to.
20:42So to steal cattle successfully, the cowboys have to create a top secret tool,
20:49a way to change one brand into another.
20:53Metal worker Pete Brown is going to forge this illicit instrument known as a running iron.
21:00They were very dangerous tools to carry around if you were a rustler,
21:04because it's obvious what you were up to, stealing cattle.
21:07And being caught in possession of a running iron might lead to you hanging from a tree.
21:13It's a delicate operation.
21:17The tool has to be small enough to conceal from lawmen.
21:25Yet versatile enough to change almost any brand into another existing brand.
21:33I'm making the business end of the running iron.
21:36This has to be slightly thinner so that it matches the existing brand on the cattle.
21:53And that's a completed running iron.
21:57Now Pete puts his finished tool to the test.
22:03First, he brands a piece of wood with an original U-brand.
22:09Next, he uses the running iron to create a modified 7-up brand.
22:14First thing I'm going to do is put the wings on the U to make it into a flying U
22:20-brand.
22:26Now I'm going to adapt the flying U into a 7-up.
22:36If I was doing that on the cattle, nobody would ever know where those cattle came from.
22:54But when they come to Tombstone to sell their illicit meat, they bring trouble.
23:02Spending ill-gotten games in brothels, bars, and gambling dens.
23:10Sparking much of the violent behavior that threatens the prosperity of the silver mines.
23:19Don Taylor believes tensions between rich mine owners and the out-of-town cowboys boil over on October the 26th,
23:281881.
23:30A group of cowboys gather in a vacant lot behind the O.K. Corral.
23:40They're openly carrying weapons in violation of local law.
23:47In accordance to city ordinance number nine, it was illegal to carry guns in Tombstone back then.
23:54Marshal Virgil Earp confronts the cowboys.
24:00Alongside him are three deputies, his brothers Morgan and Wyatt Earp.
24:06And legendary gunslinger Doc Holliday.
24:10People saw they had guns in their hands and they knew something was about to happen.
24:15What triggers the first shot?
24:17And once the carnage begins,
24:20how does anyone escape alive?
24:42Tombstone's legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the most famous 30 seconds in Wild West history.
24:51But what really happens during this iconic shootout?
24:57Local historian Don Taylor wants to separate fact from fiction.
25:02In Hollywood, it's always a beautiful sunny day.
25:06That day, it was cloudy, cold, blowing rain and snow.
25:12The Lawmen.
25:13Three Earp brothers plus Doc Holliday spot six outlaws.
25:20Billy Clanton and his brother.
25:22Two McLowry brothers.
25:25And two other members of the cowboy gang in an 18-foot-wide vacant lot.
25:30The Lawmen confront the armed outlaws.
25:35Initially, there were ten men and two horses in this space.
25:38Virgil said, throw up your hands, boys. I want your guns.
25:42And then all hell broke loose.
25:45As they square off, cowboys outnumber Lawmen six to four.
25:51And Virgil Earp is armed only with a walking stick.
25:55Before a shot is fired, two cowboys flee.
26:00Virgil swaps his walking stick for a hidden pistol, evening the odds.
26:06As shots start to fly, a third cowboy escapes.
26:12Cowboy Tom McLowry can't reach his rifle, making it four against two.
26:1828 seconds later, three men are dead.
26:23But how do four people manage to survive the carnage?
26:32At this shooting range near Phoenix, historic weapons expert Wynn Ames investigates how
26:40most of the gunfighters escape with their lives.
26:44What does come to mind is, with all those 30 rounds shot in 28 or so seconds, why only three
26:52people killed?
26:57Wynn believes the gunfighter's shooting style may hold a clue.
27:03With all the lead flying around and all the activity going on and the fear of death at any second,
27:09I don't believe anyone really took the time to aim and fire.
27:14They were grabbing their pistols and they were shooting.
27:18Pull a pistol, shoot.
27:20You're pointing it at the target. You're not aiming it at the target.
27:25That's the big difference.
27:27The shooters are going to investigate the difference in accuracy between point firing and aimed firing.
27:35First, the shooter fires five shots, pointing at the target from waist height.
27:45He hit once out of five shots.
27:49Now, if someone was shooting back at him, like they had at the OK Corral, he wouldn't have hit even
27:55once.
27:57Next, the shooter uses the gun's sight to line up his target.
28:08He hit the target five out of five shots.
28:12In the rush to return fire, it's likely no one takes the time to aim properly.
28:20And Wynn believes basic chemistry can shed more light on why so many shots miss.
28:26In 1881, the only powder available was gunpowder or what we call today black powder.
28:34Until the beginning of the 20th century, most pistols use this chemical mixture.
28:40And this is black powder. This is an explosive.
28:44What we want to show you is what happens by pouring a little gunpowder on this steel plate and lighting
28:51it.
28:57What we want to show you is what happens by pouring a little bit of a gun.
28:58Okay, guys. Ready?
28:59One, two, three, go.
29:15That was 30 shots, and I'm going to guess less than 28 seconds.
29:20Got a little smoke on that one, didn't it?
29:24The shootout takes place in a cloud of smoke.
29:28Accurate aiming is extremely difficult.
29:31It's no longer a surprise that four out of seven shooters survive the short-range battle.
29:40But it's the three cowboys who die.
29:43And the lawmen who emerge as gunfighting heroes.
29:48They all survive.
29:51Do the Earps deserve their legendary reputation?
29:54Or do they just get lucky?
29:57Do the Earps?
29:57Do the Earps?
29:59Do the Earps?
30:00Do the Earps?
30:00Do the Earps?
30:06Do the Earps?
30:09Do the Earps?
30:10Do the Earps?
30:14Tombstone's gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
30:17Four lawmen, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, shoot it out with six outlaws from the cowboy gang.
30:26three die all cowboys do the lawmen deserve their reputation as legendary gunslingers
30:37of the 30 shots fired in the vacant lot up to seven hit the cowboys
30:44three bullets strike billy clinton they hit his wrist his stomach and fatally his heart
30:53frank mclowery reportedly gets hit in the stomach the chest and with a lethal shot to the brain
31:02tom mclowery ends up on the wrong end of doc holiday's shotgun
31:06the buckshot blows a hand-sized hole in his chest killing him instantly
31:14all the lawmen survive is this due to luck or great gunfighting
31:25at this shooting range near phoenix win aims investigates whether the lawmen deserve
31:31their great reputation a key factor in their favor is their choice of weapon
31:41initially concealed in his long coat doc holiday is carrying a shotgun
31:50let's look at the difference in pattern
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