Idea That Lawman Avoided State After Shoot-Out Refuted : Photos Show Earp Did Return to Arizona

Contrary to popular belief, Western legend Wyatt Earp did spend time in Arizona late in life, according to photographs and other memorabilia his wife gave to famed explorer Lincoln Ellsworth.

Ellsworth is known to have deeply admired Earp, going so far as to name a ship after him and to wear Earp’s wedding band for good luck while crossing Antarctica.

The explorer’s widow, Mary Louise Ellsworth, who lives in New York City, has donated the collection to the Arizona Historical Society, which placed it on exhibit recently. It includes previously unknown photographs of Earp with his third and last wife, Josephine; his Bible, wallet and pipe; a mining claim, letters after his death from Josephine to Ellsworth, and one of her calling cards.

Immortalized by Shoot-Out

Earp, who died in 1929 at age 80, was immortalized by the October, 1881, shoot-out in Tombstone, Ariz., that came to be known as the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.” Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed in the fight with Earp, two of his brothers and John (Doc) Holliday.

And popular opinion erroneously has held that Earp never returned to Arizona after 1882, said Philip Hart, assistant director of the society in Tucson.

But the collection, Hart says, includes photos showing Earp and Josephine along the Colorado River.

The snapshot-type photos include Earp with his dog, Earpie, his cat, Fluffy, and his horse, Lady Kohl.

At various times, Earp was a lawman, gambler, prospector and land speculator. In Tombstone he worked as a deputy policeman for his brother Virgil, the town police chief, and also as a detective for the Wells Fargo agency.

Returned to Arizona

In March, 1882, Earp left Arizona for mining camps in Colorado, Idaho and Alaska. Later he retired in Los Angeles. The new collection of material shows clearly that Earp and Josephine returned intermittently to Arizona, usually living in camping settings along the Colorado River, notably at Parker, Cibola and Ehrenberg, Hart said.

Ellsworth, who was born in 1880 and died in 1951, made his mark as an engineer, scientist and explorer. He worked on railroad surveys in Canada, prospected for gold and was a mining engineer in Alaska.

The two men never met, but Hart said Ellsworth had been fascinated by “Earp’s domination over men.”

About nine years after his 1926 crossing of the polar basin by dirigible, Ellsworth outfitted a wooden ship for his third Antarctic expedition and christened it “The Wyatt Earp,” Hart said. “And on his ship he included a couple of the biographies of Earp and had everybody read them,” including Norwegian crew members.

“It was like naming the space shuttle after Wyatt Earp,” Hart said. He said Josephine Earp had been so impressed that she had contacted the Ellsworths and began giving them her late husband’s belongings.

They included a 16-gauge double-barreled hunting shotgun and case; a .45-caliber Colt single-action Army revolver that she said Earp had called “Baby Pony”; Earp’s pipe and wallet, and two wedding rings--one that Earp’s father had used, then given to him. The second, smaller ring is inscribed “Wyatt Earp.”