Newspaper Uncovers Photo Believed to Show Wyatt Earp as a Teen-Ager

A musty old photo believed to show Wyatt Earp as a fresh-faced teen-ager turned up in the archives of a newspaper preparing a story on the legendary gambler and lawman.

The family portrait published by the San Francisco Examiner on Friday shows three adults and three children. The Examiner said the picture languished in its photo library until it was discovered recently by an employee.

An accompanying article quotes historians who identify two of the adults as Earp’s parents. One historian identified the older of two boys shown in the photograph as Earp. The other said it was likely.

The photo bears the label of photographers Kerrison and Carnahan in Garden City, Kan., and is believed to be a copy of a tintype given to the newspaper by Earp or a relative about a century ago.

The earliest authenticated picture of Earp, who was born in 1848, shows him at about age 20. Culver City historian Carl Chafin said he believed the other children in the photo were Earp’s brother Morgan and sister Adelia. The third adult, a woman, remains unidentified.

Another historian, Lee Silva of Long Beach, said he would rather wait for a computer analysis to compare the photograph to later pictures of Earp before pronouncing judgment.

Earp, considered a hero by some and a murderer by others, was a stagecoach driver, railroad construction hand, surveyor and buffalo hunter before becoming a peace officer.

He shot his way into Western lore during an 1881 gunfight in Tombstone, Ariz., dubbed the shootout at the O.K. Corral. In that battle, Earp and brothers Virgil and Morgan, along with Doc Holliday, gunned down brothers Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton.

Earp lived in San Francisco during the 1890s, managing horses at a racetrack. He befriended Examiner publisher William Randolph Hearst and provided security for executives at the newspaper.