Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Cowboys and were not indicted. Wyatt Earp, newly appointed as Deputy U.S. Marshal in Cochise County, then took matters into his own hands in a personal vendetta. He was pursued by county sheriff Johnny Behan, who had received a warrant from Tucson for Wyatt's shooting of Frank Stilwell. Tombstone, near the Mexican border, was founded in March 1879. After silver was discovered in the area, Tombstone grew rapidly into a frontier mining boomtown. At its founding, it had a population of just 100, and only two years later, in late 1881, the population was more than 7,000 (excluding Chinese, Mexicans,
Long Branch Saloon gunfight each other." Long Branch Saloon gunfight The Long Branch Saloon gunfight, on April 5, 1879, was a gunfight that took place at the famed Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, between Frank Loving and Levi Richardson, both gamblers who frequented the saloon. Frank Loving was a 19-year-old youth at the time of the fight. Although often referred to as being a gunman, that reputation did not develop until after this gunfight. Loving had come to Dodge City from Texas, arriving the year before and settling into the gamblers life of the busy cattle town. He'd married, became friends with