Gunfight at the O.K. Corral during the American Civil War and in 1877 became a police officer in Prescott, Arizona. He followed that with a job as a night watchman before he became a constable. Wyatt had held two jobs as a police officer in the cattle-drive towns of Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas. James, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp, together with their wives, arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879, during the early period of rapid growth associated with mining, when there were only a few hundred residents. Virgil was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal shortly before he arrived in Tombstone. In the summer of 1880,
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. Ike Clanton had been publicly threatening to kill the Earps for several months, including very loud threats on the day before. Wyatt told the court afterward that Clanton had bragged that he would kill the Earps or Doc Holliday at his first opportunity. But when the gunfight broke out, Clanton ran forward and grabbed Wyatt, exclaiming that he was unarmed and did not want a fight. To this protest Wyatt said he responded, "Go to fighting or get away!" Clanton ran through the front door of Fly's boarding house and escaped, unwounded. Other accounts say