Gunfight at the O.K. Corral history due to the personal nature of the feud between the Earps and the McLaury and Clanton brothers and the symbolism of the fight between lawmen and the Cowboys. The Cowboys maimed Virgil and murdered Morgan but escaped prosecution, and Wyatt's extra-legal campaign for revenge captured people's attention. The gunfight and its aftermath stand for the change overcoming America as the Western frontier ceased to exist, as a nation that was rapidly industrializing pushed out what had been a largely agrarian economy. The town of Tombstone has capitalized on interest in the gunfight. A portion of the town is a
O.K. Corral (building) corral and buildings were completely destroyed by a fire that burned almost all of the western business district on May 25, 1882. The rebuilt corral began to gain attention from the American public in 1931, when author Stuart Lake published an initially well-received biography, "", two years after Earp's death. Published during the Great Depression, the book captured American imaginations. It was also the basis for the 1946 film, "My Darling Clementine," by director John Ford. After the film "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" was released in 1957, the shootout became known by that name and the corral became wrongly