Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Cowboys (In that time and region, the term "cowboy" generally meant an outlaw; legitimate cowmen were instead referred to as cattle herders or ranchers.). Many of the supporting facts about the events leading up to the gunfight and details of the gunfight itself are uncertain. Newspapers of the day were not above taking sides, and news reporting often editorialized on issues to reflect the publisher's interests. John Clum, publisher of "The Tombstone Epitaph", had helped organize a "Committee of Safety" (a vigilance committee) in Tombstone in late September 1881. He was elected as the city's first mayor under the new
O.K. Corral (building) now maintained as part of the O.K. Corral Historic Complex. Life-sized figures of the gunfighters are positioned using a map drawn by Wyatt Earp. As the gunfight proceeded, some of the participants fled onto Fremont Street (Arizona State Route 80). Reenactments take place four times daily. In 2004, the town's focus on tourism led the National Park Service (NPS) to threaten to remove its designation as a National Historic Landmark District, a status it earned in 1961 as "one of the best preserved specimens of the rugged frontier town of the 1870s and '80s." The community has since worked closely