And The OK Corral Gunfight Might Never Have Happened.
By Steven “Pacheco” McCann
Gunfight.
When we look back and study tragic events that have occurred in our past, which we wish had never happened, you may sometimes wonder about the proverbial “What If”. “What if” something different could have taken place prior to the tragedy that could have changed history forever. For example, “What if” one specific person had not been there just in time to stop a situation from taking place that would have prevented a future catastrophic occurrence with its history-changing results, but yet, would adversely affect that same specific person for the rest of their life.
Such is a “What If” case with the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881, involving members of the feuding Clanton and Earp families.
O.K. Corral Gunfight, Tombstone, Arizona by Carol Highsmith.
It is well known that there was a bitter “no love lost” rivalry between the Clantons, along with their ranch hands known as the “Cowboys”, and the Tombstone lawmen, the Earp brothers, as well as Doc Holliday.
In the 1880s, the Clanton Gang, as they would come to be known, was wreaking havoc in the southwest Arizona Tombstone Territory with their cattle rustling, armed holdups, and even murder on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ike Clanton was known to be a heavy drinker and quite the braggart with a quick temper, much to his own future demise. And so here is where the “What If” of this story comes into play.
Ambitious Wyatt Earp was in pursuit of quickly moving up the ladder ranks of his lawman career. He thought that if he could arrest those who committed the robbery of the Benson Stage on March 15, 1881, resulting in the murder of the driver and one of the passengers, bringing these robbers to justice would help his cause. On June 2, 1881, Wyatt was to have said that he offered Ike Clanton the Wells, Fargo & Company reward money if he would get him information that would lead to the arrest or deaths of the vicious men responsible for the stage robbery. Ike was said to be having second thoughts about this arrangement with Earp, especially if word got out of his betrayal to his fellow outlaws.
This indecision of Ike Clanton’s may very well have come to an abrupt end on the morning of June 9, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona’s Allen Street Saloon, where Deputy Marshall Virgil Earp’s perfect timing may not have been so perfect that it may have changed history, much to his own and his brother’s future dismay.
Ike Clanton and adept gambler “Denny” McCann (most likely a distant relative of this author) would have a “what if” encounter that did not, but most assuredly could have rewritten history.
Tombstone, Arizona – Allen Street in the early morning by Kathy Alexander.
As reported on June 9, 1881, in the Daily Epitaph Newspaper:
“What came very near being a serious shooting affray was prevented yesterday morning by the coolness and intrepidity of Virgil Earp, acting City Marshal. Ike Clanton, well-known in the San Simon and San Pedro valleys, and “Denny” McCann, a sporting man, had a difficulty in an Allen street saloon, when the latter slapped the face of the former. Clanton went out and heeled himself, and “Denny” did the same. They met in front of the Wells, Fargo’s office about 9 o’clock and both drew their guns about the same time, when Earp stepped between them and spoiled a good local item. They are both determined men, and but for the interference of the officer, there would doubtless have been a funeral, perhaps two.”
Had Virgil Earp not gotten wind of the forthcoming gunfight and put a stop to it before the triggers were pulled and the bullets fired, Ike Clanton’s life was more than likely saved, as Sporting Man “Denny” McCann was known to be quite adept at handling his Colt 45 revolver. Ike Clanton always talked a bigger show than he could back up and would have been lying mortally wounded on the ground with a bullet in him from McCann’s gun.
Virgil Earp
So in reality, Virgil Earp’s perfect timing did alter the future of his brothers, Doc Holiday, as well as his own. If “Cowboy” Ike Clanton had indeed been shot dead on the morning of June 9, 1881, in the streets of Tombstone, Arizona, the Gunfight At the OK Corral would surely never have happened and history would have been changed forever.
Ike Clanton would not have been alive to instigate the riled-up “Cowboys” leading up to the famous gunfight. Morgan Earp would not have been later ambushed and murdered. Virgil Earp would not have been also later severely wounded and left with a lifelong disability. And Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday may not have become the Wild West legends they eventually became.
Unfortunately, all of the “what if’s” in the world cannot and will not change history.
But “What If”?
©Steven “Pacheco” McCann, for Legends Of America, submitted August 2025.
More by Steven McCann:
Nabor Pacheco’s Three Draws: The Grit and Gun of An Arizona Lawman
Bound by Duty & United in Friendship (the Nabor Pacheco/Harry Wheeler Story)
Also See:
Tales of the Shotgun-Messenger Service (by Wyatt Earp, 1886)
Tombstone Newspaper, Letters, & Book Excerpts