Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp is not usually associated with his involvement in mining history, but the lawman’s better-known exploits took place throughout the West as he followed mining booms over a period of 40 years. The famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred in 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona, during the silver boom there. He operated saloons during mining booms in Silverton, Colorado, in 1883; the Idaho Coeur d’Alenes in 1884; Nome, Alaska, in 1899; Tonopah, Nevada, in 1902 and Goldfield, Nevada, in 1905. He reportedly filed nearly 100 claims in the area around the Whipple Mountains, California. By the time of his death in 1929, Earp had reached 100 feet of depth in a shaft on 1 of his claims in the Whipple Mining District. Earp was among the many participants in the history of western mining who played supporting roles in camps and towns. The Whipple Mining District is on public lands managed by the BLM.Mining in the Southern California Deserts: Swope and Gregory
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