The putative site of the gunfight – the legendary O.K. Well, I took a picture, but I didn’t feel proud of myself. Café, an establishment name so obvious I didn't even take a picture. To no one’s surprise, there was a restaurant called the O.K. There were stores – a collection of western outfitters all selling the same boots and Remington paintings – but few customers. The streets – asphalt, not dirt – were desolate, and it took little imagination to conjure tumbleweed blowing across our path. It was late in the season, and hot as an oven, and my first reaction was that it was like Deadwood without the people. Some years ago, back before we had children, my wife and I drove into Tombstone, Arizona as part of a summer road trip. Corral – and How it Changed the American West Jeff Guinn, The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Everyone’s nerves were so overwrought that even the slightest twitch of a hand on either side was instinctively interpreted by the other side as initiating an attack…” Their friends gaping from the street would testify that Frank and Billy started to raise their hands while Tom threw open his coat to indicate he wasn’t armed, but the Earps would recall that they heard instead the sound of pistol hammers being cocked. I intend to disarm you.’ Frank McLaury answered, ‘We will’ with the possible intention of adding ‘not,’ but even as he uttered the first two words the cowboys began to move. “Virgil commanded, ‘Throw up your hands, boys.
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