Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday

Friendship

Wyatt and Doc initially met at Fort Griffin, Texas, in the fall of 1877.

Wyatt Earp

Earp was employed by the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad and tasked with apprehending a slippery eel known as Dave Rudabaugh. Doc was simply an itinerant gambler and part-time dentist.

Although their interaction at Shannsey’s Saloon was brief, Doc and Earp would be reunited the following summer in Dodge City. It’s there, in the Queen of Cowtowns, where a friendship was formed that would last a lifetime.

According to Wyatt, he was surrounded by ne’er-do-wells one evening when Holliday came to his rescue, brandishing a revolver in each hand.

“It happened that Doc Holliday was seated at a monte table, and glancing through the window, he appraised the situation in an instant. Turning to Frank Loving, the dealer, he said, “Have you a six-shooter?” He handed his gun over to Holliday, who sprang without hesitation through the doorway into the sidewalk, and, throwing both guns down on the crowd, said, “Throw up your hands!” This rather startled them and averted their attention. In an instant, I had drawn my gun, and the arrest of the crowd followed. They were confined in jail overnight, fined, and released the following day. It was because of this episode that I became the friend of Doc Holliday ever after.”

If you’d like to learn more about Holliday’s adventures in Fort Griffin and Dodge City, as well as his and Wyatt’s continued friendship in Arizona, I discuss all of this and more on the most recent edition of The Wild West Extravaganza (including Doc’s alleged stabbing of Ed Bailey). This is Part 2 of an ongoing series on Doc Holliday. If you missed Part 1, you can check it out here. It’s also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, YouTube, and pretty much everywhere else where audio is consumed.

And stick around because next week we’ll be discussing the famous Gunfight at the Ok Corral!