A gun, thought to have been carried by Wyatt Earp during the O.K. Corral shootout in Tombstone, sold at action for $225,000.
On Thursday, J. Levine Auction & Appraisal announced that they would be having several of Earp’s items for sale at the auction block. Among those items was the Colt .45 revolver.
The gun, purchased by a telephone bidder from New Mexico, was originally valued between $100,000 and $150,000, and came with a signed affidavit, signed in 1994, declaring its authenticity. There is also a signed letter from Colt stating that the make of the gun coincides with the time Earp was involved in the gunfight.
The items, which also included his Winchester shotgun and his brother Vigil Earp’s revolver, were owned by the estate of Glenn Boyer, who died in February 2013. Boyer was an author from southern Arizona, who wrote several books about Earp.
According to Earp’s biography, he was a “frontiersman, marshal, and a gambler,” who’s known for his legendary gunfight at Tombstone.
Wyatt Earp was born March 19, 1848. One of the icons of the American West, he worked for the law and helped tame the wild cowboy culture that pervaded the frontier.
In Tombstone, Arizona, Wyatt got into a feud with a local rancher that resulted in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, perhaps the most famous gunfight in American history. Earp died in Los Angeles on January 13, 1929.
All of Earp’s items, combined, brought in over $445,000.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
