Whetstone Weekend: Part I: Pondering the Shootout

[jbeegoode]

DF and I are out into the tooleys to investigate a shooting that happened back in 1882. I have plenty of conflicting accounts and we are about to speculate by visiting this still remote area...and the naturism and solitude is lovely.
https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2018/04/29/whetstone-weekend-part-i-pondering-the-shootout/
Jbee

[eyesup]

Good photos, DF and Jbee! A great looking area to spend some time.

Did you find the actual Iron Springs site. Of course, I have seen the Hollywood version of what that looks like so I would be interested in seeing the real deal. I know what a typical spring in the desert looks like so it would be nice to see how it compares.

Duane

[John P]

Nicely written, as always, JBG!

[jbeegoode]

Part II in a few days, will finish the day's explorations, answer with my summation and speculation, show much more in detail as we search the location for the spring and objectively check out the terrine and approaches to the spring. It was gnawing at me as to how the two parties could have surprised each other, or was someone lying. Much of the old documentation was conflicting. The newspaper was out to sell papers and had to rely on accounts from gossip, and gossip-like sources. The Tombstone Epitaph newspaper first said that the gunfight was at an entirely different spring, proven erroneous. Then there are all of those dramatic novellas that messed with accuracy. But, I think that we nailed it. I satisfied some of the questions.

If you are referring to "Tombstone" where Curley Bill gets gunned down in knee deep water red sash and all, that was filmed in a nature preserve over by Patagonia. The sash thing was way too much.

There are several Youtube videos. There is one guy dressed up in his cowboy outfit, like a kid in chaps, that thinks that he has it nailed. Not likely. Its bad work on his part. The most convincing thing is the metal detector finding four hoof shoes, but it was on a hill and the spread of the buckshot would have been too thick at that range to blow Bill in half. Also, there has been lots of water through there in 136 years and erosion, which makes his location no sense. Also, he goes with the story that there were cottonwood trees everywhere at the time. There aren't any for many miles and none at the actual springs, which he didn't even find. He mentions 45 caliber rounds. People have been target shooting there for years, I provide evidence, of probably a recent approx. 44 caliber shot. It has been a fun mystery to solve. AND it was wonderful naturism. Nobody around to bother us, no cattle, no worries, no backup great breeze making great temps.

I was conflicted to split the story up, but it was like 7000 words, 13 microsoft word pages and blending two stories at once is something that I'm not used to. I was learning as I went along. I'm glad that I have this new media with pics, to express the parallel story lines. Writing about this one has been fun and interesting. DF was very helpful with the photos this time, both as a model and her different outlook taking photos and camera's style.
Jbee

[eyesup]

It was gnawing at me as to how the two parties could have surprised each other, or was someone lying.

Lying, about a Wild West Legend? Especially the O.K. Corral. Nahhh! No way!
Or sometimes out-n-out fabrications, a.k.a. tall tales.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

My question has to do with Earp's vendetta. He was under a warrant from a killing that he did in Tucson at the time. He had ignored that and gone after the others as "a lawful posse" anyway, but out of Tombstone, different jurisdiction conniving. Every time that he came in contact with one of his "bad guys" they ended up dead. He was on shaky ground. He was on a killing spree disguised as a lawful justice system and not supposed to be killing people. The original had the guy dying after questioning at the mining camp. The Tucson event had these two guys sneaking around trying to kill the other brother, when one was shot during arrest for suspicious behavior looking into a train. There was question there about murder.

So, Curly Bill may have been ambushed, shot on sight, but Earp needed it to look like self-defense, so he could have been lying about the gunfight. How could one of the parties get the drop on the other? Did they actually not expect the encounter and could they have been surprised?I think I answered the question enough. My thinking and pictorial evidence will be presented in the Part II. It may come across like one of those TV mystery shows to be solved at the end of the show I don't think that I'll create quite the suspense. Maybe, if you enjoy such stuff, you'll look at the Youtube, Wiki and other stuff. Millions of people have been to Tombstone to see reenactments of OK Corral and about the controversy. A half billion dollars has been made on the ticket sales of the top eight movies about the shootouts and surrounding this and that. I don't know how many total movies have been made about those guys. For some reason I find this fascinating, like the rest. I was kind of surprised that there wasn't more evidence of explorers/reinacters people out there. They didn't even show up on the anniversary the week before.

...well, these two sleuths will be naturally naked on this TV show, solving one of the biggest crimes of the last two centuries.
Jbee

[eyesup]

I’ve seen a couple of those historical programs about the Earps and the Cowboys and when it comes to the well known events, not much is known for certain. Such as the shootout at the springs and Johnny Ringo’s death. All part of the whole Tombstone story.

As a territory, depending on where you were and how much outside support you got, the government and law enforcement was sort of loose. Sheriff Behan was not particularly enthused about taking down the Cowboys, so sometimes people got caught up in their criminal activities.

There’s a lot of finger pointing a not a whole lot of evidence that survived, if it ever existed. The vendetta ride may have been nothing more simple payback. Who knows, but it makes for a great story.

According to Wikipedia, there are about 15 movies from 1932 till 1994, 6 adaptations and 2 documentaries. I’ve seen one documentary on the History Channel where American West historians were interviewed about it. It was at least attempting to be objective.

Can’t wait to see yours on cable. Let’s see, “Naked and Searching For the Truth”.
It would be more interesting than those other “Naked and . . . . .” shows, at least with real, genuine naturist/nudist people.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

Yes, it was corrupt and culture of blackmarket. The cowboys started as smugglers and would steal cattle from ranchers in Mexico. Talk about Pancho Villa doing raids, when Americans were raiding Mexico for years.

In my travels south, I found that there is a thriving black-market and acceptance for an underground economy. Jean Lafite was an example of this where people of all social status would meet in the swamp for a contraband bazaar.

I also pondered that Wyatt Earp was a town guy and not a long time resident. He could have been lead around by someone more familiar with the area. He could have stumbled upon the camp because he was unfamiliar with the area, or lead into the position by someone elses stupid. As you'll see the area is one bend or hill with a surprise just around the corner everywhere.
Jbee

[JOhnGw]

It's obviously not for nothing that any situation where corruption and nepotism is rife tends to be called "the wild west" or some derivative.
I seem to recall post Gorbachev Russia being referred to as "the wild east."

[jbeegoode]

Yup, new people moving in, a new economy to exploit, mafia style, black market becoming the free market capitalism base of exploiting the opportunities, opportunist as heroes, dog eat dog and guns defending everything. And back then, there are those Native Americans watching the whole course of such a thing which is called civilization roll over them.

We are not that far from those roots and never that far from reconstruction along those lines into oligarchy and fascism, as it sorts itself out. Hide your women folk. 

I do enjoy a sense of the wild west as a person in wide open spaces free to roam in a less exploited natural environment...in this case naked. The big sky, the vistas, the marvels big and small. The lack of constriction, or rules, or regulation, divine guidance and not driven by the focus of making wealth, but appreciating the wealth that I am blessed with already.

There is also a young cowboy in me, jumping naked and uninhibited into a stream, climbing out and shooting my pistol for the fun of it. Sometimes, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are my inner child.
Jbee

[eyesup]

There is a mining ghost town in California named Bodie. Back in the late 19th century it had the reputation of being the most dangerous town in the western US. It’s about 10 miles north of Mono Lake at almost 9,000 ft. elev in the Sierras. I’ve always wanted to go there. My wife and I love to go poking around in ghost towns so it’s on our list but it’s a trek to get there.

About 80 miles southeast of there is another item on our list. We have a campout to the White Mountains on our to-do list. The campground is near the Schulman Grove at about 8,500 ft. The bristlecone forest is about 3 miles away above 10,000 ft. That’s the forest that has the Methuselah Tree in it.

See this article about the age of these amazing trees. You can walk up to a plant that is thousands of yrs. old and touch it. In the Schulman Grove there is one estimated at over 5,000 yrs. old. They always make me stop and try to pinpoint in history when they sprouted. Such as;

2700 BC: Minoan palace city Knossos reaches 80,000 inhabitants
2700 BC: The Old Kingdom begins in Egypt
2600 BC: Emergence of Maya culture in the Yucatán Peninsula
2560 BC: Pharaoh Khufu completes the Great Pyramid of Giza
2500 BC: The mammoth goes extinct
2200 BC: Completion of Stonehenge
1600 BC: Minoan civilization on Crete is destroyed by the eruption on Santorini island

I posted a spontaneous nudity photo here taken a couple years ago on the road from the campground to this grove of ancient trees.

Duane

[BlueTrain]

I have seen some of the YouTube videos. I'm not particularly interested in any of the shootouts but I thought it fascinating that Wyatt Earp described the shootout at the OK Corral to John Ford in person, accurately or not, and that John Wayne had met Earp, too. Given that the shootout took place over 40 years earlier, it would be a little surprising if everything has been remembered exactly as it happened, and anyway, what he said would only have been from his own point of view.

[jbeegoode]

We left my SUV in a Ghost town on the San Pedro river last weekend. Fairbanks. They have made a museum of it.

I like rummaging through old garbage dumps for bottles. I had friend years ago, whose family homesteaded the Chihuahua Mountain area. We could go there and camp. There was old cloth for a quilt in the house and farm implements. I took a few bottles and showed my dad. He could identify them. There was a nice cement c slab under a huge tree, where they once hanged a guy. The slab was for community parties. It was like a nude park for us.
Jbee

[eyesup]

We've been in rockhound shops near abandoned mines and seen all sorts of bottles in all kinds of colors from the 19th century. Those are not cheap!

Bottles are a big deal to some folks.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

We used to dig in an archeological garbage dump when I was a kid visiting grandma in Idaho. Just fun pretty bottles to decorate the travel trailer when we camped in the mountains.

One more fun thing to do naked!
Jbee