Doc Holliday and Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Part II

Tempers were still running high after the shootout at the O.K. Corral. But, Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers were not to part company yet...

Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and the Earp Vendetta Ride

Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp were charged with murder, as neither of them were not formally lawmen at the time of the shootings. However, a preliminary hearing found them determined that there was not enough evidence to indict and a later Grand Jury also refused to indict.

This did not stop the violence.

Within a few weeks after a Grand Jury refused to indict Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp for murder for the shootings at the O.K. Corral, Virgil Earp was shot and seriously wounded and Morgan Earp was murdered.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and other friends retaliated. For three weeks, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and other associates tracked down and killed at least three men who the Earp group felt to be responsible for the attacks on the two brothers.

Doc Holliday and Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Doc Holliday fled to Colorado after the vendetta, ultimately spending two weeks in jail in Denver in 1882 before the state refused to extradite him to Arizona for the vendetta murders. He spent the rest of his life in Colorado, living for a time in Leadville and then moving to Glenwood Springs in May, 1887.

Known by the Ute Indians for its curative powers long before it was discovered by Captain Richard Sopris in 1860, the Springs in Glenwood attracted Holliday, hoping for a reprieve in his worsening battle with tuberculosis. It was too late. Doc Holliday died, in bed rather than through a gunfight, on November 8, 1887.

Doc Holliday Mysteries

Was Big Nose Kate with Holliday when he died? Legend has is that she was.

While Big Nose Kate was in Colorado between 1882 and 1888, no evidence exists that they were living together. In addition, Holliday had thrown Kate out back in 1881 when they were living together in Tombstone, leading to some serious consequences.

On March 15, 1881, a stagecoach was robbed and two men were killed. Finding Kate in the middle of a binge, some men in the Cowboy faction encouraged her to drink more and then talked her into signing an affidavit saying that Doc Holliday was not only one of the robbers, Holliday also had shot one of the men who was killed.

Doc Holliday was arrested. When Kate sobered up, she took back her statement and Holliday was released from jail. He gave her some money and sent her on her way on a stagecoach leaving Tombstone.

On the other hand, there are accounts that Holiday wrote Kate and asked her to go with him to Glenwood Springs...

Where is Doc Holliday buried? There is a monument with his name on it at Pioneer Cemetery in Glenwood Springs that was erected in 1955. But is he really buried there?

One story is that a collection was taken up and Holliday was buried in the cemetery in a now unknown location. However, the ground may very well have been frozen over in November, making it difficult to pull his coffin up the icy hill, let alone digging a deep hole in the ground. In this legend, Holiday was buried temporarily until the ground thawed in the spring, only to have the exact location of his remains “lost,” possibly due to mudslides. Others claim he was actually buried in Georgia.

Why all of the confusion? Doc Holliday was not famous at the time. He was just another tuberculor, broke, gambler-gunfighter who hoped to regain his health at the Springs. It was not until the early 20th century when the Wild West was gone that Doc Holliday became well known.

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