Very few events in the annals of the Old West have been more portrayed in movies and publications, and documented then the "The Fight at The OK Corral", the famous gunfight between the Earp Brothers, Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday and the Clanton Brothers, Billy Clairborne and the McLaury Brothers on October 26, 1881. A bit of a feud had developed between the loosely considered lawmen and the gang of outlaws who were members of a gang in the tombstone area known as "The Cowboys". As the story goes the Earps and Doc Holliday were going to the OK Corral to disarm the gang, who were carrying guns, which was against the law in Tombstone at the time. The Earps and Doc Holliday confronted the gang near the OK Corral on Fremont Street by Fly's Photography Gallery and the Harwood House and the rest is history. At the time of the shootout there were a couple of gun stores in Tombstone. One was owned by Samuel L. Hart, which was on Fremont Street across from the OK Corral and the other was owned by George Spangenberg. Hart ran his shop in Tombstone from about 1880 to 1890 and also did Gunsmithing. Hart was a Civil War veteran having been a Captain in the Wisconsin Infantry. The guns that Hart worked on he marked with the initials "SL" over a heart. Little is known about Spangenberg prior to the gunfight, but reportedly Spangenberg sold a pistol and ammunition to one of the Clanton brothers the morning of the gunfight as well as pistol and shotgun ammunition to Wyatt and Virgil Earp the same morning. One can only speculate that if the three would have been in Spangenbergs store at the same time, the events of that day may have been quite different. Some time after the shootout Spangenberg closed his gun shop in Tombstone and went to work for a mining company around Ray and Hayden, South of Tucson, Arizona. It seems that he had made a few enemies, either over the O.K. Corral or in a business deal in the mine. One night in a bar Spangenberg was threatened by a man, but because of the possibility of innocent people being hurt nothing became of the threat. However a few days later the man and three of his friends went to where Spangenberg was working and were told that he was in a tool shed. The men went there and not wanting to face the four men outside Spangenberg told them to come in and get him. Three of the men entered and were killed by Spangenberg and the fourth was killed outside. Thinking the men may have friends, Spangenberg quickly rode to the stage station bought a ticket and made a hasty departure as 2 men arrived at the station as the stage was leaving. Reporting in his haste, Spangenberg dropped his Winchester 1876 rifle, one of the men after him picked it up and when he found out it was Spangenberg's he proceeded to beat the rifle on a wagon wheel and put it in the spokes as it rode away twisting the barrel off. Accompanying this revolver is an article on the "Spangenberg" Tombstone Gunsmith. February 1976, by Carlos D. Critser who encountered the remains of the gun at an acquaintances "Hobby & Gun Shop" in a small town of Thatcher. The cartridge elevator is reportedly marked "Spangenberg Tombstone, A.T.". This particular revolver was manufactured in 1884 and was originally shipped to the U.S. Government Inspector at the Colt factory on October 30, 1884. The accompanying factory letter verifies the caliber, 7 1/2" barrel, blue finish and wood grips at time of shipping. Information provided by the consignor states that this revolver was brought to the Wilson Farm in Dryden, New York, (near Syracuse) by Wallace Haviland around 1898. Haviland worked on the farm and the following year he left, returned about a year later with the Colt and Holster, saying that he had been driving a stagecoach in Arizona. He left a few weeks later leaving the Colt, and was never heard from again. The story goes that the revolver hung in the holster, on a nail in a bunkhouse until 1965, when it was acquired by a gentleman by the name of Al Atterbury, who cleaned the gun up and found that it still had one round in the cylinder. That round also accompanies this revolver. Mr. Haviland was reportedly a gentleman who never drank or swore. Rumor had it that he was hung in a Federal Prison in the Arizona Territory in 1898 or 99, however a search by the Arizona department of corrections has no record of that event occurring, so the whereabouts of Mr. Haviland after he left Dryden, N.Y, remains a mystery. Mr Atterbury heavily researched this revolver and even took a trip to Tombstone, Arizona as part of his research. He had an illustrated article published in "The Gun Report", December, 1974 entitled "An Historic Search For The Tombstone Colt". All of his research, which includes numerous letters of correspondence, including a Kopec letter, photographs, copy of the December, 1974 The Gun Report, factory letter, Samuel Hart's military records, Boothill Grave Yard descriptive list of graves and articles accompany the revolver. There is also a Tombstone Epitaph National Edition, O.K. Corral Gunfight Centennial Edition included which has numerous articles and photographs covering the shoot out and events after. This revolver currently has a 5" barrel which is marked with the one line address on top, the three line, three patent date marking is on the left side of the frame followed by "U.S.". Two "SL" over heart markings are stamped directly over the "US" marking, (one double stamped). The marking that Samuel L. Hart put on guns that he worked on. There are reportedly only several Colts known with the Samuel L. Hart markings on them. The bottom of the barrel is marked with a "P" and "D.F.C." the inspection mark of David F. Clark. The cylinder is numbered "2050" and has the "P" and "D.F.C." inspection marks. "D.F.C." is also marked on the bottom of the frame above the serial number. Directly below the serial number on the trigger guard and below the back strap serial number is the letter "G", the inspection mark of Captain John E. Greer. The barrel is fitted with a brass blade front sight, and the ejector rod has the correct round, "bulls-eye" head. The matching serial number is marked on the bottom of the frame, trigger guard and back strap, and the loading gate is marked with the assembly number "514". The revolver is fitted with checkered hard rubber Rampant Colt/American Eagle relief grips. The holster is constructed of one piece medium weight dark russet leather with sewn main seam extending through the blunt toe with a integral single loop. The upper front has the partially visible stamp ""SPANG / GUNS / TOMBS" in a box, which if visible would read "SPANGENBERG / GUNSMITH / TOMBSTONE AT". Next to the loop is stamped "80".