Howdy Everyone,
I hope you all are having a great summer so far!
For a lot of westerns, there is an easy depiction of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. The good guys have the white hats and the bad guys have the black hats. Sets these two groups far apart as you now expect the guys in the white hats to do good deeds, right wrong and be the hero while the guys in the black hats you expect them to do evil things. It is like a melodrama where the hero comes onto the stage and everyone claps and cheers and when the villain comes on the stage everyone boos and hisses at them.
Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the classic westerns with the white and black hat formula and just saw a melodrama in Cripple Creek Colorado this past weekend where there was a lot of cheering for the hero and booing for the villain. These classic themes in story sets us up to know that good will prevail in the end and that the bad guy will in some way have to answer for all the wickedness they have played part in.
When I was younger, I tried to apply this lens to historical figures and events. The biggest one that comes to mind for me was the famous gunfight in Tombstone Arizona known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral even though it was more so the Gunfight on Fremont Street. For a long time, I took it as gospel truth, that the Earps and Holliday were the good guys and the McLaury's and Clanton's were the bad guys. Now right off, I just have to say it that the Earps and Holliday were wearing black hats and more than likely the McLaury's and Clantons were probably wearing lighter color hats.
My last time in Tombstone Arizona, I noticed a plaque near where the famous gunfight took place that had Frank and Tom McLaury on it. It was a plaque in their memory that was erected by the McLaury family and friends and has a quote "One owes respect to the living, but to the dead, one owes nothing but the truth." This reminded me of the paragraph's in history books that says something about an event where people died but it is strictly that. Not how it is sad those people died, how their families were impacted or expected to survive and so on. From there, I went to a book store and found a book called "Murdered On The Streets Of Tombstone" written by Joyce Aros. Seeing that plaque and reading this book challenged the way I saw the McLaury brothers. Most of what is universally known about the famous gunfight comes from Wyatt Earp's testimony in the case that followed the bloodshed. The famous saying is that history is written by the victor and that proved to be true in this case. Now I am not going into Wyatt's testimony but I do think it is important to really try and view all historical figures and events with a keen eye and try and view them from different perspectives. What I learned about the McLaury's was that they were ranchers and had befriended the Clantons but were not necessarily straight up outlaws as they have been portrayed. That actually on that cold October day, they were in town to make a deal on their beef they would be providing. The Clantons are difficult to find something showing them as a completely innocent party but the McLaury's seem to have both made the wrong friends and been in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is even some evidence showing that the McLaury's were trying to leave town but never got a chance to. Once the gunsmoke settled, they were no longer breathing and were not able to explain their side of the story or defend themselves. They were laid to rest and over the next one hundred years or so, they were branded as common outlaws who got on the wrong side of the Earps and were shot down because of it.
There is debate back and forth on this and so many other things within the gunfight on Fremont street. It is fun to challenge others and to in turn be challenged as well. This kind of out of the box thinking is so important to view historical figures and events to hopefully help us learn and grow as individuals and as a society. It was very eye opening for me to view the McLaury brothers as normal people and not straight up outlaws who would cut you down faster than you could blink. Sometimes the good guys and bad guys are not as cut and dry as we may like to think. Both sides are humans and both sides made mistakes and had their faults. Viewing both sides in this light shows more so a struggle for survival rather than a struggle between right and wrong.
Challenging my historical perspective was great as it gave me an idea for a short story I wrote for the Saddlebag Dispatches Magazine Winter Issue 2023 called "My Friend Tom." In this story, I explore who Tom McLaury was through the eyes of a young boy. This story was recently announced to be a winner of a 2025 Will Rogers Medallion Award. Challenging our historical perspective is a great way to not only grow but to possibly get fresh ideas on topics that have been written about in so many different ways.
Well pardners, that is this months Western Perspective. I hope you all enjoyed this take on historical perspective and I look forward to seeing you all down the trail a ways. Adios! ðŸ¤
