Step Inside the Tiny Missouri Town Where Wyatt Earp Began

Wyatt Earp will forever be known for his days as a lawman in Dodge City and Tombstone, but his law career and legend were born in a tiny Missouri town that continues to tell his story today.

This is the Wyatt Earp that most people identify with thanks to the famous western Tombstone

Read More: Wyatt Earp's Tomb and his First Wife's Lonely Missouri Grave

Wyatt Earp was a much more complicated man than the movies and books portrayed him as. He and his wife settled in Lamar where he became the town constable, but she tragically passed while with child shortly after. True West Magazine suggests it was during childbirth and may have been due to typhus. His first wife is buried in a small cemetery in Milford, Missouri. There's no way to know for sure, but this brutal early part of Wyatt's life likely led to his tough demeanor and fearlessness as a lawman as he moved west toward Dodge City and eventually the famous gunfight in Tombstone. It's believed that Wyatt's famous friend Doc Holliday had his own historical beginnings in Missouri, too. It's great that little Lamar continues to tell Wyatt's story today since this small Missouri place really is where his captivating story began. And the rest is literally now legend.