Original Corral Office

This stop is the original corral office. The two-story building was the main office of the O.K. Corral, Livery and Feed Stable.

John Montgomery, known as “Honest John,” and Edward Monroe Benson opened the business in February 1879, when Tombstone was a tent city of about 500 people. Montgomery used the name “O.K. Corral, Livery and Feed Stable,” and he wrote “O.K.” with periods on the corral’s signs. In 1882 Benson sold his share to Montgomery. Montgomery ran the corral until his death in 1917.

A Tombstone corral did the work of a parking garage and a rental barn. You could leave a horse or a buggy while you were in town, or rent a horse, a fancy buggy, or a work wagon. The office is where that business was kept. The second floor was sleeping quarters for stage drivers. The stage trip to Tucson was about 65 miles, took about 10 hours, and cost $4 to $7. The best-known coach out of Tombstone was the 20-passenger Modoc, pulled by six horses or mules. The Modoc was held up more often than any other stagecoach, and three of its drivers were shot during robberies.

Two men were shot at the corral years after the famous gunfight. On December 30, 1890, Dan Shanklin shot Dr. George Willis while Willis sat in his buggy in the corral. Willis kept an office inside the corral. Shanklin claimed Willis owed him money. Willis was hit in the groin, and he died of the wounds.

On July 1, 1897, William Greene shot and killed James Burnett at the corral. Someone had dynamited a dam on Greene’s ranch, and the water that followed drowned Greene’s young daughter. Greene blamed Burnett, a neighboring rancher, after the two had been arguing over water rights. Burnett had come to see John Montgomery and was at the corral office. Greene, who had left his horse and buggy at the corral, returned and shot him. Greene then said, “Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.” A jury later found him not guilty of murder.

The office museum also takes up Dr. Goodfellow, Tombstone’s gunshot surgeon. After the gunfight of October 26, 1881, he treated Virgil and Morgan Earp. That treatment was not in this office. Dr. Willis was the physician who kept an office inside the corral.

A map in the office shows that the corral originally ran all the way through from Allen Street to Fremont Street, so a customer could enter from either street. That alley was the path the cowboys took on October 26, 1881, on their way to the vacant lot beside C.S. Fly’s boarding house and photography studio. The gunfight did not take place inside the corral. At the time, the O.K. Corral was one of seven liveries in Tombstone. The whole corral was destroyed in the fire of May 25, 1882, with much of the town’s western business district, and Montgomery rebuilt it. The fight itself is told on the history page.

This stop is marked on the O.K. Corral Guide Map. The other stops are listed on the Exhibits page.