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50 free Wyatt Earp trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Wyatt Earp spent thirty seconds in a vacant lot on Fremont Street in October 1881 and the rest of his life being defined by it. The man behind the legend was a teamster, a faro dealer, a Wells Fargo shotgun messenger, a saloon owner in Nome and a boxing referee whose most famous decision was booed by 15,000 people. This quiz covers the whole arc: the Illinois birthplace, the Peoria arrests, Wichita and Dodge City, the Tombstone years and the vendetta ride, then the long afterlife in San Diego, Alaska and Los Angeles, where his pallbearers included two Hollywood cowboys. Every answer is explained, so you leave knowing why the O.K. Corral hearing mattered and why the 1931 biography changed everything.
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Q 01In which state was Wyatt Earp born in 1848?
Illinois
He was born in Monmouth on March 19, 1848, the fourth child of Nicholas Porter Earp, and was named after his father's commanding officer in the Mexican–American War.
Q 02Wyatt Earp was named after his father's commanding officer in which war?
Mexican–American War
Captain Wyatt Berry Stapp led the 2nd Company, Illinois Mounted Volunteers, and Nicholas Earp passed the whole name on to his son.
Q 03Who was Tombstone's city marshal at the time of the O.K. Corral gunfight?
Virgil Earp
Wyatt is usually cast as the central figure, but his older brother held both the U.S. marshal and city marshal posts and chose to enforce the ordinance against carrying weapons in town.
Q 04What was the loosely organized Arizona outlaw group opposing the Earps called?
The Cowboys
In that region the term meant an outlaw association rather than a cattle hand; legitimate cowmen were called herders or ranchers.
Q 05How many outlaws died in the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral?
Three
Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed; Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran. The whole exchange lasted about 30 seconds.
Q 06Which Kansas cow town did Earp arrive in during 1874, later joining its police force?
Wichita
He officially joined the marshal's office on April 21, 1875 at $100 a month, and dealt faro at the Long Branch Saloon on the side.
Q 07In 1878 Earp went to Texas tracking which outlaw, and met Doc Holliday on the way?
Dave Rudabaugh
Rudabaugh had robbed a Santa Fe Railroad construction camp. At the Bee Hive Saloon in Fort Griffin, Holliday, who played cards with the outlaw, told Earp he was headed back to Kansas.
Q 08What mineral boom drew the Earp brothers to Tombstone in 1879?
Silver
Tombstone had been founded on March 5, 1879 with about 100 people in tents; by the time the Earps arrived on December 1 it already had roughly 1,000 residents.
Q 09Which Earp brother was murdered while playing billiards in March 1882?
Morgan
Gunmen fired through a door window from a dark alley; he died 40 minutes later. The killing triggered the Earp vendetta ride.
Q 10Which of these men was never wounded in any of the Tombstone-era gunfights?
Wyatt Earp
His brothers were shot and Holliday was grazed, but Wyatt walked out of every exchange untouched, a fact that fed his mystique after death.
Q 11Earp's reputation suffered after he refereed an 1896 boxing match between which two fighters?
Fitzsimmons and Sharkey
He called a foul on Fitzsimmons in the eighth round and awarded the bout to Sharkey; 15,000 fans booed and many believed the fight was fixed.
Q 12Earp and Charlie Hoxie opened which saloon during the Nome Gold Rush?
The Dexter
Built in September 1899, it was Nome's first two-story wooden building and its largest saloon, and reportedly earned the partners about $80,000.
Q 13Around 1911 Earp began working mining claims near which California town?
Vidal
The Earps' cottage there was the only home they ever owned; they worked the Happy Days gold mine in the Whipple Mountains and summered in Los Angeles.
Q 21In 1872 a newspaper gave Earp which unflattering nickname after a brothel arrest?
The Peoria Bummer
He had been arrested aboard a floating brothel called the Beardstown Gunboat; the label lumped him with beggars and 'worse-than-tramps'.
Q 22Earp told his biographer he spent the winter of 1871–72 doing what, with no evidence to support it?
Hunting buffalo
Historians think the story conveniently covered the period he was being arrested for pimping in Illinois and Missouri.
Q 23What ended Earp's first Kansas police job in April 1876?
A fist fight with an ex-marshal
Q 14The only film to portray Earp during his lifetime was a 1923 picture about which figure?
Wild Bill Hickok
Despite befriending Hollywood cowboys to get his story told, Earp appeared only briefly as a character in Wild Bill Hickok (1923).
Q 15Who wrote the flattering 1931 bestseller Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal?
Stuart N. Lake
Published two years after Earp died, the book created his reputation as a fearless lawman; his widow Josephine made sure it left out his earlier common-law wife.
Q 16What job did 16-year-old Wyatt help his brother with after the family reached California in 1864?
Stagecoach driving
His brother drove for Phineas Banning's stagecoach line in the Imperial Valley; Wyatt then became a teamster hauling cargo from Wilmington to Salt Lake City.
Q 17Earp learned gambling and boxing while hauling supplies for which railroad in 1868?
Union Pacific
Working the railhead in Wyoming Territory, he also built a reputation officiating boxing matches, a sideline that would haunt him decades later.
Q 18In Lamar, Missouri, Earp took over which office from his father in 1869?
Constable
Nicholas Earp resigned the post on November 17, 1869, and Wyatt was appointed in his place, his first job in law enforcement.
Q 19Earp's first wife, Urilla Sutherland, died of which disease while pregnant?
Typhoid fever
They were married by Wyatt's father in January 1870; her death later that year sent him into a spiral of lawsuits and criminal charges.
Q 20In 1871 Earp was charged with stealing what in the Indian country?
Two horses
Arrested by a deputy U.S. marshal, he posted no bail but sold his property, escaped through the jail roof and fled to Peoria, Illinois.
Bill Smith accused him of using his office to hire his brothers; Earp beat him, was fined $30, and the council voted not to rehire him.
Q 24Which Dakota Territory boomtown did Earp travel to in September 1876, finding all the claims taken?
Deadwood
He stayed the winter anyway, hauling firewood into camp with his horses and clearing about $5,000 in profit before returning to Dodge City.
Q 25In January 1876 Earp's revolver fell from its holster in a Dodge City saloon and did what?
Fired and holed his coat
He had left the hammer resting on a loaded chamber; the .45 round 'got up a lively stampede from the room'.
Q 26Which comedian hit the floor when shots were fired into Dodge City's Comique Theater in 1878?
Eddie Foy
Earp and Bat Masterson fired at the fleeing riders; George Hoyt fell wounded and died weeks later after his leg was amputated.
Q 27Which famous Dodge City lawman helped Earp run faro tables at Tombstone's Oriental Saloon?
Bat Masterson
Owner Milt Joyce had given Earp a quarter-interest in the faro concession in exchange for acting as manager and enforcer.
Q 28Earp was hired in 1880 to guard stagecoach strongboxes for which express company?
Wells Fargo
Agent Fred J. Dodge hired him; he later passed the job to his brother Morgan when he became a deputy sheriff.
Q 29Which outlaw's gun went off while town marshal Fred White tried to disarm him in October 1880?
Curly Bill Brocius
Earp pistol-whipped him on the spot and later testified the shooting was accidental, which helped free him; Brocius became an enemy anyway.
Q 30Who beat Earp to the job of Cochise County sheriff in 1881?
Johnny Behan
Earp testified the two had a deal: he would withdraw if made undersheriff. The appointment went to Harry Woods instead.