Historic Tucson Station: Where Wyatt and Doc Shot Frank Stilwell

 

With Virgil still recovering from his serious wounds and Morgan's body barely cold, on March 19, 1881, Wyatt Earp, brother James, Doc Holliday, and a posse of their allies took Morgan's corpse to Contention to be sent by train to Colton, California. There, the Earp brothers' family compound awaited, headed by their parents, Nicholas and Virginia. James Earp accompanied the body. Louisa Earp, Morgan's frail, rheumatic young widow, had already gone to Colton for safety. 

The following day, Wyatt and company headed to the train station in Benson, southeast of Tucson, to put Virgil and his wife Allie on a train to Colton. Along the way they learned that Ike Clanton, Frank Stilwell, and a couple of other members of the cowboy faction were monitoring the trains in Tucson - where the train from Benson would be stopping. Although Stilwell had verifiable business in Tucson, their presence at the train station and their behavior while there made it clear they were planning to ambush Virgil and finish what they'd tried to do on December 28th, not even three months before. 

Wyatt, now concerned he was about to lose another brother, boarded the train with Virgil and Allie. His friends and posse accompanied him, with Doc Holliday carrying two double-barreled shotguns. On arrival at the Tucson Station, Doc disembarked with guns in hand - where he was promptly met by Deputy U. S. Marshall J. W. Evans, who convinced Doc to check the guns at the station. Evans, however, provided additional protection by his presence. 

The original Tucson Station, built in 1880. 

Wyatt, Doc, Virgil, Allie, and the posse including brother Warren Earp, Sherman McMasters, and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, had a short layover in Tucson. They enjoyed dinner at the adjacent hotel, Porter's, and then escorted Virgil and Allie back to the train to re-board. The station released the shotguns to Sherman McMasters. 

Antique railroad car at Tucson Station, 2022. Marcy J. Miller photo.

Word got to the group that two men were seen lying on a flatcar towards the train's engine. Wyatt, armed with one of the shotguns, detrained and made his way to the flatcar in the darkness. As he approached, followed by Doc, Warren, McMasters, and Turkey Creek Jack, two men made a break from the flatcar and tried to flee. One of them - perpetual nuisance Ike Clanton - successfully got away into the night, but the other - a terrified Frank Stilwell, one of the gang who'd conspired to kill Morgan - found himself at the end of Wyatt's shotgun. 

By some accounts, such as retold in Tom Clavin's Tombstone, a desperate, shaking Stilwell grabbed at the shotgun barrels, and Earp reacted by jerking the trigger. When Stilwell's body was found after sunrise, it was full of not just buckshot but bullets as well, thoroughly shot up by various weapons. It's assumed everyone in the posse wanted to vent a bit on Stilwell by ventilating his corpse. As luck would have it, Tucson was in the midst of celebration over newly-installed gaslights, and those who heard gunshots attributed them to the celebration. 

The actual inquest into Stilwell's death, though, offered a different perspective. Several eyewitnesses were aware at the time that violence was imminent, and even the engineer on the outbound train, R. E. Mellis, witnessed the flashes from the very audible gunshots and saw a group of four men standing where the shooting occurred. For whatever reason, though, the body wasn't found until the next morning.

The attending physician who examined the body, Dr. Dexter Lyford, testified at the inquest that one charge of buckshot, fired from close range, struck Stilwell's liver, abdomen, and stomach; a rifle ball entered at the armpit and passed through the upper portion of the lung; another ball passed through the upper left arm; a second charge of buckshot struck and fractured the left leg; and finally, a rifle ball went through the right leg. Two of the wounds were deemed fatal by Dr. Lyford.

Lifesize bronze of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, Tucson Station. Marcy J. Miller photo.

Earp and his cohorts, knowing a posse would soon be pursuing their own posse, walked on foot to a station about twelve miles outside of Tucson. Look for "Papago Station" on Google maps and you'll find nothing; other map sites take you to an incorrect site alongside the tracks northwest of Tucson, north of Tangerine Road; but newspapers of the 1880s describe it as 12 miles east of town. Logically, it would be along the tracks heading southeast from Tucson to Benson. That stage station was also known as "Aguirre's Station," and in 1884 Aguirre moved it two miles west (closer to Tucson). Regardless of the exact location, from that station the men hitched a ride on a freight train back to Benson, where they recovered their horses and continued on their way.

Tucson Amtrak Station, 2022. Marcy J. Miller photo.

The site of the shooting of Frank Stilwell is located at 400 N. Toole Avenue in downtown Tucson, but the depot the Earps strode through on their path of vengeance is not the one you'll see today. The original building, built in 1880, showed its age by the turn of the century. In December, 1906, L. Zeckendorf sold a city block bounded by Stone Avenue, Franklin Street, Ninth Avenue, and Sixth Street, to Southern Pacific Company for $11,500. There, construction began on a new 2,964 square foot brick depot, measuring 38 feet wide by 178 feet long. By July, 1907, the Tucson Daily Star headlined an article with, "Freight Yards and New Depot Very Complete." On August 22, 1907, the Tucson Citizen reported that the transfer to the new depot was now complete as Resident Engineer Bordwell's office had been moved the day before. The old building had served for 27 years. (Coincidentally, the day ticket agent at the new depot in 1907 was named Maurice Holliday.)

The 1907 stucco Spanish-revival building remains intact today. To commemorate the Earp / Stilwell incident, a life-size sculpture of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday was commissioned of Tucson sculptor Dan Bates and installed in 2005. Within the building is the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum; admission to the museum is free, but - like much of southern Arizona - it is closed on Mondays. Outside, you can see an original steam engine, complete with quite happy railroad cats-in-residence. 

One of the resident cats at the Tucson Amtrak Station on Toole. Marcy J. Miller photo.

Steam engine on display at Tucson Amtrak Station. Marcy J. Miller photos.

Sadly, the Stilwell shooting was not the last law enforcement-involved shooting at the site. In 2021, DEA Special Agent Mike Garbo was fatally shot during a contact with a passenger carrying bulk marijuana on a double-decker Amtrak train. Two other officers, one a fellow DEA Special Agent and one from Tucson Police Department, were wounded in the gun battle. The suspect was shot and killed. Rest In Peace, Agent Garbo. Agent Garbo had served the DEA for sixteen years.  End of watch October 4, 2021.

Copyright (c) 2022 Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content may be used or reproduced without the express permission of the author * Sharing this link, however, would be greatly appreciated * Thank you for visiting, sharing, and otherwise helping grow my readership