Wyatt Earp’s “North to Alaska” Saloon No Western figure has more engendered more written words than Wyatt Earp. As a result, trying to cover his colorful career in a single post is impossible. Accordingly, this vignette focuses on Earp during the four years he operated a popular saloon in Nome, Alaska, far from Tombstone, Arizona and the gunfight at the OK Corral for which the gunslinger, shown here, is best remembered. Indeed, some have speculated that it was the aftermath of the October 1881 shootout that sent him “north to Alaska,” when he and his brothers were accused of murder. A better explanation is provided by Western historian John Boessenecker: “ For his entire life was a gamble, an effort to make money without working hard for it, to succeed quickly without ever settling in for the long haul.” As Earp himself is quoted saying that he came to Nome “to mine the miners.” After gunfights in Arizona, Earp and his common-law wife, Josephine Sarah Marcus, whom W
