Tombstone, notorious for its rowdy, mining- camp reputation during its heyday, had such honky-tonk establishments as the Bird Cage Theater, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental Saloon. The town of San Bernardino, a supply center for the gold mining ventures at Holcomb Valley during the 1860s, was noted during the same time period for its Whiskey Point at Third and D Streets - so named for hosting saloons at each corner.
While Tombstone, with its thriving Chinatown, was infamously remembered for its prostitution district, San Bernardino's red-light district on D Street just below the city limits was pretty darn notorious, too.
San Bernardino also had a flourishing Chinatown along Third Street between Arrowhead Avenue and Sierra Way.
Tombstone was best known for its tough reputation with outlaws such as the Clantons, the McLaurys, Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius.
To protect the town's citizens, there were such well-known names as
San Bernardino also had its outlaw element - Hell Roaring Johnson, the Mason-Henry Gang, the Button Gang, and the El Monte Boys. Its townsfolk were protected by men like Ben Mathews, Rube Herring, John Ralphs - and, for a short time, the Earp boys.
San Bernardino County's unique bond with Tombstone gets even more interesting.
Richard Gird teamed up with the Schieffellin brothers in 1878 to lay the foundation of Tombstone. Several years later, he moved to San Bernardino County and helped put the city of Chino on the map.
Indian agent John P. Clum, who became mayor of the famed "Town Too Tough to Die" as well as the first editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, eventually moved on to the city of San Bernardino in 1886, where he busily engaged in the real- estate and insurance business.
The Frinks were prominent early San Bernardino Valley residents. George Frink later became a stage-coach driver in and around Tombstone.
There was even a San Bernardino Ranch in southeastern Arizona.
The most interesting twist of all is that the Earps and the Clantons may have known each other long before the two names would become immortalized together in history at the O.K. Corral.
Upon arriving in San Bernardino after a seven-month-long wagon trek from the Midwest in December 1864, Nick Earp and his family (including 16-year-old Wyatt) rented a farm from a rancher named Carpenter a short distance from the Santa Ana River in what is now part of Redlands. They were to roost there for the next three years.
Meanwhile, Newman "Old Man" Clanton and his crew moved around Southern California. According to the memoirs of San Bernardino Valley pioneer William Frink, the Clantons settled in for a spell as tenant farmers in nearby San Timoteo Canyon sometime between 1865 and 1867.
Frink recalled that brother George attended San Timoteo School with one of the Clantons and ended up driving stages between Tombstone and Benson. Therefore, if the information is accurate, he knew the Clantons from both San Bernardino and Tombstone.
In Billy Breakenridge's autobiography "Helldorado", a "Mr. Frink" helped a posse, which included Wyatt and Virgil Earp, chase Apaches in 1881 just before the celebrated shoot-out. If it can be assumed here that George Frink was the "Mr. Frink," then he knew the Earps well too.
To my knowledge, there is still no proof that any of the Earps and Clantons ever actually met during their San Bernardino days. However, since there weren't a whole lot of people living in that part of the valley (there was no Redlands back then) and both clans were farming in close proximity, it is quite possible that some of the families' members crossed paths at one time or another.
Who knows? They all may have been friends at one time. Or just perhaps a longtime family feud reached the boiling point early in the afternoon of Oct. 26, 1881, when gunshots rang out in the vicinity of Third and Fremont streets in Tombstone.
Nicholas R. Cataldo is a local historian. Readers can write to him at The Sun, 2239 Gannett Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407, or via e-mail at yankeenut@excite.com.
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