Legendary lawman Wyatt Earp was born in 1848.
To a great extent, what a man of his day ate depended very much on where he lived.
In towns, there was fresh food like baked goods, beef, and lamb, as well as some preserved
or dried fruits.
Bread was also a staple, whether sourdough or something more elegant.
Today we sometimes refer to the time in which Earp lived as the Wild West.
The name is certainly fitting, at least as regards the availability of life's necessities.
Things many of us take for granted today either had to be carried from place to place or somehow
crafted.
This included clothing, replacement parts for wagons, even replacement animals for the
teams of oxen that were pulling the wagons.
A supply packing list from the era, written by Montana settler James Fergus, illustrates
the day's material requirements.
In addition to clothing, guns, and ammunition, some of the foodstuffs listed were 600 pounds
of flour, 300 pounds of meat, 300 pounds of bacon, and 200 pounds of ham.
Beans, dried fruit, coffee, tea, rice, salt, sugar, and, specifically, raisins were also
mentioned.
Newly established towns, whether trading posts, mining boom towns, or cattle hubs, were opportunities
for a traveller to resupply.
Though some towns thrived, others dried up when the ore ran out, the buffalo were depleted,
or a railroad went out of business.
Cowboys on trail drives saw their meals improve with the introduction of the chuck wagon with
a full-time cook for the trip.
"It sorta goes against my grain.
Can't get full on fancy.
We create food you can eat."
Life in some settlements was primitive, and Wyatt certainly knew this first-hand.
He'd driven wagons cross-country, and he'd worked as a buffalo hunter and army scout.
Professional hunters worked as quickly as possible, so fresh meat would have constituted
a large part of his diet.
Era Army patrols would carry basic food supplies along: bacon, coffee, and hardtack, a kind
of dense cracker that traveled well and had practically no taste.
What a person might find in town varied greatly.
A boom town might offer only basic food and entertainment.
Cattle towns, like Dodge City, Kansas, where Wyatt served as a peace officer, had thriving
business communities, with shopping and medical services, catering to the needs of incoming
cowboys.
Some of the towns prided themselves on mimicking their big-city cousins to the East.
One early dining standout was Delmonico's, a steakhouse in New York City.
Western eateries tried their best to impress by offering dishes like Eggs Benedict or Baked
Alaska.
If you could go back to that time, you'd find restaurants all over the West carrying the
name Delmonico's, not because there was a chain, but because the New York establishment
was associated with sophisticated dining.
One such knock-off was located in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
By the time Earp arrived in Tombstone in 1879, the town had only existed for a few months.
Nevertheless, it was growing in size and cosmopolitan sophistication.
"This is so much fun.
We haven't been to the show since years."
Wyatt Earp and his common-law wife Mattie Blaylock, lived in Tombstone hotels for at
least part of their time in town.
It's likely that Wyatt, a successful gambler, probably ate out for most of his meals.
Tombstone prided itself on offering remarkably diverse fare.
Cowboy Ike Clanton even dabbled in the restaurant business for a time, opening an eatery of
his own in 1878 in nearby Tombstone Mills.
Most of Tombstone's cafes and restaurants had sophisticated cuisine, often dismissing
regional ethnic fare as peasant food, though it was usually still available.
Tombstone's Grand Hotel, for instance, offered such delights as salmon, gumbo, and various
fruit pies for dessert.
Wyatt could have enjoyed a fresh steak most any time, but Tombstone also offered up such
delicacies as oysters, shipped in from the coast.
There was also Chinese, French, and Italian restaurants, and home-cooking spots for simpler
meals.
There was also an abundance of saloons, of course, though Wyatt didn't drink.
We do know for certain that he enjoyed one treat regularly: Ice cream.
Earp made frequent stops at Tombstone's ice cream parlor, the Ice Cream Saloon.
In fact, the Earps and their friend Doc Holliday would have passed it on their way to their
legendary gunfight near the O.K. Corral.
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