Earp’s Last Frontier is a great little book that covers time spent in Nevada by any of the Earp family, though focusing primarily on Wyatt, and secondarily on Virgil. Jeffrey Kintop and Guy Rocha do a great job of painting the Nevada picture without being overly blustery or trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. For the casual fan who is rabidly eating up history books covering the gunfight in Tombstone may be underwhelmed, but for the in-depth enthusiast, this book really gives a good insight to the years after Alaska and before the California wind down.
The authors provide dates and sources for what is provable, and offer thoughts on the various anecdotes that always abound in the wake of Wyatt’s stroll. One of the things I appreciated was the books thoroughness when it came to these musings. As I always say, I can’t stand when an author merely states that a false story circulated here or there, and then without recounting, just dismisses it. Kintop and Rocha mention the asides, fill you in on what was said, and then offer the origins of these stories, while offering thoughts their swaying towards the veracity of each item. This treats the reader with a little more intelligence, allowing them to digest everything there is and to ponder it themselves, as opposed to the patronizing practice of saying things like “Someone said a gunfight happened here, but we (the authors) disagree, so we won’t include it.”
There were a couple moments where I felt that their chronology jumped around and I had to glance back to see where in the timeline we were, but this was probably the biggest of issues I had with the book, and it’s a pretty minor one at that.
Last Frontier doesn’t just focus on the mining years. Though done briefly, the times previous to the mining years of 1902-1905 are also covered, such as the boxing match in Carson, or of the stop-over in Austin, though there could have been a little more time given to these occasions.
It’s a short read, but if you’re trying to put together a library that covers Wyatt’s life in full, then pick this one up and add it to your shelf.
Handy With A Gun...! 