Reel vs. Real: Truth about Wild West often more interesting than fiction

The Wild West. Few things stir the imagination and the romance in the American soul like those words.

Most of us grew up on Western films and TV shows. John Wayne and Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Trigger, Matt Dillon and the Cartwrights.

We saw our past through Hollywood filters, to be sure. A lot of what we think we know of the Old West comes from real incidents splashed on the screen with plenty of dramatic license. The classic John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart film, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," had a line that pretty much summed it up: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

But there was reality. And today marks the anniversary of two of the most famous bits of our Old West history.

The Pony Express has long captivated Americans with tales of the mail riders and their lightning-fast horses carrying important messages and letters from home across the frontier.

The truth is the storied service lasted less than two years, from April 1860 to Oct. 26, 1861, when it fell to the telegraph. It was 155 years ago today that the Pony Express made its last ride. But while the service was short-lived, it made a big impression that continues to this day.

The second anniversary is of an incident that really put the wild in West.

It was Oct. 25, 1881. The place was Tombstone in Arizona Territory, a narrow lot on Fremont Street, a few doors down from the OK Corral.

The Earp Brothers-Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan, along with gambler Doc Holliday faced off against Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne for control of Tombstone.

It lasted about half a minute. And we all know how it turned out. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton were killed.

What most don't know is, despite the West being lawless, the Earps and Holliday were charged with murder for their roles at OK Corral. They were eventually exonerated.

The Old West of movies and TV is a lot of fun. Good guys vs. bad guys, white hats and black hats. But the real West was much more complicated. If you like the reel West, you might just love the real West.

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