Monday, October 26, 2026

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and Doc Holliday's long road back to Colorado

1881 · Tombstone, Arizona Territory (and Denver, Leadville and Glenwood Springs)

On October 26, 1881, Doc Holliday stood with Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp in a Tombstone gunfight that lasted about 30 seconds and left three men dead. What came after played out largely in Colorado: Holliday was arrested in Denver in 1882, lived in Leadville, and died in Glenwood Springs in 1887.

The fight itself happened in Arizona Territory, in a vacant lot near the O.K. Corral. Holliday and the three Earp brothers faced Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne. About 30 seconds later Billy Clanton and both McLaurys were dead and Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded.

Holliday already knew Colorado. He had dealt cards in Denver in 1876, and he came back after Tombstone turned into a feud. In the spring of 1882, after the killings that followed the gunfight, he and Wyatt Earp left Arizona. Holliday was arrested in Denver that May on an Arizona warrant. Colorado's governor, Frederick Pitkin, declined to send him back.

He spent much of the next few years in Leadville and Denver, gambling and losing ground to the tuberculosis that had sent him west in the first place. In 1887 he went to Glenwood Springs for the hot springs. He died there at the Hotel Glenwood on November 8, 1887, at 36. He is buried in Glenwood's Linwood Cemetery, though the records do not show exactly where.

The gunfight made him famous. Colorado is where he spent the rest of his short life.

Sources: Georgia Encyclopedia: John Henry “Doc” Holliday · 9News: On this date in 1887, Doc Holliday died in a Colorado hotel · Britannica: Doc Holliday

Three degrees: the morning after the Blizzard of '97

1997 · Denver

With fresh snow on the ground and clear skies overhead, Denver dropped to 3°F on October 26, 1997, the coldest reading ever recorded on the date.

Two days after the October blizzard began, the clouds cleared and the snowpack did what deep snow does on a still, clear night: it let the heat go. Denver fell to 3°F on the morning of October 26, 1997, which is still the coldest October 26 in the city's records.

The cold kept the 22 inches from melting the way October snow usually does, so the storm hung around for days. Side streets stayed rutted, and the plains east of town stayed buried while ranchers searched for stock.

The record high for the same date is 83°F, set in 1977. Those 80 degrees between the two are the whole range of a Denver October.

Sources: Extreme Weather Watch: Denver October 26 records · NWS Boulder: Denver October extremes

October 26, 2011: eight inches for the season's first snow

2011 · Denver

Denver's snowiest October 26 came in 2011, when the season's first storm dropped 8.0 inches right after a stretch of record warmth. Some northwest suburbs got about 9.

In 2011 Denver went straight from summer to winter. Record heat in the days before gave way to the season's first snowstorm, which started on October 25 and dropped 8.0 inches on October 26, still the most snow on record for the date. The western and northwestern suburbs got as much as 9.

Many trees had not finished dropping their leaves, which is the risky part of an early heavy snow: wet snow piles up on leafy branches until they break, sometimes taking power lines with them.

It was the biggest first snow of a season in Denver for years afterward, and it is still the yardstick people reach for when October snow arrives on top of green trees.

Sources: Extreme Weather Watch: Denver October 26 records · NPR: Season's first big snow hits Denver (Oct. 26, 2011) · Thornton Weather: Denver's first snow