Seventeen years after surviving the famous O.K. Corral gunfight, former Tombstone lawman Virgil Earp embarked on a very different chapter of his life. In 1898, Earp claimed 160 acres of land near Prescott, Arizona, under the federal homesteading system. Because of his previous service in the Union Army during the Civil War, he was eligible to complete the homesteading requirements in just two years, earning title to the property in 1900. According to the National Park Service, Earp’s later years marked a transition from frontier lawman and Civil War veteran to Arizona homesteader.
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