The Gathering – 1883

Some say this is the most unique picture ever taken.

In this photo are some of the most iconic and notorious Lawmen and Outlaws of the American West. If it seems unbelievable that they could have been in the same place at the same time for this photo, that’s because it is.

Here are some facts:

• Wyatt Earp 1848 – 1929: Lawman involved in the famous gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881.
• Morgan Earp 1851 – 1882: Brother of Wyatt and also a lawman. Was with Wyatt at the OK Corral. Though he survived that incident and an ambush in 1882, he was shot while playing billiards on March 18th, 1882.
• Doc Holliday 1851 – 1887: While not a lawman, Holiday was a friend of Wyatt Earp and assisted him at the OK Corral. Holiday was a gambler, gunfighter, and dentist. Despite his reckless ways, he died of tuberculosis in bed with his boots off in Glenwood Springs Colorado.
• Teddy Rosevelt Unknown: While Teddy Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) was alive in 1883 and president of the US from 1901 – 1909, he was a New York State Assemblyman, historian, and writer at the time of this photo. He didn’t leave for his adventures in the Dakotas until the death of his mother and wife in 1884. But Teddy Rosevelt is in this photo and I can’t find anything on him.
• Liver-Eating Johnson 1824 – 1900: A naval man turned gold miner turned wood hawk, Johnson was about the right age in 1883 to have a big white beard, but he was, “described as a large man, standing around six feet tall and weighing over two hundred pounds.” So this doesn’t appear to be him.
• Butch Cassidy 1866 – ??? : Robert LeRoy Parker would have been just 17 in this photo. Which is vaguely plausible. Though he later became a notorious outlaw, it wasn’t until after about 1889 that he assisted in robbing the San Miguel Bank in Telluride, CO.
• Sundance Kid 1867 – ???: Harry Alonzo Longbaugh was only 16 in 1883 and not known to have met Butch Cassidy until after Cassidy was released from prison in 1896.
• Bat Masterson 1853 – 1921: Buffalo Hunter, U.S. Marshall and Army Scout, Masterson served with Wyatt Earp in Kansas. Masterson was in Dodge City, Kansas during 1883 for the Dodge City War, so it is unlikely he was in Montana for this photograph.
• Harry Britton: Unknown. He very well could have been there.
• Judge Roy Bean 1825 – 1903: The Hanging judge of Val Verde, Texas, Bean was as notorious a lawman as the worst outlaws. While he was a judge in Texas in 1883, it’s possible he could have made a quick trip to Montana.
• Ben Greenough: Unknown

I say this photo is fake, more specifically, that the handwritten caption is fake.