Wyatt Erp Digging For Gold In Alaska

When we went by the Red Onion Saloon in Skagway, Alaska, we either read or the driver told us that Wyatt Erp's gun is hanging in the wall in the Red Onion.  The legend is that he came into town and the sheriff collected his gun, telling him he would return it when he left town.  It was also said that Wyatt and the sheriff shared a bitter history.

The next morning Wyatt had to move on and he could not find the sheriff to get his gun, so he left anyway.

That may or may not be true.

I Googled Wyatt Erp in Alaska and read that he was in Skagway and other Alaska gold miners active towns.

This is what one Google report said:

"Wyatt Earp is probably the best known of Nome’s early residents, based on his notoriety for the “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” which has been immortalized in several books and movies. Earp grew up in rural Illinois, but filled the rest of his life with excitement, first on the Western Frontier, then in the Arctic. Earp and his wife, Josephine, ran the Dexter Saloon (not to be confused with the Dexter Roadhouses along the Iditarod trail) during summers in Nome, but spent their winters outside Alaska. Wyatt made no secret that he was there to “mine the miners,” and left for good after a few seasons with a reported $80,000. Today, Nome City Hall is on the spot where the Dexter Saloon once made its home as the “only second class saloon in Alaska.”"

Sign in Red Onion Saloon's window