The famous gunfight took place on October 26, 1881 between the town's top lawman, or marshal, and his deputies on one side and an outlaw group called the Cowboys on the other. Stories from people who saw the fight led to newspaper reports, more stories, books, and later, movies and television shows.

This program took place in the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, one of the Old West 's most notorious towns and the site of the shootout known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Located south of Tucson, Tombstone was then known by the sobriquet "the town too tough to die".