Editing Doc Holliday (section)

== Move to New Mexico ==

Holliday developed a reputation for his skill with a gun, as well as with the cards.<ref>{{cite book| editor-last1=Cooper| editor-first1=David K.C.| title=Doctors of Another Calling: Physicians Who are Known Best in Fields Other Than Medicine| date=2013| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield| isbn=978-1611494679| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3NBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA186| access-date=November 19, 2015| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507085414/https://books.google.com/books?id=b3NBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA186| archive-date=May 7, 2016| df=mdy-all}}</ref>{{rp|186}} A few days before Christmas in 1878, Holliday and Horony arrived in [[Las Vegas, New Mexico]].<ref name=monahan>{{cite book | title=Mrs. Earp | first= Sherry |last=Monahan |year=2013 |publisher=TwoDot |edition=First |asin= B00I1LVKYA}}</ref>{{rp|18}}<ref name=guinn>{{cite book| last=Guinn| first=Jeff| title=The Last Gunfight: the Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How it Changed the American West| publisher=Simon & Schuster| location=New York| isbn=978-1439154243| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X9EW56sZp5MC| edition=1st Simon & Schuster hardcover| date=May 17, 2011| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424190210/https://books.google.com/books?id=X9EW56sZp5MC| archive-date=April 24, 2016| df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="marks">{{cite book |last=Marks |first=Paula Mitchell |title=And Die in the West: the Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight |url={{Google books|lvPuSN--cGYC|plainurl=y}} |location=New York |publisher=Morrow |year=1989 |isbn=0671706144}}</ref>{{rp|30–31}} The 22 hot springs near the town were favored by individuals with tuberculosis for their alleged healing properties. Doc opened a dental practice and continued gambling as well, but the winter was unseasonably cold and business was slow. The New Mexico Territorial Legislature passed a bill banning gambling within the territory with surprising ease. On March 8, 1879, Holliday was indicted for "keeping [a] gaming table" and was fined $25. The ban on gambling combined with extremely low temperatures persuaded him to return to Dodge City for a few months.<ref name="marks"/>

In September 1879, Wyatt Earp resigned as assistant marshal in Dodge City. Accompanied by his common-law wife Mattie Blaylock, his brother Jim, and Jim's wife Bessie, they left for Arizona Territory.<ref name=monahan/>{{rp|18}}<ref name=guinn/><ref name="marks"/>{{rp|30–31}} Holliday and Horony returned to Las Vegas where they met again with the Earps.<ref name=guinn/> The group arrived in Prescott in November.

=== Royal Gorge War ===

In Dodge City, Holliday joined a team being formed by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bat Masterson. Masterson had been asked to prevent an outbreak of guerrilla warfare between the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]] and the [[Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad]] (D&RGW), which were vying to be the first to claim a right-of-way across the [[Royal Gorge]], one of the few natural routes through the Rockies that crossed the [[Continental Divide]]. Both were striving to be the first to provide rail access to the boom town of [[Leadville, Colorado]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesrep16ottogoog ''United States Reports, Supreme Court: Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511131926/https://books.google.com/books?id=QBAGAAAAYAAJ |date=May 11, 2016 }} (October Term, 1878), by William T. Otto, published 1879, from Harvard University</ref> Royal Gorge was a bottleneck along the Arkansas, too narrow for both railroads to pass through, and with no other reasonable access to the South Park area. Doc remained there for about two and a half months. The [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] intervention prompted the so-called "Treaty of Boston" to end the fighting. The D&RGW completed its line and leased it for use by the Santa Fe.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_OXRs_WmAY4C ''A Builder of the West: The Life of General William Jackson Palmer''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503160113/https://books.google.com/books?id=_OXRs_WmAY4C |date=May 3, 2016 }}, by John Stirling Fisher and Chase Mellen, 1981, by Ayer Publishing.</ref> Holliday took home a share of a $10,000 bribe paid by the D&RGW to Masterson to give up their possession of the Santa Fe [[Railway roundhouse|roundhouse]] and returned to Las Vegas where Horony had remained.

=== Builds saloon in Las Vegas ===

The Santa Fe Railroad built tracks to [[Las Vegas, New Mexico]], but bypassed the city by about a mile. A new town was built up near the tracks and prostitution and gambling flourished there. On July 19, 1879, Holliday and [[John Joshua Webb]], former lawman and gunman, were seated in a saloon. Former U.S. Army [[Reconnaissance|scout]] Mike Gordon tried to persuade one of the saloon girls, a former girlfriend, to leave town with him. She refused and Gordon left the building "shouting obscenities", followed by Holliday. Gordon fired a shot at Holliday and subsequently "Gordon died" the day after.<ref name="legends">{{cite web |first=Kathy |last=Weiser |date=March 2010 |url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-JJWebb.html |work=Legends of America |title=John Joshua Webb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060325232427/http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-JJWebb.html |archive-date=March 25, 2006}}</ref> The next day, Holliday paid $372.50 to a carpenter to build a clapboard building to house the Doc Holliday's Saloon with John Webb as his partner. While in town, he was fined twice for keeping a gambling device, and again for carrying a deadly weapon.<ref name=tanner>{{cite book | last=Tanner| first=Karen Holliday |title=Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait| year=1998| publisher=University of Oklahoma Press| location=Norman| isbn=0806130369}}</ref>{{rp|134}}