DOC HOLLIDAY’S ENDING! OLD WEST HISTORY!

I’m your huckleberry! Doc Holliday is one of the most well-known figures from Old West, immortalized for fighting alongside the Earp brothers in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He was one of the best gamblers and gunslingers that the world has ever known. Many know about his bout with tuberculosis which tormented him, but few know the story about the end of his life and his final resting place. This video isn’t a documentary about his life, it is about his ending. I’ll tell you the story while showing you the amazing scenery of where Doc Holliday left this world. Like many other famous people, the story of his end is filled with controversy and mystery. 

Recently we visited the grave of Doc Holliday, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and I wanted to show you the sights, and share the story with all of you. At Family Tree Nuts, we build family trees for clients that either don’t know how, don’t have the time, or don’t want to pay those expensive membership fees. We’d love to honor your ancestors for you. We also make history videos all over the United States, and a few countries, so if you like videos like these, be sure to subscribe to our channel.

Now back to Doc Holliday. John Henry Holliday was born on 14 August 1851, in Griffin, Spaulding County, Georgia, to Henry Burroughs Holliday and Alice Jane McKey. In 1864, the family moved to Valdosta, Georgia and his father was soon elected mayor. His mother suffered with tuberculosis and died in 1866, when Doc was fifteen-years-old. It is thought that Doc contracted the terrible disease from his mother. At age twenty, he graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

There are a lot of stories or rumors about why Doc moved west but it is commonly accepted that he did to be in the dry climate that was thought to help with his tuberculosis. He traveled all over the west as a drifter, mostly working as a very successful gambler. He often crossed paths with the Earp brothers with whom he became like family. What he is most famous for is standing with the three Earp brothers in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, in Tombstone, Arizona on 26 October 1881. After this famous event, Doc continued to drift and have many adventures. 

Six and a half years after the famous gunfight Doc moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, in May of 1887. He was then in advanced stages of tuberculosis and came to take the mineral waters and vapors of the hot springs in the area. Ironically, the sulfuric fumes from the springs made his illness much worse. Holliday spent the last few weeks of his life in a coma at his room at the Hotel Glenwood. He came out of his coma soon before he died, and on 8 November 1887, he asked his nurse for a shot of whiskey. The nurse wouldn’t give to him. He looked down at his feet and saw that he didn’t have his boots on, and said “this is funny”, and died. He always thought that he would die in a gunfight with his boots on.

After Doc’s funeral, he was taken to Linwood Cemetery, also known as the Pioneer Cemetery, Hill Cemetery, Glenwood Cemetery, and Doc Holliday’s Cemetery. The cemetery was named Linwood since it was founded in 1886, but no one knows where it got it’s name. The cemetery was originally at the bottom of the hill near the buildings of the town but soon after its inception, local doctors voiced concern about the bodies contaminating the water flow of the area. In 1887, the cemetery was moved to its current location on top of the hill. It is a pretty steep hike, and the high elevation could make it difficult for many to traverse. 

No one knows where in the cemetery he is because he was buried in an unmarked grave. He was said to be destitute at the time of this death and may have been buried in the potters field with a wooden headstone that has deteriorated long ago. One story states that the day of his funeral it rained like crazy. The hearse couldn’t make it up the muddy hill, so they buried him at the base of it, and he was never moved to the top. Another rumor states that his father, Mayor Holliday had Doc exhumed and moved to a family plot in an unmarked grave, in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Griffin, Georgia. It is unlikely that we will ever know the true burial spot of Doc Holliday. 

Also buried in this cemetery is Harvey Alexander Logan, known as “Kid Curry”. Kid Curry was an outlaw who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Wild Bunch and was said to be the wildest of the Wild Bunch. Supposedly he killed at least nine lawmen. One day after being wounded in a shootout, Curry is said to have shot himself in the head to avoid capture. Some say the body found was the wrong man and Kid Curry escaped to South America with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

The Hotel Glenwood, the location where Doc died, burned in 1945, and in its spot is a store called “Bullocks”, that sells western wear. Here you can get your Doc Holliday souvenirs at the very spot on earth where he took his last breath. You can also visit the “Doc Holliday Tavern” that displays many things dedicated to him. The wooden bar was brought here from a saloon in Leadville, Colorado that stood at the time that Doc lived there. Legend has it that Doc had many drinks here and you can too. 

Doc’s friend Wyatt Earp said, “Doc was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean, ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew”. 

So now we know the story of the end of life and burial of Doc Holliday. What do you think? Did you know that this historical treasure existed? What are your thoughts about him and his final resting place? Have you ever been here, or do you now plan to visit? We’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments below. We are proud to share this Doc Holliday story with all of you. Be sure to see the video from here below.

-Col. Russ Carson, Jr., Founder, Family Tree Nuts