Wyatt Earp was born in Illinois March 19, 1848. In 1864 he came west with his family, settling near San Bernardino. He later served as lawman in Wichita and Dodge City, then came to Tombstone in 1879. After the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881, he fled Arizona to avoid prosecution. He frequented the western boom camps, including Alaska, and in later years retired on income from Kern County Oil and the Happy Day Gold Mine group in the nearby Whipple Mountains. He and his wife Josephine spent their winters here for over two decades. He died peacefully in Los Angles January 13, 1929. soon after, this little community, formerly Drennan, was renamed in his honor when Earp Post Office was established in 1930. He is buried next to his wife, who died in 1944, in Colma, California.