One of the TV shows I watched for the past few years was "Hell on Wheels" which was based on the building of the transcontinental railway. One of the characters was named Eva whose life was impacted by tattoos placed on her chin from when she was kidnapped by a Native American tribe when she was a child. The character was likely based on this depiction of Olive Oatman, whose retrobituary is here.

Tags: TV shows, Wild West

I have felt that the movie Tombstone is a really good movie whether it is a decent depiction of Wyatt Earp's life there, or before and after. Certainly Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday stole the movie away. Great job in my opinion. Now back to the real Wyatt Earp. There has been debate over whether Earp was a good man as conventional wisdom likes to portray him or was he not such a good man? Check it out here.

"The history books (and Hollywood) often describe the famous lawman, Wyatt Earp, as many things: brave, courageous, moral, law-abiding, and honorable. In the story of the “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” Earp is often portrayed as the hero, the good guy we all should be rooting for. In truth, Wyatt Earp was a much more complicated individual who, among other things, was arrested several times in his life for various offenses, involved in a few major scandals (sometimes on the “bad guy” side), and otherwise seemed to be an individual who balanced precariously on that line between a life as a criminal and a life as a lawman."

Tags: Wild West