Lecture Date: March 19, 2026
The Synergy Periodontics and Implants Lecture
The shootout at Tombstone, Arizona’s O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881 has been worked to the point of exhaustion in the literature and filmography of the Wild West, but historian (and 2025 Great Lives lecturer) Mark Lee Gardner adds small details that make the narrative subtler. “The street fight, as it was called at the time, had lasted no more than thirty seconds,” Gardner writes, and while only 25 or 30 shots were fired, three men who would be remembered as desperados died, while Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday would be celebrated in Western mythology. But, as Gardner notes, the truth of the matter was more complex. His revealing account adds shades of gray to black-and-white legends of the Wild West.
Speaker: Mark Lee Gardner
Mark Lee Gardner is a recipient of the Frank Waters Award for Literary Excellence. His bestselling books include Rough Riders, To Hell on a Fast Horse, and Shot All to Hell, which received multiple awards, including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America. His expertise as an authority on the American West has led to appearances on PBS’s American Experience, the History Channel, AMC, the Travel Channel, and on NPR. In addition to his several books, he’s written for National Geographic History, American Heritage, the Los Angeles Times, True West, and American Cowboy. A native of Missouri, he holds an MA in American Studies from the University of Wyoming and lives with his family at the foot of Pikes Peak. Gardner’s previous Great Lives lecture on Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull occurred in 2025.