Gunfighters of the Old West was founded in 1980 in order to perpetuate the traditions and customs of the Old West. Over the past twenty three years, we have made a name for ourselves as one of the premier interpretive organizations on the west coast.
We are, first and foremost, a group with a firm historical basis. If you seek your favorite characters from B Westerns in ridiculous hats and holsters at knee height, you will be better satisfied elsewhere. We seek to portray the American frontier as it was, not through the view of a motion picture producer. The fact is, most of the time, the truth is far more interesting then any episode of Gunsmoke.
Our primary purpose is to engage in accurate and educational living history functions as well as reenactments of momentous events on the western frontier. To that end, the club has developed a number of reenactments, including:
- The Gunfight at the OK Corral: perhaps the best-known armed conflict on the western frontier, pitting Wyatt Earp and Co. against the cowboy contingent of Tombstone, Arizona.
- The Shooting of Mike Williams: As James Butler Hickok known as Wild Bill, faces off with saloon keeper Phil Coe in an attempt to keep order, he accidentally shoots his trusted deputy, Mike Williams.
- The Killing of Ed Masterson: As Ed's light hand with the town's cowboys results in his death, brother Bat extracts revenge on those responsible.
- The Little Lake Vendetta: In central California, the tensions of the Civil War live on, resulting in a bloodbath as war factions rise again in the Coates-Frost Feud.
Our members go to great lengths to ensure that their dress and accouterments are consistent with those to be found on the frontier during the era we portray, circa 1865 to 1890. Most items you will see worn by our members are either authentic to the period or are reproductions of period items. All firearms used are appropriate to the time period.
In addition to presenting a visually accurate image to the public, we also take painstaking care with regard to researching the events we reenact. Nothing we present can be taken as gospel - none of our members were present at the time of the events we portray. As such, we are forced to rely on contemporary sources and secondary works based on those sources. We present our "best guess", which we'd like to think is as close as humanly possible.
As historians revise and discover new details, we attempt to revise in tandem, restructuring our shows to be consistent with the latest in historical research.
Gunfighters of the Old West is a nonprofit educational corporation as defined in Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The club was originally headquartered in Niles, California. Presently, the club is based in historic Fremont, California. Gunfighters of the Old West is affiliated with the American Federation of Old West