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Wyatt Earp's Walking Stick

Currency:USD Category:Western Americana / Collectibles - Old West Start Price:20,000.00 USD Estimated At:30,000.00 - 35,000.00 USD
Wyatt Earp's Walking Stick
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Wyatt Earp’s Walking Stick.
A cane or walking stick, constructed of buffalo bone, with crude folk art carving near the top. Given by Senator George Hearst (father of William Randolph Hearst) to Wyatt Earp as a thank you gift for accompanying and protecting the Senator while on business in Tombstone and other dangerous territory in 1881. Earp’s widow later gifted the walking stick to Stuart Lake. 33” long, excellent condition, shows wear at tip from use.

Accompanied by the original carbon copy of a letter from Stuart Lake to William Randolph Hearst, dated August 31, 1929, detailing Senator Hearst’s travels with Wyatt Earp, and which reads, in part:

“Your father had a walking stick, made of buffalo bone and handcarved by some Indian, which he had carried for several years, ever since it had been given to him by the chief of a tribe – Sioux, I think – during a visit to the Deadwood country… He had this stick in his hand at the time of parting from Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, and as Wyatt, himself, told me on several occasions, insisted that he accept it as a memento of their trip through the Arizona wilderness.

Knowing of the association which the stick represented Wyatt was reluctant to accept the gift, but your father climbed into the Benson stage and left the marshal standing in Allen Street with the stick in his hand. For the next forty-seven years, until his death, Wyatt Earp kept the buffalo-bone cane with him wherever he went, carrying it in the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities when he was in such civilized communities. He showed it to me and told me its story a few weeks before he died. After his death, Mrs. Earp gave the stick to me…”

Provenance: Senator George Hearst; to Wyatt Earp; to Stuart Lake; to current owner.