Award Winning Author Mark Warren's Helldorado Lectures

Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park

Saturday, October 21, 2023   11 a.m. | 2 p.m.

Join award-winning author Mark Warren for two lectures on October 21: What Made Wyatt Earp Tick? (11 a.m.) and Our Favorite Outlaw of the American West (2 p.m.). Presentations are included with museum Day Use Admission. Please note that the presentations will take place in our original courtroom, located on the second floor and accessible only via staircase.

What Made Wyatt Earp Tick? A lecture and photo presentation
Many historians have attempted to dissect the personality of Wyatt Earp, calling him a complex man with contradictory callings. He was, in fact, a very simple man with a straight-forward demeanor. His physical prowess put him in a commanding position among other men, but his confidence and deliberation were the palpable forces that made others fear or admire him.

After more than 60 years of research, author and Western historian Mark Warren reveals the true nature of Wyatt Earp and explains why he has deservedly entered the pantheon of American heroes. Come join us for a slide presentation of “all things Earp!”

Our Favorite Outlaw of the American West A lecture and photo presentation
In the late 19th century a young man named Henry McCarty changed his name to William H. Bonney and became one of the best known historical characters of our Western mythology. We know him as “Billy the Kid.” Interest in “the Kid” continues to grow as new information comes to light to reveal the fascinating personality of a boy orphaned at the age of 14 and cast out into the violent world of 1870’s New Mexico Territory.

Determined to survive, Billy fell in with seasoned outlaws who schooled him in a life of crime. It wasn’t long before he was forced to kill when a bully overpowered him.

After trying a career at rustling livestock, Billy chose to go straight. But his intentions were derailed by the Lincoln County War, which began with the assassination of Billy’s newly found mentor and boss. Now there would be more killings by his hand, but, an argument could be made for these murders being justified – even righteous – in a land whose court system and government agents were so corrupt that eventually the President of the United States was forced to intervene.

As the momentum of the war rolled on, Billy – still a teenager – found himself elevated to the role of leadership among his companions. He lived a short life to the age of 21, when Sheriff Pat Garrett infamously killed him inside a darkened room at night.

Who was this young Irish lad who was so loved by the Hispanic community of the Southwest? How was he able to remain so likeable, courteous, and full of fun when others around him had hardened to stone to endure a violent lifestyle? This probe into the mind of Billy Bonney and the war-torn land that he loved may give an audience a new understanding of the dichotomous nature of history. One person’s “bad man” is another person’s “good guy.”

About Mark Warren

Mark Warren is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Georgia. At Medicine Bow, his nationally renowned wilderness school in the Southern Appalachians, he teaches nature classes and primitive survival skills. The National Wildlife Federation named him Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year in 1980. In 1998 Mark became the U.S. National Champion in whitewater canoeing, and in 1999 he won the World Championship Longbow title.

Warren has written extensively about nature for local and national magazines. He lectures on Native American history and survival skills, and Western Frontier History presenting at museums and cultural centers around the country. He is a member of the Wild West History Association, and Western Writers of America. His Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey trilogy was honored by WWA’s Spur Awards, The Historical Novel Society, and the 2020 Will Rogers Medallion Awards. Warren is a 2022 Georgia Author of the Year recipient for his book Song of the Horseman (Finalist, Literary Fiction). Indigo Heaven and his short story, The Cowboy, The Librarian and The Broomsman, are both 2022 Will Rogers Medallion Awards winners.

Mr. Warren has fifteen traditionally published books: from Lyons Press, Two Winters in a Tipi and Secrets of the Forest (a four volume series on nature and primitive skills), from Five Star – Gale Cengage and Two Dot, Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey (a historical fiction trilogy on the life of Wyatt Earp,) from Five Star – Gale Cengage Indigo Heaven, The Cowboy, The Librarian and the Broomsman from the anthology Librarians of the West: A Quartet, The Westering Trail Travesties, and A Last Serenade for Billy Bonney, and from Speaking Volumes, Song of the Horseman, Last of the Pistoleers, and A Tale Twice Told.