Editing Leadville, Colorado (section)

===Notable historical figures===
As the population boomed, by 1878, Leadville had the reputation as one of the most lawless towns in the [[American frontier|West]]. The first city marshal was run out of town a few days after he was appointed, and his replacement was shot dead within a month by one of his deputies. Fearing the town would be lost to the lawless element, Mayor Horace Tabor sent for [[Mart Duggan]], who was living in Denver, as a replacement. Duggan was well known at the time as a fearless gunfighter. Using strong-arm and lawless tactics, during his two stints as marshal, Duggan brought order to Leadville by 1880 when he stepped down. He was shot and killed in 1888 by an unknown assailant, most likely an enemy he had made when he was a Leadville marshal. Historian Robert Dearment writes, "Mart Duggan was a quick-shooting, hard-drinking, brawling tough Irish man, but he was exactly the kind of man a tough, hard-drinking, quick-shooting camp like Leadville needed in its earliest days. His name is all but forgotten today, but the name "[[Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke)|Matt Dillon]]" is recognized around the world. Such are the vagaries of life."<ref name="Deadly Dozen">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WuwVBgAAQBAJ&q=mart+duggan+lawman+in+leadville+colorado&pg=PT37 | title=Deadly Dozen | publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | access-date=September 3, 2015 | author=Dearment, Robert K.| date=January 6, 2015 | isbn=9780806185125 }}</ref>

Alice Ivers, better known as [[Poker Alice]], was a card player and dealer of the Old West who learned her trade in Leadville. Born in [[Devonshire, Blackpool|Devonshire]], her family moved to America when she was a small girl. They first settled in [[Virginia]], where she attended an elite girls' boarding school. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Leadville when the silver boom drew hundreds of new residents to the area. At the age of twenty she married a mining engineer who, like many of the men at that time, frequented the numerous gambling halls in Leadville. Alice went along, at first just observing, but eventually she began to sit in on the games as well. After a few years of marriage her husband was killed in a mining accident and she turned to cards to support herself. Alice was attractive, dressed in the latest fashions, and was in great demand as a dealer. Eventually Alice left Leadville to travel the gambling circuit, as was common of the male gamblers of that time. She continued to dress in the latest fashions but took to smoking cigars. Well known throughout the West, gambling halls welcomed her because she was good for business. Alice said that she won more than $250,000 by gambling during her lifetime.<ref name="Legends of America2">{{cite web | url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-pokeralice.html | title=Poker Alice - Famous Frontier Gambler | publisher=Legends of America | access-date=October 30, 2015 | author=Weiser, Kathy | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026173231/http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-pokeralice.html | archive-date=October 26, 2015 }}</ref>

In the spring of 1880, [[Texas Jack Omohundro]] and his wife [[Giuseppina Morlacchi]] arrived in Leadville. Morlacchi, a famous Italian prima ballerina who had introduced the [[Can-can]] dance to the United States, performed several plays at the Grand Central Theatre, including Around the World in 80 Days and [[The Black Crook]]. Texas Jack, who had starred in The Scouts of the Prairie with [[Buffalo Bill Cody]] and [[Ned Buntline]], and later in The Scouts of the Plains with Buffalo Bill and [[Wild Bill Hickok]], played shows at the Chestnut Street Theatre. Texas Jack had served in the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]] at age 16<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Texas Jack {{!}} Texas Jack Association |url=https://www.texasjack.org/texas-jack |access-date=January 27, 2024 |website=TexasJackAssociation |language=en}}</ref> and subsequently joined the Tabor Light Guard, a local militia unit. Jack died of [[pneumonia]] on June 28, 1880.  His funeral was held at the Tabor Opera House, and he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. On September 8, 1908, Texas Jack's best friend and former costar Buffalo Bill Cody visited Leadville with his [[Wild West shows|Wild West Show]] and dedicated the permanent memorial that marks Texas Jack's grave today.  The Texas Jack Association erected highway historical markers on roads in and out of Leadville.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kerns |first=Matthew |title=Texas Jack: America's First Cowboy Star |publisher=Two Dot |year=2021 |isbn=978-1493055418 |location=Guilford, Connecticut |language=English}}</ref>

In the summer of 1879, American author and illustrator [[Mary Hallock Foote]] arrived in Leadville.<ref name="Blair 1995"/> It is believed her time in Leadville inspired her writing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Artwork of Mary Hallock Foote |url=https://thenorthstarhouse.org/mhf-artwork/ |access-date=June 20, 2022 |website=The North Star House |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Martinek |first=Marcia  |title=Leadville inspired Hallock Foote's writing |url=https://www.leadvilleherald.com/free_content/article_4f7c6532-5037-11eb-8198-f7bcb930882e.html |date=May 23, 2023 |access-date=May 30, 2024 |website=The Herald Democrat |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240530204350if_/https://www.leadvilleherald.com/free_content/article_4f7c6532-5037-11eb-8198-f7bcb930882e.html |archive-date=May 30, 2024}}</ref>

In 1882, shortly after the gun fight at the [[O.K. Corral]], [[Doc Holliday]] arrived in Leadville,<ref name="Blair 1995"/> where he dealt [[faro (card game)|faro]]. On August 19, 1884, he shot ex-Leadville policeman Billy Allen, who had threatened him for failing to pay a $5 debt. Despite overwhelming evidence implicating him, a jury found Holliday not guilty of the shooting or attempted murder.<ref name="Colorado Central Magazine2">{{cite web | url=http://cozine.com/2012-may/the-fading-of-a-legend-doc-holliday-in-leadville/ | title=The Fading of a Legend: Doc Holliday in Leadville | publisher=Colorado Central Magazine | date=May 1, 2012 | access-date=September 4, 2015 | author=Price, Charles F. | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103216/http://cozine.com/2012-may/the-fading-of-a-legend-doc-holliday-in-leadville/ | archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref>

Gunfighter and professional gambler [[Luke Short]] also spent time in Leadville.<ref name="Frontier Gambler">{{cite web | url=http://www.frontiergamblers.com/page44.php | title=Luke Short | publisher=Frontier Gambler | access-date=September 4, 2015 | url-status=usurped | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505083009/http://www.frontiergamblers.com/page44.php | archive-date=May 5, 2011 }}</ref>

[[Margaret "Molly" Brown]], who became known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", moved to Leadville in 1885, when she was 18 years old.<ref name="Blair 1995"/> In 1886 she married a mining engineer who was twelve years older, [[James Joseph Brown]] at the Church of Annunciation.<ref name="Buys 2007"/> The Brown family acquired great wealth in 1893 when Brown was instrumental in the discovery of a substantial gold ore seam at the Little Jonny Mine.

The mine was owned by his employers, the Ibex Mining Company. Margaret Brown became famous because of her survival of the [[Sinking of the RMS Titanic|1912 sinking]] of the [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']], after exhorting the crew of {{nowrap|[[Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic#Boat 6 (port)|Lifeboat No. 6]]}} to return to look for survivors. A [[The Unsinkable Molly Brown (musical)|1960 Broadway musical]] based on her life was produced, along with a [[The Unsinkable Molly Brown (film)|1964 film]] adaptation of the musical, both titled ''The Unsinkable Molly Brown''. Her home in Denver has been preserved as the Molly Brown House Museum.

[[Meyer Guggenheim]] of the [[Guggenheim family]] started out in Leadville in mining and [[smelting]]. The family went on to possess one of the largest fortunes in the world. Family members have become known for their philanthropy in diverse areas such as modern art and aviation, including several [[Guggenheim Museums]].

[[Oscar Wilde]] appeared in April at the Tabor Opera House during his 1882 American [[Aesthetic Movement]] lecture tour.<ref name="Blair 1995"/> The reviews were mixed, and the press satirized Wilde in cartoons as an English [[dandy]] decorated with [[sunflower]]s and [[lilies]], the floral emblems of the Aesthetic Movement. A [[Kansas]] newspaper described the event:

<blockquote>Oscar Wilde's visit to Leadville excited a great deal of interest and curiosity. The Tabor-opera house where he lectured was packed full. It was rumored that an attempt would be made by a number of young men to ridicule him by coming to the lecture in exaggerated costume with enormous sunflowers and lilies and to introduce a number of characters in the costume of the Western "bad men". Probably, however, better counsel prevailed and no disturbance took place.<ref name="Oscar Wilde in America">{{cite web | url=http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lectures-1882/april/0413-leadville.html | title=Oscar Wilde in America | work=A Selected Resource of Oscar Wilde's Visits to America | access-date=3 September 2015 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918214406/http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lectures-1882/april/0413-leadville.html | archive-date=18 September 2015 }}</ref></blockquote>

Mayor David H. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the [[Matchless Mine]] and name its new lode "The Oscar". Wilde later recounted a visit to a local saloon, "where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice – 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.'"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lectures-1882/april/0413-leadville.html | title=Oscar Wilde in Leadville | access-date=February 23, 2015 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224062252/http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lectures-1882/april/0413-leadville.html | archive-date=February 24, 2015 }}</ref>

Several other notable figures visited the Tabor Opera House, including boxer [[Jack Dempsey]].<ref name="Buys 2007"/>