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Nantan - The Life and Times of John P. Clum: Volume 1: Claverack to Tombstone 1851-1882

by Gary Ledoux

475 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-1550; ISBN 1-4251-3865-9; US$39.00, C$44.85, EUR30.41, £20.16

The Apaches called him Nantan. Tombstoners called him Mayor. Wyatt Earp called him a friend. He could handle a gun and a town council meeting with equal aplomb. He was John P. Clum.

About the Book

John P. Clum is perhaps best known as Tombstone's Mayor during that town's most violent period. But that was just one small slice of a long and fascinating life! Blazing a trail across the American frontier, John Clum engaged in a multitude of exciting careers.

As a "Storm Sergeant" he telegraphed the first weather report from a post-Civil War Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As an Indian Agent and one of the earliest advocates for Indian rights, he founded the first successful Indian self-ruling government complete with an Indian Police force, a concept later adopted by the US government for all reservations. He would use his Indian Police to help capture the renegade Apache, Geronimo - the only time Geronimo was ever taken at gun-point!

He founded, what is today, the second oldest continuously operated newspaper in Arizona, the Tombstone Epitaph, an enduring icon of the old west.

He became an enemy of Tombstone's cow-boys including Curly Bill Brocious, Johnny Ringo and Ike Clanton when, as Tombstone's Mayor, he supported the Earp/Holliday "faction", surviving an assassination attempt.

The Apaches called him Nantan. Tombstoners called him Mayor. Wyatt Earp called him a friend. Supporters called him heroic, brave and daring. His detractors called him bombastic, impudent and brash.

He could handle a gun and a town council meeting with equal aplomb. And it is all included here in Nantan: The Life and Times of John P. Clum - both sides of an extraordinary man.

About the Author

A native of New Hampshire, Gary Ledoux has had a long-time love of the old-west; his interest focused on Tombstone and its characters, legend and lore.

He is a member of several old-west organizations including the Western Writers of America and the Western Outlaw and Lawman History Association

His articles have appeared in various old-west magazines including True West and the Tombstone Epitaph. His YesterWest column appears in the national edition of the Tombstone Epitaph and the Tombstone Times.

His first book, Tombstone: A Chronicle In Perspective debuted in October, 2002.

He has been a featured writer at the Warren Earp Days Book Festival held in Willcox, AZ in 2003, a featured writer for the Tombstone Book and Film Festival held in Tombstone in 2004 and a similar event held in Tucson in 2005 and again in Tombstone in 2006.

He was a contributor for the October, 2006 OK Corral 125th Anniversary Event in Tombstone giving a speech on Tombstone's Allen Street, in character, as Mayor John Clum.

Gary and his wife, Rachel, presently live in southern California.