Clanton’s mother died in 1866. Ike stayed with the family when they moved to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, around 1877 (before Tombstone became a town or even a mining center). At that time, Newman Clanton was living with his sons Phin (or “Fin”), Ike, and Billy. By 1878 Ike was running a small “lunch counter” at the Tombstone Mill site (now Millville on the San Pedro River—not in modern Tombstone). By 1881, however, he was working on his father’s ranch at Lewis Springs, about 12 miles (19 km) west of Tombstone and 5 miles (8.0 km) from Charleston.

In November 1879, shortly after arriving in Tombstone, Earp had a horse stolen. More than a year later, probably sometime in December 1880, Earp was told the horse was being used near Charleston, and Wyatt and Holliday were forced to ride to the Clanton’s ranch near Charleston to await ownership papers in order to legally recover it. According to Wyatt’s testimony later, 18-year-old Billy Clanton asked him insolently if he had any more horses to “lose,” but he gave the horse up without first being shown the ownership papers, demonstrating to Wyatt that Billy Clanton knew to whom the horse belonged. Sheriff Johnny Behan later testified that the incident had angered Ike Clanton. It also angered Earp.

After he was passed over by Johnny Behan for the position of undersheriff, Earp thought he might beat him in the next Cochise County election. He thought catching the March 15, 1881 robbers of the Benson Stage (in which the driver and a passenger were killed) would help him win the sheriff’s office. Earp later said that on June 2, 1881 he offered the Wells, Fargo & Co. reward money and more to Clanton if he would provide information leading to the capture or death of the stage robbers. According to Earp, the plan was foiled when the three suspects, Leonard, Head and Crane, were killed in unrelated incidents.

On August 12, 1881, Old Man Clanton and six other men were herding stolen cattle sold to him by William Brocius through Guadalupe Canyon near the Mexican border. Around dawn, they were ambushed by Mexicans dispatched by Commandant Felipe Neri in what became known as the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre. Old Man Clanton and five other men were killed in the ambush.

Clanton had told others that Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Morgan Earp had all confided in him that they had actually been involved in the Benson stage robbery. On October 25, 1881, while Clanton was in Tombstone, drunk and very loud, Holliday accused him of lying about the Benson stagecoach robbery. Tombstone City Marshal Virgil Earp intervened and threatened to arrest both Holliday and Clanton if they did not stop arguing, and Holliday went home.

Clanton was later accused, along with his brother, Phin Clanton, and friend Pony Diehl, of attempting to kill Virgil Earp on December 30, 1881, a shooting which left Virgil with a crippled left arm. Though Ike Clanton’s hat was found at the scene where the ambushers waited, a number of associates stood up for him, saying that he had been in Contention that night, and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

By 1885, the Clanton gang included Lee Renfro, G.W. “Kid” Swingle, Longhair Sprague, Billy Evans, and the Clanton’s brother-in-law, Ebin Stanley. They moved their operations to a ranch they named the Cienega Amarilla, near Springerville, Arizona. On November 6, 1885, local rancher Isaac Ellinger and Pratt Plummer had dinner with the Clanton brothers and Lee Renfro. After the meal, Ike, Renfro, and Ellinger went into a cabin on the Clanton ranch when for unknown reasons Renfro shot and killed Ellinger.

In April 1887, the Apache County Stock Association met and hired a Pinkerton detective to track down the outlaws. They also hired Jonas “Jake” V. Brighton as a “secret service” officer. Brighton was a constable in Springerville and a range detective.

In April, 1887, Phin Clanton was arrested for rustling and jailed in St. Johns. During May and June 1887, several grand jury indictments were brought against the Clanton’s and their friends. The indictments included charges of cattle-rustling and murder for the death of Isaac Ellinger.

In 1957, Kelo Henderson played Clanton in an episode of Dale Robertson’s NBC series, Tales of Wells Fargo.

From 1959 to 1960, the actor John Milford portrayed Clanton in eight episodes of the ABC/Desilu television series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O’Brian in the title role. Also Rayford Barnes played Ike Clanton in the episodes of the shoot out at the OK Coral. Trevor Bardette played Ike’s father, Newman Haynes Clanton, known as Old Man Clanton. The role of Clanton was played by William Tannen in the episode “After the OK Corral” of the syndicated western anthology series, Death Valley Days. Jim Davis played Wyatt Earp in this same episode of Death Valley Days. Tannen had earlier played the role of Deputy Hal Norton on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

Jeff Fahey played Clanton in the movie Wyatt Earp (1994), starring Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp. Christopher Fulford played him in 2007 in the BBC drama-documentary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.