The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range war in Northern Wyoming from 1889 to 1893.Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 90 (Tuesday, May 24, 2022) The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged rustlers, many of whom were settlers who competed with them for livestock, land and water rights. As violence swelled between the large established ranchers and the smaller settlers in the state, it culminated in the Powder River Country, when the ranchers hired gunmen to invade the county. The gunmen's initial incursion in the territory alerted the small farmers and ranchers, as well as the state lawmen, and they formed a posse of 200 men that led to a grueling standoff, ending when the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison relieved the two forces, although further fighting persisted.Tuccille, Jerome (2015). The Roughest Riders: The Untold Story of the Black Soldiers in the Spanish-American War. Chicago Review Press. Chapter 1: The Landing.
The events have since become a highly mythologized and symbolic story of the Wild West and over the years variations of the story have come to include some of its most famous historical figures. In addition to being one of the best-known range wars of the American frontier, its themes, especially class warfare, served as a basis for numerous popular novels, films and television shows in the Western genre.
Background Conflict over land was a common occurrence in the development of the American West, but became particularly prevalent when large portions of it were settled by new immigrants for the first time through the Homestead Acts. It is a period that one historian, Richard Maxwell Brown, has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation", which the Johnson County War was a part of. According to him, this period lasted from the 1850s to the First World War, pitting powerful corporations and government-affiliated individuals who sought to incorporate the frontier into the market, against modest and independent groups such as Anglo-American homesteaders, Native Americans, and Hispanic settlers, resulting in violent conflicts such as the Indian wars and the range wars.Johnson (2014) p. 8–9 This contributed to the West's reputation for violence.
In the early days of Wyoming, most of the land was in public domain, which was open to stock raising as an open range and farmlands for homesteading. Large numbers of cattle were turned loose on the open range by ranches. Each spring, round-ups were held to separate the cattle belonging to different ranchers. Before a round-up, an orphan or stray calf was sometimes surreptitiously branded, which was the common way to identify the cow's owners. However, as more and more homesteaders called "nesters" and "grangers" moved into Wyoming, competition for land and water soon enveloped the state, and the large cattle companies, also known as “cattle barons”, reacted by monopolizing large areas of the open range, preventing homesteaders from using it. The often uneasy relationship between the wealthier ranchers and smaller settlers became steadily aggravated when the Wyoming legislature submitted the Maverick Act in 1884, which stated that all unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the large ranchers.Agnew, Jeremy (2012). The Old West in Fact and Film: History Versus Hollywood. McFarland; 1st edition. p.40.
Hostilities worsened after the harsh winter of 1886–1887, when a series of blizzards and temperatures of , followed by an extremely hot and dry summer, ravaged the frontier.Burt (1991) p. 156 Thousands of cattle were lost in the calamity, forcing the surviving cattle barons to cut wages and lay-off many of their cowboys. In turn, these cowboys filed for homestead, further increasing competition.Johnson (2014) pp.13–14 To protect whatever livestock remained, the cattle barons reacted with a catch-all allegation of rustling against their competition. The cattle barons also held a firm grip on Wyoming's stock interests by limiting the number of grangers who could participate, including in the annual round-ups. They also forbade their employees from owning cattle for fear of additional competition, and they threatened anyone they suspected to be rustlers. Although at a financial disadvantage, the homesteaders outnumbered the cattle barons significantly, and they tried to use this to win court cases by participating in the jury. August 16, 2022 However, records showed that they were still not successful.Shulman, Robert. (2009). The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (Oxford World's Classics) Introduction. Oxford University Press; 1st edition, pp. xviii.
Wyoming Stock Growers Association Many of the large ranching outfits in Wyoming were organized as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (the WSGA) and gathered socially at the Cheyenne Club in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Comprising some of the state's wealthiest and most influential residents, the organization held a great deal of political sway in the state and region. The WSGA organized the cattle industry by scheduling roundups and cattle shipments.Burt (1991) p. 157 The WSGA also employed an agency of detectives to investigate cases of cattle theft from its members' holdings. Grangers and rustlers often intermixed with one another in the community, making it more difficult for detectives to differentiate the criminals and the innocent homesteaders.
Rustling in the local area was likely increasing because of the harsh grazing conditions, and the illegal exploits of organized groups of rustlers were becoming well publicized in the late 1880s. Well-armed outfits of horse and cattle rustlers roamed across various portions of Wyoming and Montana, with Montana vigilantes such as the infamous Stuart's Stranglers declaring "War on the Rustlers" in 1884. June 7, 2007 Bandits taking refuge in the infamous hideout known as the Hole-in-the-Wall were also preying upon the herds. Frank M. Canton, Sheriff of Johnson County in the early 1880s and better known as a detective for the WSGA, was a prominent figure in supposedly eliminating these criminals from Wyoming. Before the events in Johnson County, Canton had already developed a reputation as a lethal gunman. At a young age he had worked as a cowboy in Texas, and in 1871 he started a career in robbery and cattle rustling, as well as killing a Buffalo Soldier on October 10, 1874. Historian Harry Sinclair Drago described Canton as a "merciless, congenital, emotionless killer. For pay, he murdered eight—very likely ten—men."
Name and date The term "Johnson County War" has been in use as early as April 23, 1892 during a report on the war by the Colorado newspaper Weekly Gazette.Johnson County War (Wyoming), Weekly Gazette. April 23, 1892 Author D.F. Baber used the term "Johnson County Cattle War" in his 1947 book about the conflict.Monaghan, Jay (1963). The Book of the American West. Julian Messner, Inc. p. 298. Many writers of the time such as Asa Mercer and Owen Wister, dated it strictly to April 5–13, 1892, specifically during the invasion. Historian R. Michael Wilson agreed on this narrow definition, reasoning that only the deaths that happened in Johnson County, of which the conflict took its name, should be counted; barring the violence that happened in other Wyoming areas such as Natrona County and Weston County.Wilson, R.M.(2013). Outlaw Tales of Wyoming: True Stories Of The Cowboy State's Most Infamous Crooks, Culprits, And Cutthroats (Second Edition). Two Dot. p. 78. ASIN B011MEZRM8
Modern historians propose a broader duration that includes all WSGA-related casualties throughout the state. John W. Davis offered an alternate date of 1891–1892, with "Wyoming Range War" as another name for the conflict.Davis (2010) p. IX Jacob Rene Huntington suggested that it should be from July 20, 1889 to May 24, 1893, beginning with the double lynching of Ella Watson and Jim Averell and ending with the murder of Dudley Champion. Others such as R. W. Garvey, Andrew Rossi and Eugen Kotte, also listed the date of the war between 1889–1893. September 25, 2015Kotte, Eugen. (2016). Nation-Building in the 19th Century: A Comparison of the USA, Poland and Germany. p. 136. doi:10.46499/300. During the 2022 congressional session that celebrated the 150th Anniversary of the Wyoming Stock Grower's Association, the same 1889–1893 date was utilized.
War Early killings
On July 20, 1889, a range detective from the WSGA named George Henderson accused Ella Watson (better known as Cattle Kate), a local rancher, of stealing cattle from WSGA rancher by the name of Albert John Bothwell. The cattlemen sent riders to seize Watson before capturing her husband Jim Averell as well. Both of them were subsequently hanged near the Sweetwater River. This gruesome act was one of the rare cases in the Old West in which a woman was lynched, an event that appalled many Wyoming residents and paved the way for future events in the war.Davis (2010) pp. 73–74 County Sheriff Frank Hadsell arrested six men for the lynching and a trial date was set. However, before the trial, threats were sent to the witnesses who were to testify against the aggressors.Davis (2010) p.76 Watson's young workers who also served as key witnesses, Gene Crowder and John DeCorey, disappeared and were never seen again.Mayo, M. P. (2010). Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of the Wild West. United States: Globe Pequot. p. 199. ISBN 9780762754311 Another, Averell's nephew and foreman Frank Buchanan, disappeared from the county as well after a shootout with unknown suspects, and was presumed to be hiding or murdered. Ralph Cole, another nephew of Averell's, died on the day of the trial from poisoning.
George Henderson, one of the range detectives who had accused Watson, was murdered in Sweetwater River on October 8, 1890.DeArment, R.K. (1996). Alias Frank Canton. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 88-89. ISBN 978-0-8061-2900-6 Both Canton and rancher Cornelius P. Sheehan believed his killing was part of the ongoing conflict. The cattle barons soon tightened their control and hunted down those who tried to oppose them. The double lynching of the Averells was followed by the lynching of Tom Waggoner, a horse trader from Newcastle, on June 4, 1891. WSGA detective Joe Elliot and Deputy Sheriff Fred Coates were suspected of the crime; the latter was later appointed as administrator of Waggoner’s estate. A friend of Waggoner named Jimmy the Butcher, who was once arrested for rustling cattle belonging to the Standard Cattle Company, was also murdered. August 7, 2016 Range detective Tom Smith killed a suspected rustler, and when he was indicted for murder, political connections to the WSGA secured his release. These killings precipitated more hostilities and violence in the years to come.David Lavender, American Heritage History of the Great West, New Word City, Inc. (2014). Section V. ASIN B00PJOI4MS