Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County - Hardcover

Davis, John W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0806141069 ISBN 13: 9780806141060

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010

Synopsis

Wyoming attorney John W. Davis retells the story of the West’s most notorious range war. Having delved more deeply than previous writers into land and census records, newspapers, and trial transcripts, Davis has produced an all-new interpretation. He looks at the conflict from the perspective of Johnson County residents—those whose home territory was invaded and many of whom the invaders targeted for murder—and finds that, contrary to the received explanation, these people were not thieves and rustlers but legitimate citizens.

The broad outlines of the conflict are familiar: some of Wyoming’s biggest cattlemen, under the guise of eliminating livestock rustling on the open range, hire two-dozen Texas cowboys and, with range detectives and prominent members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, “invade” north-central Wyoming to clean out rustlers and other undesirables. While the invaders kill two suspected rustlers, citizens mobilize and eventually turn the tables, surrounding the intruders at a ranch where they intend to capture them by force. An appeal for help convinces President Benjamin Harrison to call out the army from nearby Fort McKinley, and after an all-night ride the soldiers arrive just in time to stave off the invaders’ annihilation. Though taken prisoner, they later avoid prosecution.

The cattle barons’ powers of persuasion in justifying their deeds have colored accounts of the war for more than a century. Wyoming Range War tells a compelling story that redraws the lines between heroes and villains.

About this title

About the Author

John W. Davis, who resides in Worland, Wyoming, has practiced law in the Big Horn Basin for more than forty years. He is the author of A Vast Amount of Trouble: A History of the Spring Creek Raid andGoodbye, Judge Lynch: The End of a Lawless Era in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806141069
• ISBN 13: 9780806141060
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384