Johnson County War

• Johnson County War

  Fought between cattle barons, and homesteaders and small ranchers
• The Johnson County War demonstrates the continuation of rivalry between cattle barons and homesteaders and shows that, even in the 1890's, people were still taking the law into their own hands
• Cattle barons in Wyoming

  • Appointed to key positions in government
  • Set up their own association, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WGSA), to protect their interests
• The cattle barons suffered great losses in Great Die up of 1886-7


  The small ranchers survived the winter with minimal losses and this upset the cattle barons
• Rustling had been a problem in Wyoming for years


  Now that the cattle barons were struggling to survive, they wanted to put a stop to it
• First killings in 1889

  1. Small ranch owners, Jim Averill and Ella Watson, were living on land a cattle baron called Albert Bothwell wanted

  2. Bothwell's men caught and hanged Averill and Watson, and took over their land and cattle

  3. No one was prosecuted for these murders
• Retaliation by homesteaders and small ranchers

  1. Created their own association and decided to hold their own round-up of cattle before the WSGA's

  2. The WSGA were furious and planned a full-scale invasion of Johnson County

  3. The WSGA also hired and paid gunmen, done in full knowledge of Wyoming's governor
• The WSGA's plan failed
• Small rancher Nate Champion heroically held them up all day
• The US Calvary arrived and fought off the WSAG
• Despite launching a full-scale invasion of Johnson County, none of the invaders were convicted of any crimes
• The lawyers' strategy

  1. Hired the best lawyers

  2. Moved the trial to Cheyenne as their lawyers argued they could not have a fair trial in Johnson County

  3. Dragged the trial out as long as possible until the prosecutors could no longer afford to continue

  4. All charges against the cattle barons and WSAG were dropped
• Although they were not charged, the cattle barons had lost huge amounts of influence and respect in Wyoming