Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County
by John Davis, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2010, $29.95.
Attorney John W. Davis relates the events leading up to Wyoming’s April 1892 Johnson County Invasion—plus the invasion itself and its aftermath—in the precise detail a prosecuting attorney would use to set up a case in court. Davis (see “Interview,” P. 18) spent years researching this book—reading newspapers, documents, letters and public records—and his meticulous account is highly detailed and, even better, highly readable.
The nutshell version of the invasion goes something like this: Big cattlemen concerned about “rustlers” hire an army, take a train from Cheyenne to Casper, Wyo., and then go overland to Johnson County, where they find two rustlers at the KC Ranch, attack and kill them, then ride north toward Buffalo, intending to take care of other men on their hit list. But a Johnson County resident witnesses the invaders at the KC Ranch, rides to Buffalo and warns the townspeople, who grab their own weapons. The invaders meet the townspeople, who push them back to the TA Ranch, where the invaders become the besieged. They are “rescued” by the Army, which responds to the crisis on the orders of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison. Charges and a trial follow, but none of the invaders serves any prison time.
The facts are fairly well known, have been written about by scores of authors and have been the basis for films both dramatic and documentary. Davis, however, has produced what is likely the definitive history of this infamous event, thanks to his diligence in researching not only what happened in 1892 but also the earlier incidents that led up to the invasion and what happened afterward. The account of how Wyoming’s governor and senators provided aid to the invaders and the subsequent maneuvering between Republicans and Democrats, presents a healthy dose of political reality. That Governor Amos Barber was allowed to even remain in the state is perhaps the biggest indicator of just how powerful those cattlemen were in Wyoming in the 1890s. If you like your history clear, detailed and with a heavy dose of drama, then you can’t go wrong with Wyoming Range War.
Originally published in the August 2010 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
