The feud started when Chormicle purchased 1,600 acres of the same land Jenkins had settled on years ago.
When the dispute couldn't be settled in court, violence erupted between the two, lasting for over two decades, with dozens of men from both sides killed.
[1][2] William Willoby Jenkins was a rancher and gambler who staked a claim of land in Castaic, California in 1875, during the great migration in the West following the Homestead Acts of the late 19th century.
In Castaic, Jenkins ran a successful ranch, an oil company, and a profitable cat business during a rat infestation in the county.
[1][2] In 1890, another rancher and frontiersman by the name of William C. Chormicle settled nearby, claiming to have bought 1,600 acres of the same land as Jenkins from railroads.
Later, forest ranger Robert Emmett Clark, appointed in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt, was sent to end the feud.
That year, Jenkins was shot in the chest at his Lazy Z home by a man working for Chormicle, but survived.
[1][2] The feud continued, and a group of men working for Jenkins burned down William Gardner's house, killing him and some members of his family.
[1][2] In 1998, workers at a housing development site unearthed the pine boxes containing the remains of an infant and four adult men.