[3] The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged rustlers in the area, many of whom were settlers who competed with them for livestock, land and water rights.

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.

[10][1][9] The often uneasy relationship between the wealthier ranchers and smaller settlers of relatively modest means steadily aggravated after the harsh winter of 1886–1887, when a series of blizzards and temperatures of –40 to –50 °F (–40 to –45 °C), followed by an extremely hot and dry summer, ravaged the frontier.

[10] Hostilities worsened when the Wyoming legislature passed the Maverick Act, which stated that all unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the large ranchers.

[13] The cattle barons also held a firm grip on Wyoming's stock interests by limiting the number of small ranchers and grangers who could participate, including in the annual round-ups.

[16] 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.

[10] 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.

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.

[24][25] Range detective Tom Smith killed a suspected rustler, and when he was indicted for murder, political connections to the WSGA secured his release.

[29] Champion and another man, named Ross Gilbertson, were sleeping in a cabin near the Middle Fork of the Powder River when a group of armed men went inside.

Canton's gripsack was later found to contain a list of 70 county residents to be either shot or hanged, and a contract to pay the Texans $5 a day plus a bonus of $50 for every rustler, real or alleged, they killed.

Sheriff Angus then raised a posse of 200 men, many of whom were Civil War veterans,[10] over the next 24 hours and set out for the KC on Sunday night, April 10.

During their flight, one of the Texans by the name of Jim Dudley accidentally shot himself when his horse bucked and his rifle fell to the ground, discharging and hitting his knee.

[44] The sheriff's posse finally reached the remaining Invaders holed up in a log barn at the TA Ranch, but the latter managed to hold them back, resulting in a siege that would last for three days.

He then built a siege engine which the posse referred to as a "go-devil' or "ark of safety"[46] - a large, bullet-resistant wagon that would help the settlers get close to the ranch so they could throw dynamite at the Invaders.

Frantic efforts to save the WSGA group ensued, and two days into the siege, late on the night of April 12, 1892, Governor Barber telegraphed President Benjamin Harrison a plea for help.

[48] The Sixth Cavalry from Fort McKinney near Buffalo, Wyoming, was ordered to proceed to the TA Ranch at once and take the WSGA expedition into custody.

Colonel J.J. Van Horn, the officer in charge of the unit, negotiated with Sheriff Angus to lift the siege, and in return the Invaders were to be handed to civilian authorities.

In the end, the WSGA group went free after the charges were dropped on the excuse that Johnson County refused to pay for the costs of the long prosecution.

One infamous event occurred when a group of men set fire to the post exchange and planted a homemade bomb in the cavalry's barracks.

Noted officer Charles B. Gatewood was seriously injured by the bomb blast in the barracks, shattering his left arm and ending his cavalry career.

[7] In a fortnight the Buffalo Soldiers moved from Nebraska to the rail town of Suggs, Wyoming, where they created "Camp Bettens" to quell the local population.

[7] In the fall of 1892, as the aftershocks of the stand-off were still being felt throughout the county, two alleged horse rustlers were gunned down by range detectives east of the Big Horn River.

Many viewed the rescue of the WSGA group at the order of President Harrison (a Republican) and the failure of the courts to prosecute them a serious political scandal with overtones of class war.

As a result of the scandal, the Democratic Party became popular in Wyoming for a time, winning the governorship in 1892 and taking control of both houses of the state legislature in that election.

The Johnson County War, with its overtones of class warfare coupled with the intervention ordered by the President of the United States to save the lives of a gang of hired killers and set them free, is not a flattering reflection on the American myth of the west.

[68] The Virginian, a seminal 1902 western novel by Owen Wister, took the side of the wealthy ranchers, creating a myth of the Johnson County War, but bore little resemblance to a factual account of the actual characters and events.

The range war was also portrayed in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated Western television series Stories of the Century, with Henry Brandon as Nate Champion and Jean Parker as Ella Watson.

The song included references to the burning of the KC Ranch, the capture of the WSGA men, the intervention of the U.S. Cavalry and the release of the cattlemen and hired guns.

[76] The Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo featured dioramas and exhibits about the Johnson County War, as well as a 7-foot (2.1 m) bronze statue of Nate Champion.