Thinking like a military tactician, Johnson immediately seized the high ground and ordered the miners to move to the top of Bull Hill, which overlooked the town of Altman.
The sheriff agreed to raise the required number of recruits, and immediately began contacting ex-police and ex-firefighters in Denver.
Pickets were set up throughout the region, and Johnson received regular reports every hour of the day regarding traffic in and out of the towns in the valley.
Huts were built and food served to care for the miners encamped on Bull Hill and throughout the region.
Governor Waite declared the force of deputies to be illegal and disbanded, but the sheriff said he could no longer control the men.
Johnson's pickets alerted the miners encampment, allowing them to sound the Victor Mine's steam whistle.
But some scholars argue that Johnson saved the strike: Governor Waite, a Populist, was sympathetic to the miners' cause.
Had warfare between the miners and deputies broken out, Waite would have been forced to break the strike and the outcome of the Cripple Creek job action would have been dramatically different.