Predators and diseases were attacking on one hand; rustlers and hungry Indians were taking their toll on the other.In the 1880s, cattlemen began forming groups and holding meetings across the territory to address these issues.
Granville Stuart in his book Forty Years on the Frontier claims that 429 stockmen were present, although this is most likely a very generous estimate, as most other meetings were attended by fewer than 100.
The Montana cattlemen were as peaceable and law-abiding a body of men as could be found anywhere but they had $35,000,000 worth of property scattered over seventy-five thousand square miles of practically uninhabited country and it must be protected from thieves.
When the subject was brought up some of the members were for raising a small army of cowboys and raiding the country: but the older and more conservative men knew that that would never do.Stuart urged the group to consider that the rustlers were “strongly fortified” in cabins that were like "miniature fortresses".
Clay wrote in her article “A Call to Order: Law, Violence and the Development of Montana’s Early Stockmen’s Organizations” featured in the Autumn 2008 issue of Montana The Magazine of Western History: Stuart’s opposition to a strike, however, was apparently a cover—an effort to rein in the group’s hotheads before they staked out a public position that would have ignited popular criticism.
His position also gained the advantage of a surprise attack.Word got back to the rustlers that the Stockgrowers would not be taking any action and they became more brazen in their thefts, even stealing a prized stallion and other horses from Stuart’s own DHS Ranch.
Legitimate and highly respected cattlemen, like Granville Stuart, were forced to band together to take action against rustlers since no laws were yet on the books to protect their interests.