The Fine Print
Wild West Fine Print

50 hired guns invaded Wyoming. The president saved them

In April 1892, about fifty armed men came up from Cheyenne on a special train to clear out the small ranchers of Johnson County, Wyoming. They started with Nate Champion, a cowboy who had testified against one of their detectives.

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In this story

  1. 0:00The cabin
  2. 0:53The range
  3. 1:35The witness
  4. 2:22The train
  5. 3:45The KC Ranch
  6. 4:34The notebook
  7. 5:13The fire
  8. 7:07Buffalo rises
  9. 7:53The siege
  10. 8:47The telegram
  11. 9:47The surrender
  12. 10:25The reporter
  13. 12:05No jury
  14. 12:58The Virginian

Sources

Sources

  • Cheyenne Daily Leader, 13 and 19 April and 14 August 1892; Buffalo Bulletin, 21 April 1892; Omaha Daily Bee, 13 and 14 April 1892; Helena Independent, 13 April 1892; The State Chronicle (Raleigh), 14 April 1892; Salt Lake Herald, 11 February 1892; The New North-West (Deer Lodge, Montana), 12 November 1892; Austin Weekly Statesman, 26 January 1893 (Chronicling America, Library of Congress)
  • A. S. Mercer, The Banditti of the Plains, or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892 (1894), with George Dunning's sworn confession (Newberry Library, via the Internet Archive)
  • John W. Davis, "The Johnson County War: 1892 Invasion of Northern Wyoming", WyoHistory.org: https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/johnson-county-war-1892-invasion-northern-wyoming
  • Owen Wister, The Virginian (1902), chapter XXXIII; the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, on Wister's 1885 summer in Wyoming

Pictures

  • the engravings in Mercer's 1894 book (Nate Champion, Nick Ray, the KC Ranch, the place where Champion fell, the TA Ranch and its battle map, the go-devil, Warren, Carey and Barber); the invaders photographed after their surrender, May 1892; Nate Champion; Frank Canton; Amos W. Barber; Sam T. Clover; the Buffalo Bulletin's drawing of the TA Ranch (1892) and its barn (1904); Cheyenne, its Union Pacific depot, its cattlemen's houses and Fort Russell in C. D. Kirkland's album (1890); a train at Cheyenne's depot in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (1877); a map of Wyoming (1891); J. C. H. Grabill's round-ups (1887-88) and the officers of the Sixth Cavalry (1891); Charles M. Russell's "Waiting for a Chinook"; Benjamin Harrison's 1892 campaign portrait; Owen Wister; The Virginian's first edition and Arthur I. Keller's illustrations (1902), its stage poster and its 1914 film poster; a Seattle crowd at the 1929 film (MOHAI); Fort McKinney today. Via the Library of Congress, the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Film

  • Edison's Calf Branding (1898), Library of Congress; The Virginian (1929), UCLA Film & Television Archive restoration.

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