The Johnson County War: Nate Champion's Last Stand Against Cattle Barons

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In April 1892 Nate Champion was trapped alone in a log cabin in Johnson County, Wyoming, surrounded by more than 50 gunmen. Between volleys he took out a pocket journal and wrote a calm account of his final hours, noting that he could hear the attackers splitting wood to burn him out. The men outside were not outlaws. They were a private army funded by the wealthy ranchers of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, who had spent years using law, blacklists, and accusations of rustling to drive small homesteaders off the open range.

This episode traces the conflict from the Maverick Act of 1884 and the catastrophic winter of 1886 to 1887 through the lynching of Ella Watson in July of 1889 and a failed attempt on Champion's life in November of 1891. It follows the invaders, who carried a list of 70 names, to their own siege at the T.A. Ranch, where some 200 furious citizens dug trenches around them. The barons escaped trial but lost at the ballot box in 1892, then spent decades paying to bury the story.

• The Maverick Act gave every unbranded calf on the open range to the association, a monopoly written into law.
• The invaders included 23 hired gunmen brought from Texas, paid daily wages plus a $50 bounty for each homesteader killed.
• After killing Champion, the gunmen pinned a note to his chest reading cattle thieves beware. His hours of resistance gave settler Jack Flagg time to raise the alarm in Buffalo.
• The besiegers built a log-armored wagon called the Go Devil to deliver dynamite to the barn. The Sixth Cavalry, sent by President Benjamin Harrison, arrived hours before they could use it.
• Holding the prisoners cost Johnson County more than $18,000, the charges were dropped, and the association later burned nearly every copy of Asa Mercer's book exposing the affair.