The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range war that took place in Johnson, Natrona and Converse County, Wyoming in April 1892. It was fought between small settling ranchers against larger established ranchers in the Powder River Country and culminated in a lengthy shootout between local ranchers, a band of hired killers, and a sheriff's posse, eventually requiring the intervention of the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison.
The events have since become a highly mythologized and symbolic story of the Wild West, and over the years variations of the storyline have come to include some of the west's most famous historical figures and gunslingers. The storyline and its variations have served as the basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows.
Read more about Johnson County War: Background, The War, Aftermath, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words johnson, county and/or war:
“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“It does not disturb me that those whom I pardon are said to have deserted me so that
they might again bring war against me. I prefer nothing more than that I should be true to
myself and they to themselves.”
—Julius Caesar [Gaius Julius Caesar] (100–44 B.C.)