Editing Johnson County War (section)

==Background==
Conflict over land was a common occurrence in the development of the [[American West]], but was particularly prevalent during the late 19th century, when large portions of the West were being settled by new immigrants for the first time through the [[Homestead Acts]]. It is a period that one historian, Richard Maxwell Brown, has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation",<ref name="RMBrown"/> of which the Johnson County War was a part.

In the early days of [[Wyoming]], most of the land was in [[public domain]], which was open to stock raising as an [[open range]] and farmlands for [[homesteading]].<ref name="Legends20">{{cite web|url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/wy-johnsoncountywar.html|title=Wyoming Legends: Johnson County War|publisher=Legends of America|access-date=April 3, 2015}}</ref> Large numbers of [[cattle]] were turned loose on the open range by [[ranching|ranches]]. Each spring, round-ups were held to separate the cattle belonging to different ranchers. Before a round-up, an orphan or stray calf was sometimes surreptitiously branded, which was the common way to identify the cow's owners. However, as more and more homesteaders called "nesters" and "grangers" moved into Wyoming, competition for land and water soon enveloped the state, and the large cattle companies, also known as “cattle barons”, reacted by [[Monopoly|monopolizing]] large areas of the open range, preventing homesteaders from using it.<ref name="DavisR"/><ref name="Forgotten Wars"/><ref name="Legends20"/> The often uneasy relationship between the wealthier ranchers and smaller settlers of relatively modest means steadily aggravated after the harsh [[winter of 1886–87 in the United States|winter of 1886–1887]], when a series of blizzards and temperatures of {{convert|-40|to|-50|F|C}}, followed by an extremely hot and dry summer, ravaged the frontier.<ref name="Burt p.156"/> Thousands of cattle were lost in the calamity.<ref name=montanahistoryjournal>{{cite journal|last=Mattison|first=Ray H.|title=The Hard Winter and the Range Cattle Business|journal=The Montana Magazine of History|date=October 1951|volume=1|issue=4|pages=5–21}}</ref>

To protect whatever livestock survived, the cattle barons reacted with a catch-all allegation of [[Cattle raiding|rustling]] against their competition.<ref name="DavisR"/> Hostilities worsened when the Wyoming legislature passed the Maverick Act, which stated that all unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the large ranchers.<ref name="Agnew">Agnew, Jeremy, ''The Old West in Fact and Film: History Versus Hollywood'', McFarland; 1st edition (2012) p.40. {{ISBN|978-0786468881}}</ref> The cattle barons also held a firm grip on Wyoming's stock interests by limiting the number of small ranchers and grangers who could participate, including in the annual round-ups. They also forbade their employees from owning cattle for fear of additional competition, and they threatened anyone they suspected to be rustlers.<ref name="Legends20"/> Although at a financial disadvantage, the homesteaders outnumbered the cattle barons significantly, and they tried to use this to win court cases by participating in the [[jury]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://sheridanmedia.com/news/102716/the-johnson-county-war-part-one-the-causes/|title=The Johnson County War, Part One: The Causes|magazine=Sheridan Media|access-date=February 13, 2024}} August 16, 2022</ref> However, records showed that they were still not successful.<ref>Shulman, Robert. (2009). ''The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (Oxford World's Classics)'' Introduction. Oxford University Press; 1st edition, pp. xviii. ISBN 978-0199554102</ref>

===Wyoming Stock Growers Association===
Many of the large ranching outfits in Wyoming were organized as the [[Wyoming Stock Growers Association]] (the WSGA) and gathered socially at the [[Wyoming Stock Growers Association#History|Cheyenne Club]] in [[Cheyenne, Wyoming]]. Comprising some of the state's wealthiest and most influential residents, the organization held a great deal of political sway in the state and region. The WSGA organized the cattle industry by scheduling roundups and cattle shipments.<ref name="Burt p.157"/> The WSGA also employed an agency of detectives to investigate cases of cattle theft from its members' holdings. Grangers and rustlers often intermixed with one another in the community, making it more difficult for detectives to differentiate the criminals and the innocent homesteaders.<ref name="Burt p.157"/>

Rustling in the local area was likely increasing because of the harsh grazing conditions, and the illegal exploits of organized groups of rustlers were becoming well publicized in the late 1880s.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Well-armed outfits of horse and cattle rustlers roamed across various portions of Wyoming and [[Montana]], with Montana vigilantes such as the infamous [[Stuart's Stranglers]] declaring "War on the Rustlers" in 1884.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historynet.com/gang-crackdown-when-stuarts-stranglers-raided-the-rustlers.htm|title=Gang Crackdown: When Stuart's Stranglers Raided|last=DeArment |first=R.K. |date=7 June 2007 |publisher=Wild West Magazine }} June 7, 2007</ref> Bandits taking refuge in the infamous hideout known as the  [[Hole-in-the-Wall]] were also preying upon the herds.<ref name="DavisR"/> [[Frank M. Canton]], Sheriff of Johnson County in the early 1880s and better known as a detective for the WSGA, was a prominent figure in supposedly eliminating these criminals from Wyoming. Before the events in Johnson County, Canton had already developed a reputation as a lethal gunman. At a young age he had worked as a [[cowboy]] in Texas, and in 1871 he started a career in robbery and cattle rustling, as well as killing a [[Buffalo Soldier]] on October 10, 1874. Historian [[Harry Sinclair Drago]] described Canton as a "merciless, congenital, emotionless killer. For pay, he murdered eight—very likely ten—men."<ref name="Canton">{{cite web|url=http://www.occidentalwyoming.com/wyomings-wild-past.html|title=Wyoming's Wild Past|publisher=Occidental Wyoming|access-date=April 3, 2015|archive-date=April 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410170337/http://www.occidentalwyoming.com/wyomings-wild-past.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>