page_title: Johnson County War
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Johnson County War / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Ella Watson. Taken in the 1880s or earlier. Date and Artist Unknown.
context_page_description: The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range conflict that took place in Johnson County, Wyoming from 1889 to 1893. The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged rustlers in the area, many of whom were settlers who competed with them for land, livestock and water rights. As violence swelled between the large established ranchers and the smaller settlers in the state, it finally culminated in the Powder River Country when the ranchers hired gunmen to invade the county. The gunmen's initial incursion in the territory aroused the small farmers and ranchers, as well as the state lawmen, and they formed a posse of 200 men that led to a grueling stand-off. The siege ended when the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison relieved the two forces, although further fighting persisted in the following months.
  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 its most famous historical figures.
context_section_description: Emotions ran high for many years afterward. Some considered the large and wealthy ranchers as heroes who had sought what they regarded as  justice by using violence to defend what they regarded as their rights to rangeland and water rights, while others saw the WSGA as heavy-handed outlaw vigilantes running roughshod over the law. A number of tall tales were spun by both sides afterwards in an attempt to make their actions appear morally justified. Parties sympathetic to the invaders painted Ellen Watson as a prostitute and cattle rustler, Jim Averell as her murderous partner in crime and pimp and Nate Champion as the leader of a vast cattle rustling empire, claiming that he was a leading member of the fabled "Red Sash Gang" of outlaws that supposedly included the likes of the Jesse James gang. These claims have since been discredited. While men frequently visited Watson's cabin, this was because she mended clothing for cowboys to earn extra money. While some accounts do note that Champion wore a red sash at the time of his death, such sashes were common. While the Hole in the Wall Gang was known to hide out in Johnson County, there is no evidence that Champion had any relationship to them. Parties sympathetic to the smaller ranchers spun tales that included some of the West's most notorious gunslingers under the employ of the Invaders, including such legends as Tom Horn and Big Nose George Parrot. Horn did briefly work as a detective for the WSGA in the 1890s, but there is little evidence he was involved in the war.
caption: Ella Watson was lynched in 1889 by wealthy ranchers who accused her of cattle rustling, a charge that was later shown to be false.
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