Example of Old West (USA) years-long armed conflict: Johnson County War in Wyoming (1889 to 1893) which got "highly mythologized" in Western genre movies; Shane movie (1953)

Last updated on 5th Dec. 2019

In a recent post: Why I watch Wild West movies now even though they are quite wild exaggerations of reality of American frontier then; The Bravados (1958) starring Gregory Peck, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2019/12/why-i-watch-wild-west-movies-now-even.html, I had written, "But there is a kernel of truth around which the exaggerations of the Wild West movies are made."

[Note: This post was triggered by a comment from a Facebook friend on my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2673496862866874, associated with above blog post, where he suggested that I watch Shane which was his all time favourite (perhaps in the Western genre), and two other movies. I thank my Facebook friend for this suggestion. I had not known of the movie Shane or the novel of the same title, though the name of the author of the novel, Jack Schaefer, rings a faint bell. I think I have read one or more of his books some decades ago. end-Note]

I think the Johnson County war in Wyoming from 1889 to 1893 is one such kernel of real-life truth about the Old West (Wild West) in the USA, around which exaggerated accounts in Western genre novels and movies have been spun. I thought of sharing some details of this real-life set of events in this post.

Before we get to Johnson County War, we need to understand the Homestead Acts in the USA which I think is a very extraordinary social phenomenon of history of recent past centuries in the world which perhaps happened in North America (USA & Canada) and in Australia and New Zealand. [Maybe something similar happened in South America to some extent but I know very little of history of South America, and so can't comment on it.] Asia and Europe did not have such vast land areas then which were sparsely populated and not well protected, where people could settle down for farming and rearing animals. Perhaps it was similar in Africa too. North America (and Australia & New Zealand) was exceptional in that such vast areas of land which was sparsely populated and not well defended, was available in the 19th century, and where the Native American people were not able to prevent the invading settlers from evicting them from their land.

Given below are some extracts from Homestead Acts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts :

The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km2; 250 thousand sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.

An extension of the homestead principle in law, the Homestead Acts were an expression of the Free Soil policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to Southern slave-owners who wanted to buy up large tracts of land and use slave labor, thereby shutting out free white farmers.

The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, opened up millions of acres. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the Federal government of the United States could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible.
...

Homesteading requirements

The Homestead Acts had few qualifying requirements. A homesteader[18] had to be the head of the household or at least twenty-one years old. They had to live on the designated land, build a home, make improvements, and farm it for a minimum of five years.[19] The filing fee was eighteen dollars (or ten to temporarily hold a claim to the land).[20]

Immigrants, farmers without their own land, single women, and former slaves could all qualify. The fundamental racial qualification was that one had to be a citizen, or have filed a declaration of intention to become a citizen, and so the qualification changed over the years with the varying legal qualifications for citizenship.[21] African-Americans became qualified with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. South Asians and East Asians who had been born in the United States became qualified with the decision of United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898, but little high-quality land remained available by that time. For immigrants the fundamental qualification was that they had to be permitted to enter the country (which was usually co-extensive with being allowed to file a declaration of intention to become a citizen).[22] During the 1800s, the bulk of immigrants were from Europe, with immigrants from South Asia and East Asia being largely excluded, and (voluntary) immigrants from Africa were permitted but uncommon.

In practice

Settlers found land and filed their claims at the regional land office, usually in individual family units, although others formed closer knit communities. Often, the homestead consisted of several buildings or structures besides the main house.

The Homestead Act of 1862 gave rise later to a new phenomenon, large land rushes, such as the Oklahoma Land Runs of the 1880s and 90s.

End of homesteading

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 ended homesteading;[23][24] by that time, federal government policy had shifted to retaining control of western public lands. The only exception to this new policy was in Alaska, for which the law allowed homesteading until 1986.[23]

The last claim under this Act was made by Ken Deardorff for 80 acres (32 ha) of land on the Stony River in southwestern Alaska. He fulfilled all requirements of the homestead act in 1979 but did not receive his deed until May 1988. He is the last person to receive title to land claimed under the Homestead Acts.[25]

Criticism

The homestead acts were much abused.[23] Although the intent was to grant land for agriculture, in the arid areas east of the Rocky Mountains, 640 acres (260 ha) was generally too little land for a viable farm (at least prior to major federal public investments in irrigation projects). In these areas, people manipulated the provisions of the act to gain control of resources, especially water. A common scheme was for an individual, acting as a front for a large cattle operation, to file for a homestead surrounding a water source, under the pretense that the land was to be used as a farm. Once the land was granted, other cattle ranchers would be denied the use of that water source, effectively closing off the adjacent public land to competition. That method was also used by large businesses and speculators to gain ownership of timber and oil-producing land. The federal government charged royalties for extraction of these resources from public lands. On the other hand, homesteading schemes were generally pointless for land containing "locatable minerals," such as gold and silver, which could be controlled through mining claims under the Mining Act of 1872, for which the federal government did not charge royalties.

The government developed no systematic method to evaluate claims under the homestead acts. Land offices relied on affidavits from witnesses that the claimant had lived on the land for the required period of time and made the required improvements. In practice, some of these witnesses were bribed or otherwise colluded with the claimant.

Although not necessarily fraud, it was common practice for the eligible children of a large family to claim nearby land as soon as possible. After a few generations, a family could build up a sizable estate.[26]

The homesteads were criticized as too small for the environmental conditions on the Great Plains; a homesteader using 19th-century animal-powered tilling and harvesting could not have cultivated the 1500 acres later recommended for dry land farming. Some scholars believe the acreage limits were reasonable when the act was written, but reveal that no one understood the physical conditions of the plains.[26]

According to Hugh Nibley, much of the rain forest west of Portland, Oregon was acquired by the Oregon Lumber Company by illegal claims under the Act.[27]

Nonetheless, in 1995, a random survey of 178 members of the Economic History Association found that 70 percent of economists and 84 percent of economic historians disagreed that "Nineteenth-century U.S. land policy, which attempted to give away free land, probably represented a net drain on the productive capacity of the country."[28]

Robert Higgs argues that the Homestead Act induced no long-term misallocation of resources.[29]

[The wiki page also covers similar acts in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.]

[Wiki Refs:]
18. "Homesteader". The Free Dictionary By Farlex. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
19. "American History; The Homestead Act - Creating Prosperity in America". Legends of America. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
20. "About the Homestead Act". National Park Service. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
21. "Was Homesteading only for White People?". Friends of Homestead National Monument of America. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
22. "You Can, But You Can't!". Friends of Homestead National Monument of America. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
23. "The Florida Homestead Act of 1862". Florida Homestead Services. 2006. Retrieved November 22, 2007. (paragraphs.3,6&13) (Includes data on the U.S. Homestead Act)
24. Cobb, Norma (2000). Arctic Homestead: The True Story of a Family's Survival and Courage... St. Martin's Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-312-28379-7. Retrieved November 22, 2007.
25. "The Last Homesteader". National Park Service. 2006. Retrieved November 22, 2007.
26. Hansen, Zeynep K., and Gary D. Libecap. "Small Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s", Journal of Political Economy, Volume: 112(3). – pp.665–94. – 21 November 2003
27. See Nibley, Hugh. Approaching Zion (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol 9), p. 469. Nibley's grandfather, Charles W. Nibley made his fortune in Oregon lumber, among other resources.
28. Whaples, Robert (March 1995). "Where is There Consensus Among American Economic Historians? The Results of a Survey on Forty Propositions" (PDF). The Journal of Economic History. 55 (1): 139–154. doi:10.1017/S0022050700040602. JSTOR 2123771.
29. See Higgs, Robert. The Transformation of the American Economy,1865-1914, p. 92.

--- end Homestead Acts wiki extracts ---

Ravi: Hmm. How attractive these Homestead acts would have been for poor but hard-working young American and recent immigrant to America families (mostly white European immigrants) of that period (19th century mostly) to strike out on their own and settle down in these frontier areas then!

But, in some places at least, the new homestead settlers who were given claims to such land by the government, faced resistance from earlier settlers of that area who viewed the whole land and water sources on that land, as theirs for cattle grazing and other needs even though it was designated as public land (prior to homestead claims).

And that seems to have been at the root of the Johnson County War!

Given below are extracts from Johnson County War, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_County_War:

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 innocent settlers who competed with them for land, livestock and water rights. As tensions swelled between the large established ranchers and the smaller settlers in the state, violence finally broke out in 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. In addition to being one of the most well-known range wars of the American frontier, its themes, especially class warfare, served as a basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows in the Western genre.

[Pic of the "The Invaders" of The Johnson County Cattle War. Photo taken at Fort D.A. Russell near Cheyenne, Wyoming, May 1892: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Invaders.gif.]
...

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 white Americans 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",[4] 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. Large numbers of cattle were turned loose on the open range by large ranches. Each spring, round-ups were held to separate the cattle belonging to different ranches. Before a round-up, an orphan or stray calf was sometimes surreptitiously branded, which was the common way to identify the cow's owners. Lands and water rights were usually distributed to whoever settled the property first, and farmers and ranchers had to respect these boundaries (the doctrine was known as Prior Appropriation).[5] However, as more and more homesteaders called "grangers" moved into Wyoming, competition for land and water soon enveloped the state, and the cattle companies reacted by monopolizing large areas of the open range to prevent newcomers from using it. They also forbade their employees from owning cattle for fear of additional competition, and threatened anyone they suspected to be rustlers.

The often uneasy relationship between the larger, wealthier ranches and smaller ranch settlers became steadily worse after the harsh winter of 1886–1887, when a series of blizzards and temperatures of –50 to –40 °F (–45 to –40 °C) followed by an extremely hot and dry summer, ravaged the frontier.[6] Thousands of cattle were lost and the large companies began appropriating land and the water supply in the area. Some of the harsher tactics included forcing settlers off their land, setting fire to their properties, and excluding them from participating in the annual roundup. They justified these excesses on what was public land by using the catch-all allegation of rustling. Hostilities worsened when the Wyoming legislature passed the Maverick Act, which stated that all unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the cattlemen's association.[7] The cattlemen also held a firm grip on Wyoming's stock interests by limiting the number of small ranchers that could participate.

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 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.[8] 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 the detectives to discriminate who were the criminals and the innocent.[8]

Rustling in the local area was likely increasing due to the harsh grazing conditions, and the illegal exploits of organized groups of rustlers were becoming well publicized in the late 1880s.[9] 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.[9][10] Bandits taking refuge in the infamous hideout known as the Hole-in-the-Wall were also preying upon the herds.[11] 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 eliminating these supposed 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 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."[12]

War

Early killings

On July 20, 1889, a range detective from the Association named George Henderson accused Ella Watson, a local rancher, of stealing cattle from a fellow rancher by the name of Albert John Bothwell. The cattlemen sent riders to seize Ella before capturing her husband Jim Averell as well. Both of them were subsequently hanged from a tree. This gruesome act was one of the rare cases in the Old West in which a woman was lynched, an event that appalled many of the local residents[7] and paved the way for future conflicts in the war.[13] County Sheriff Frank Hadsell arrested six men for the lynching and a trial date was set. However, before the trial, threats were sent to the witnesses who would testify against the aggressors.[14] One of those witnesses was young Gene Crowder, who mysteriously disappeared under unknown circumstances before the trial.[15] Another, Jim's nephew and foreman Frank Buchanan, disappeared from the county as well after a shoot-out with unknown suspects, and was presumed to be hiding or murdered.[16] Ralph Cole, another nephew of Averell's, died on the day of the trial from poisoning.[14]

Enemies of the Association soon fought back. George Henderson, the range detective who had accused Ella Watson, was murdered by rustlers near Sweetwater Creek in October 1890, an obvious taunt to the Association. The cattle barons soon tightened their control and hunted down those who tried to oppose them. The double lynching of the Averells was followed by the lynching of Tom Waggoner, a horse trader from Newcastle, in June 1891.[11] A friend of Waggoner named Jimmy the Butcher, who was once arrested for rustling from the Standard Cattle Company, was also murdered.[17][18] Range detective Tom Smith killed a suspected rustler, and when he was indicted for murder, political connections of the Association secured his release.[19] These killings would precipitate more hostilities and violence in the years to come.[20]

[Ravi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Watson has a pic of Ella Watson also known as "Cattle Kate". Pic of Jim Averell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jim_Averell.jpg. As mentioned above Ella Watson and Jim Averell were lynched, and the suggestion is that Albert Bothwell may have instigated the lynching. 

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/albert-bothwell/ states it in a more certain manner (don't know how accurate it is) and also has a pic of Bothwell. It states that Bothwell convinced other ranchers of the area that Watson and Averell were stealing his cattle, and that on 20th July 1889, he and five other men hanged Watson and Averell. It further states that after that Bothwell acquired the homesteads of Watson and Averell! Bothwell later retired to Los Angeles, California and died there on 1st March 1928.]

After the lynchings of their prominent competitors, the WSGA's control over the range was undisputed, until a group of smaller ranchers led by a local cowboy named Nate Champion formed the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers' Association (NWFSGA) to compete with the WSGA. Upon hearing this, the WSGA immediately viewed Champion's association as a threat to their hold on the stock interests. The WSGA then blacklisted members of the NWFSGA from the round-ups in order to stop their operations. However, the latter refused the orders to disband and instead publicly announced their plans to hold their own round-up in the spring of 1892.[21]

Soon, the prominent cattlemen sent out an assassination squad to kill Nate Champion on the morning of November 1, 1891.[22] Champion and another man named Ross Gilbertson were sleeping in a cabin in Middle Fork of Powder River when a group of armed men went inside.[11] Two of them went in while another stood by outside. Champion was immediately awakened by the intrusion, and as the gunmen pointed their weapons at him, Champion reached for his own pistol hidden under a pillow and a shootout commenced. Champion successfully shot two of the gunmen; mortally wounding and killing Billy Lykins.[23] The rest of the assassination squad subsequently fled. Champion was left uninjured except for some facial powder burns from the gunfight. In a subsequent investigation of the attack, the names of those involved were leaked to two ranchers: John A. Tisdale and Orley "Ranger" Jones. However, both men were ambushed while they were riding, which outraged many of the small ranchers and farmers in the county.[11] By early 1892, violence had reached something of a peak; newspapers, such as the Big Horn County Rustler, published articles and speculations that a "war" was on the way.[1]

Invaders

The WSGA, led by Frank Wolcott (WSGA Member and large North Platte rancher), hired gunmen with the intention of eliminating alleged rustlers in Johnson County and breaking up the NWFSGA.[24] By that time, prominent names in Wyoming started taking sides. Acting Governor Amos W. Barber supported the cattlemen, who blamed the small ranchers and homesteaders for the criminal activity in the state, while former cowboy and sheriff of Buffalo (the county seat of Johnson County), William "Red" Angus, supported the homesteaders, who believed that the cattle barons were stealing their land.[25]

In March 1892, the cattlemen sent agents to Texas from Cheyenne and Idaho to recruit gunmen and finally carry out their plans for exterminating the homesteaders.[1] The cattle barons have always used hired guns from Texas to take out suspected rustlers and scare away the nesters in Wyoming. One particular act of violence perpetrated by the Texans was recounted by cowboy John J. Baker, where the Texans ambushed and killed nine trappers whom they mistook for rustlers in Big Dry Creek, Wyoming.[17] They received a $450 bonus for the slaughter.

Soon, 23 gunmen from Paris, Texas and 4 cattle detectives from the WSGA were hired, as well as Wyoming dignitaries who also joined the expedition. State Senator Bob Tisdale, state water commissioner W. J. Clarke, as well as W. C. Irvine and Hubert Teshemacher, who had both been instrumental in organizing Wyoming's statehood four years earlier, also joined the band.[26][27] They were accompanied by surgeon Charles Bingham Penrose as well as Ed Towse, a reporter for the Cheyenne Sun, and a newspaper reporter for the Chicago Herald, Sam T. Clover, whose lurid first-hand accounts later appeared in eastern newspapers.[24] A total expedition of 50 men was organized which consisted of cattlemen and range detectives, as well as the 23 hired guns from Texas. To lead the expedition, the WSGA hired Frank M. Canton. Canton's gripsack was later found to contain a list of 70 county residents to be either shot or hanged, and a contract to pay the Texans $5 a day plus a bonus of $50 for every rustler, real or alleged, they killed.[28] The group became known as "The Invaders", or alternately, "Wolcott's Regulators".[7][29]

John Clay, a prominent Wyoming businessman, was suspected of playing a major role in planning the Johnson County invasion. Clay denied this, saying that in 1891 he advised Wolcott against the scheme and was out of the country when it was undertaken. He later helped the "Invaders" avoid punishment after their surrender.[30] The group organized in Cheyenne and proceeded by train to Casper, Wyoming and then toward Johnson County on horseback, cutting the telegraph lines north of Douglas, Wyoming in order to prevent an alarm.[31] While on horseback, Canton and the gunmen traveled ahead while the party of WSGA officials led by Wolcott followed a safe distance behind.

Shootout at the KC Ranch

The first target of the WSGA was Nate Champion, who was at the KC Ranch (also known as Kaycee) at that time. They were tasked to perform the assassination that others had failed to carry out five months before. The group traveled to the ranch late Friday, April 8, 1892, quietly surrounded the buildings, and waited for daybreak.[32] Three men besides Champion were at the KC. Two men who were evidently going to spend the night on their way through were captured as they emerged from the cabin early that morning to collect water at the nearby Powder River, while the third, Nick Ray, was shot while standing inside the doorway of the cabin.[32] As the gunmen opened fire on the cabin, Champion dragged the mortally wounded Nick Ray back to the cabin. The latter died hours later, and Champion was left besieged inside the log cabin alone.

Champion held out for several hours, wounding three of the vigilantes, and was said to have killed four others.[12] Another settler by the name of Jack Flagg passed by Champion's ranch on his wagon together with his stepson and witnessed the siege. The Invaders recognized Jack Flagg as one of the men on the list and they started shooting at him. Flagg then rode away and, as the Invaders gave chase, he grabbed his rifle and beat them back. During the siege, Champion kept a poignant journal which contained a number of notes he wrote to friends while taking cover inside the cabin. "Boys, I feel pretty lonesome just now. I wish there was someone here with me so we could watch all sides at once," he wrote. The last journal entry read: "Well, they have just got through shelling the house like hail. I heard them splitting wood. I guess they are going to fire the house tonight. I think I will make a break when night comes, if alive. Shooting again. It's not night yet. The house is all fired. Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again."[12][33]

The Invaders continued to shoot at the cabin while others managed to set it on fire. Nate Champion signed his journal entry and put it in his pocket before running from the back door with a six-shooter in one hand and either a knife or a rifle in the other.[33] As he emerged, the Invaders shot him dead. The killers pinned a note on Champion's bullet-riddled chest that read, "Cattle Thieves Beware".[21][34] Jack Flagg, who after escaping his pursuers, rode to Buffalo where he reported Champion's dilemma to the townsfolk. Sheriff Angus then raised a posse of 200 men over the next 24 hours and set out for the KC on Sunday night, April 10.[32]

[Ravi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Champion has a pic of Nate Champion.]

...

[Wiki Refs:]
1. Davis (2010) p.129
2. "Spell of the West: Johnson County War". JCS Group.
3. Chapel, Charles Edward. Guns of the Old West: An Illustrated Guide. Dover Publications; First edition (September 19, 2013). p. 242. ISBN 978-0486421612
4. Oxford University Press No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society by Richard Maxwell Brown. Product Description Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine 1992
5. "Wyoming Legends: Johnson County War". Legends of America. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
6. Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.156
7. Agnew, Jeremy, The Old West in Fact and Film: History Versus Hollywood, McFarland; 1st edition (2012) p.40. ISBN 978-0786468881
8. Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.157
9. "Wyoming Cattlemen on a Campaign against Thieves". The New York Times. April 1, 1892.
10. DeArment, R.K. "Gang Crackdown: When Stuart's Stranglers Raided". Wild West Magazine. June 7, 2007
11. Davis, John W. "The Johnson County War: 1892 Invasion of Northern Wyoming". Wyoming History. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
12. "Wyoming's Wild Past". Occidental Wyoming. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
13. Davis (2010) pp. 73-74
14. Davis (2010) p.76
15. "Jim Averill & Ella Watson (Cattle Kate)". The Spell of the West. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
16. Simkin, Jim (1997). "Albert Bothwell". Spartan Educational. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
17. Dolson, G. B. "Johnson County War" Wyoming Tales and Trails Archived 2014-01-08 at the Wayback Machine January 6, 2004.
18. Albright, Syd. "SMALL, LARGE RANCHERS WAGED JOHNSON COUNTY WAR IN WYOMING". CDA Press. Retrieved May 23, 2017. August 07, 2016
19. "Johnson County War". JCS Group. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
20. David Lavender, American Heritage History of the Great West, New Word City, Inc. (2014). Section V. ASIN B00PJOI4MS
21. Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.159
22. Davis (2010) p.101-102
23. Boardman, Mark. "Wave of Violence". True West Magazine. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
24. Inventory of the Johnson County War Collection Texas A&M University - Cushing Memorial Library"
25. "The Johnson County War (Wyoming) 1892". BBC. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
26. The New York Times "Troops Came Just In Time". April 15, 1892
27. Wyoming Tails and Trails Johnson County War. January 6th, 2004
28. The New York Times "To Kill Seventy Rustlers". April 23, 1892
29. Myers, Sue. "Commemorating the 'Johnson County War'". Casper Star Tribune. Retrieved February 2, 2014. April 09, 2007
30. Griske, Michael (2005). The Diaries of John Hunton. Heritage Books. pp. 122, 123. ISBN 0-7884-3804-2.
31. Herring, Hal. "The Johnson County War: How Wyoming Settlers Battled an Illegal Death Squad". Field and Stream. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
32. The New York Times "The Trouble In Wyoming". April 14, 1982.
33. Trachtman, Paul. The Gunfighters Time-Life Books 1974 p. 212. ASIN B001AATBV8
34. Meyers, Sue "Commemorating the 'Johnson County War'". Casper Star-Tribune April 9, 2007

--- end Johnson County War wiki extracts ---

I think the above wiki extracts clearly show that gunfights and brutal killings as part of conflicts over land and livestock were a reality in the Old West (Wild West) in the 19th century.

In my blog post mentioned at the top of this post, Noam Chomsky's comments are mentioned: "They invented a Wild West, which never existed, with the bold sheriff drawing the pistol faster than anyone else and all this nonsense that you get in the cowboy movies. It was all concocted. None of it ever happened."

The above Johnson County War wiki page extracts indicate that Noam Chomsky is just flat out wrong in his above comments. Yes, the Wild West movies were exaggerations. But there was a kernel of truth about gunfights and brutal killings in the Old West, around which those exaggerations were spun out.

Shane (film), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_(film) tells us that the movie, Shane released in 1953, is noted for, among other things, its contributions to Western genre of films. The movie was based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer. The wiki page states, "Although never explicitly stated, the basic plot elements of Shane were derived from the 1892 Johnson County War in Wyoming, the archetypal cattlemen–homesteaders conflict, which also served as the background for The Virginian and Heaven's Gate.", with the reference quoted as: Hyams 1984, p. 115.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_10_Top_10#Western lists the American Film Institute's top ten films in Western genre. It lists Shane as the 3rd in the list.

Here's the entire movie: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2870653099618961, around 2 hours. [I have yet to see the whole movie but plan to see it in the near future.] [5th Dec 2019 Update: I saw the whole movie and found it to be very good in the Western genre. I could not follow all the dialogues. Later I browsed for and got the dialogues transcript for the movie: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/shane-script-transcript-alan-ladd.html. Plan to see the movie/parts of the movie again sometime using the transcript to catch words that I could not follow.]

Some clips of the movie on youtube [I saw them all and found them to be quite impressive as depiction of the reality of some parts in some periods of the Old West/Wild West like the Johnson County War described above]:

1) Shane - Official Movie Trailer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3TdKDHU3pA, 1 min. 58 secs.

2) Shane fights Chris Calloway | 1953 - HD 60fps 1080p, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4X24dPPg-8, 2 min. 57 secs.

3) Low Down Yankee Lier (Liar), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE3mHhpGV2A, 4 min. 22 secs.

4) Shane, Come Back! - Shane (8/8) Movie CLIP (1953) HD, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtoCw2iOTSc, 2 min. 41 secs.
----

[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]