The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a series of range conflicts that took place in Johnson, Wyoming between 1889 and 1893. The conflicts started when cattle companies ruthlessly persecuted supposed rustlers throughout the grazing lands of Wyoming. As tensions swelled between the large established ranchers and the smaller settlers in the state, violence finally culminated in Powder River Country, when the ranchers hired armed gunmen to invade the county and wipe out or scare off the competition, that is, the settlers. When word came out of the gunmen's initial incursion in the territory, the small farmers and ranchers, as well as the state lawmen, formed a posse of 200 men to fight them, which led to a grueling stand-off. The war ende