Johnson County History Books
1. Portraits of Fort Phil Kearny Excellent biographical sketches of a broad representation
of individuals who were involved in that dramatic conflict between Euro-Americans and
Native Americans centered at or near Fort Phil Kearny, Dakota Territory, in 1866-1868.
2. Give Me Eighty Men: Women and the Myth of the Fetterman Fight The story of
what became the Fetterman Fight is based entirely on this infamous declaration attributed
to Capt. William J. Fetterman. Fetterman disobeyed direct orders and lead his men into a
perfectly executed ambush by an alliance of Plains Indians. In the aftermath of the
incident, Col. Henry B. Carrington, the commander of the fort, was held solely
accountable for the “massacre.” Carrington’s first and second wives wrote accounts in
their husband’s defense. Smith uses those two accounts along with contemporary
evidence to reexamine the Fetterman Fight.
3. The Fetterman Massacre, (originally Fort Phil Kearny: an American Saga) The
Fetterman Massacre occurred on December 21, 1866 at Ft. Phil Kearny. The second
battle in American history with no survivors, it became the subject of a congressional
investigation. It is a true account of Ft. Phil Kearny and the ghastly events that took
place.
4. Drybone: a History of Fort Fetterman, Wyoming This is an extensively wellresearched history of Fort Fetterman from its beginning in 1867 to its abandonment in
1890.
5. The Bloody Bozeman: the Perilous Trail to Montana’s Gold “The Bozeman Trail
was for a kind of man who was new in wilderness Montana, the man who came hopefully
out from the states to better his condition…This new man was not a born adventurer, but
in his stubborn, sometimes cautious way he was a gambler. He knew or soon learned that
hostile Indians barred the trail through the Powder River country of present Wyoming.
He gambled his life to better his condition…”
6. A Vast Amount of Trouble: a History of the Spring Creek Raid In late March
1909five sheep men set out from the town of Worland, Wyoming driving five thousand
sheep. A few days later they camped along the banks of Spring Creek and that evening
seven cowboys raided the camp and murdered three of the sheep men. Davis recounts the
events leading up to this crime, the gripping trial that followed, and the trial’s aftermath.
7. Alias Frank Canton The lack of definitive biography of Frank Canton has long been a
major gap in western historiography. Canton had a key role on the side of the cattlemen
in the cattle range conflict that shook Wyoming in the 1880s and on into the 1890s that
came to a peak in the Johnson County War of 1892.
8. Asa Shinn Mercer: Western Promoter and Newspaperman 1839-1917 the biography
of Asa Shinn Mercer is all about striving for the American dream. Through his long life
Asa Shinn Mercer lived and worked in more than seven American states and territories,
engaging in as many occupations, taught at the university of frontier Wyoming, and
published a newspaper in Cheyenne. He provided almost immediate coverage of the
Johnson County Cattle War with his book Banditti of the Plains.
9. Images of America: Buffalo The popular Images of America series released a book on
Buffalo, Wyoming. Learn about Buffalo, its early frontier history, the battles, Jim
Gatchell, and the economic development of the town through pictures and images from
the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum archives and other sources.
10. Tom Horn: Blood on the Moon He was a death sentence to rustlers and the devil
incarnate to homesteaders in late nineteenth-century Wyoming. Tom Horn, the most
notorious of Wyoming’s range detectives, operated unchecked until he was arrested for
the 1901 murder of the fourteen-year-old son of a sheep-raising settler. The murder and
questionable nature of Horn’s conviction still ignite firestorms of controversy among
historians and Wyomingites in general.
11. Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter Horn, hanged in Cheyenne for
killing a 14-year-old boy, was an army scout and interpreter for Generals Willcox, Crook,
and Miles in the Apache wars, a Pinkerton detective, cattle detective, and “King of the
Cowboys.” This is his own account of his life, written while he was in prison.
12. The Johnson County War In the early 1890s Wyoming’s northern rangeland was torn
by the Johnson County War, a violent western collision, which pitted cattle barons and
powerful politicians against homesteaders and rustlers. The range war, riddled with
lynchings, ambushes, and an invasion by hired Texas gunmen, culminated in a valiant
last stand and a siege involving hundreds of combatants. The Johnson County War is
the first comprehensive historical account of the range war in nearly four decades.
13. The War on Powder River: the History of an Insurrection The author focuses on the
events leading up to the Johnson County Cattle War as well as the events that took place
during 1892.
14. The Banditti of the Plains or The Cattlemen’s Invasion of Wyoming in 1892 With the
intension of “executing” alleged rustlers and terrorizing the homesteaders, a band of fiftytwo cattlemen and hired gunmen invaded Johnson County, Wyoming, in April 1892.
Then the killing began. This is an excellent yet angry history of the Johnson County War,
written by one who was there and saw it all.
15. Red Walls and Homesteads The author chronicles her family’s history as homesteaders
who moved to Wyoming from Wisconsin and Nebraska in 1888. Red Wall isolated the
family homestead at EK Mountain from the rest of the world. Cowboys, sheepherders,
outlaws, and homesteaders peopled her world. This is her story of growing up on a
homestead.
16. Wyoming Range War: the Infamous Invasion of Johnson County offers a new
perspective on the Johnson County Cattle War from the county citizens who had little or
no part in the 1892 fight. These people had their home territory invaded and the invaders
targeted many of them for murder. John W. Davis is a local resident of Worland,
Wyoming.
17. Bound for Montana: Diaries from the Bozeman Trail Edited by Susan Badger Doyle
this book is a collection of emigrants’ experiences traveling on the Bozeman Trail to the
“land of gold” in Montana. Learn about the dangers, pleasures, frustrations, and joys
people had while traveling the Bozeman Trail.
18. West of the Bozeman Trail is Robert Twing’s memoir of his childhood growing up in
Johnson County, Wyoming during the Great Depression. These short stories continue to
unfold with the humorous escapes of Robert and his brother, as well as detailing
hardships and victories of life on a Wyoming ranch.
19. Duffy’s Bluff: a story of the Wyoming Railway Company is a classic and a must if
you are interested in the history of the Wyoming Railway Company and the impact it had
on Buffalo.
20. In the Shadow of the Bighorns This book is a history of Early Sheridan and the Goose
Creek Valley of Northern Wyoming, exploring a number of factors that made Sheridan
more than just a cowtown or a whistle stop on the railroad.
21. The Character: Life with my Father, Jack Meldrum Louise Meldrum Anderson
writes about growing up with her father. Jack Meldrum charmed Air Force Generals and
CEO’s of huge companies. He loved life in spite of an atypical childhood and flew his
little Piper Cub (with only a watch and a ruler for instruments) until he was 83 years old.
He had an amazing sense of humor and could turn any situation into a pun or story.
22. Goodbye, Judge Lynch: The End of a Lawless Era in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin
John W. Davis examines murders, assaults, and thefts in the region over the course of
three decades, when the problems of prosecution were overwhelming. He highlights the
infamous 1902 case of State v. Jim Gorman, and another incident where raiders murdered
three sheepherders.
23. Clear Creek Flood of 1912 A fantastic book celebrating the 100th anniversary of the
Flood of 1912 in Buffalo and includes pictures and newspaper accounts.
24. That’s Here? 25 Historical Places to Visit In and Around Sheridan, Wyoming This
is a great tourism book that anyone will enjoy while discovering 25 unique and historical
places. Some of the places covered would only be known by locals and die-hard history
buffs and would be a great buy for anyone wanting to experience local Johnson and
Sheridan counties history.
25. TA Ranch on Crazy Woman Creek Local author Gil Bollinger unveils the history of
one of Johnson County’s oldest ranches through the events that it saw and the few owners
that owned it. Filled with more than 100 photographs.