Financial History 134 (Summer 2020) | Page 10

EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE National Park Service; Richard Collier, photographer Front of the original TA Ranch house, located approximately 14 miles south of Buffalo, Wyoming. drew up a list of as many as 70 Johnson County residents slated for assassination. The regulators 2 planned a surprise assault on Buffalo where they would first do away with Sheriff Angus, his deputies and the Johnson County commissioners. They would then fan out, find and dispose of the rustlers on the list. In their righteous indignation, the invaders assumed that the good people of Johnson County would rise up and join them in the purge. However, the locals were upset and frightened about the cold-blooded murders of Tisdale and Jones. Most believed that the big Johnson County cattlemen were behind those murders. WSGA members provided over $100,000 to fund the expedition. Wolcott was chosen to lead the invasion with Irving as second-in-command. Wyoming Governor Amos W. Barber was kept abreast of the plans and played an important role by sending a telegram prior to the invasion instructing the Wyoming National Guard to only follow orders directly from the governor and ignore any requests for help from local authorities. Wyoming Senators Joseph Cary and Francis Warren were also apprised of the plan. A train was sent to Texas where more than 20 gunmen had been hired. Horses and “enough ammunition to kill all the people in the state of Wyoming” were purchased in Colorado. The train rolled into Cheyenne, and the passenger car containing the Texans was quickly coupled to a special train loaded with horses, wagons and gear. Several of the WSGA ranch owners—along with their ranch foremen and hired hands—boarded the train in Cheyenne. A few WSGA stock detectives, including Frank Canton, also joined the group. According to Davis, 52 men were on the train. Smith wrote, “The famous train, the ‘secret,’ ‘mysterious’ invasion special, got away from Cheyenne in the late afternoon of Tuesday, April 5, 1892, amid a flurry of rumor and speculation. While the leaders congratulated themselves that their preparations had gone unobserved, the train’s departure was undoubtedly one of the worst-kept secrets in the history of the West.” As the train made its way to Casper, the telegraph wire to Buffalo was cut by WSGA operatives. The train arrived in Casper before dawn the next day, and the regulators began the 112-mile trek to Buffalo. Things quickly went awry when a spring blizzard hit. The force slogged along for two days before reaching the TTT Ranch about 65 miles from Casper. Mike Shonsey, who had been scouting the route ahead, rode back to the TTT with news that 15 rustlers were staying at the nearby KC Ranch. Some of the group wanted to push on to Buffalo ignoring Shonsey’s news, but Wolcott chose to attack the KC. Shortly before midnight on April 8, the regulators headed to the KC Ranch for an early morning raid. They surrounded the cabin where Nate Champion, Nick Ray and two overnight visitors were sleeping. They quickly apprehended the two visitors when they came out of the cabin. Ray stepped outside to check on the visitors and was felled by one of the Texans. He dragged himself toward the cabin door where Champion soon appeared firing at the invaders. Champion helped Ray back to the cabin and proceeded to hold off his attackers for most of the day. The invaders decided to set the cabin on fire to force Champion out. They accomplished this by ramming a burning wagon up against the cabin. The ensuing fire forced Champion to flee in his stocking feet, a Winchester rifle in one hand and a revolver in the other. 3 As he headed south toward a ravine, two Texans hiding there quickly gunned him down. Champion lost his life, but by singlehandedly holding off the invaders for several hours, he allowed time for a number of locals who witnessed the standoff to sound the alert in Buffalo. The element of surprise had vanished. 4 Nevertheless, the invaders pushed on arriving at the TA Ranch, 5 about 14 miles south of Buffalo, on the morning of April 10. The next morning, they began their final push to Buffalo, but they retreated to the TA Ranch after learning that Sheriff Angus was headed their way leading a group of 250 armed men. Instead of supporting the invaders, the citizens of Johnson County rose in anger to repel them. 8 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org