en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(film)
1 correction found
Homesteaders began to settle northern Wyoming in the 1890s
This date is too late. Credible Wyoming history sources say small homestead ranchers were already settling northern Wyoming in the 1880s.
Full reasoning
Wyoming historical sources place homesteading in northern Wyoming before the 1890s.
- WyoHistory's article on Johnson County says that "By the 1880s, Buffalo was becoming headquarters for small homestead ranchers".
- WyoHistory's Johnson County War article likewise says that "In the 1880s, the cattle barons in Johnson County and across Wyoming Territory ruled their customary ranges like private fiefdoms" and notes the 1889 lynching of "two homesteaders" (Ellen Watson and Jim Averell), which shows homesteaders were already present in northern Wyoming before the 1890s.
- HISTORY also says that in "the latter part of the 1880s" the open range was closing and, under the Homestead Act, cowboys were taking up parcels and fencing them.
So the article's claim that homesteaders began settling northern Wyoming only in the 1890s is inaccurate; settlement by homesteaders was already underway in the 1880s.
3 sources
- Johnson County, Wyoming | WyoHistory.org
By the 1880s, Buffalo was becoming headquarters for small homestead ranchers who attracted the ire of Cheyenne-based cattle barons.
- The Johnson County War: 1892 Invasion of Northern Wyoming | WyoHistory.org
In the 1880s, the cattle barons in Johnson County and across Wyoming Territory ruled their customary ranges like private fiefdoms... That was the 1889 fate of two homesteaders, lynched near the Sweetwater River...
- When Cattle Barons Hired Hit Men to Take Out Small Ranchers | HISTORY
In the latter part of the 1880s... Under the 1862 Homestead Act, cowboys snapped up prime 160-acre parcels for $10 claims.