Johnson County War - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

The Johnson County War, with its overtones of class warfare and intervention by the President of the United States to save the lives of a gang of hired killers and set them free, is not a flattering reflection on the American myth of the west.

The Virginian, a seminal 1902 western novel by Owen Wister, solved the problem by taking the side of the wealthy ranchers, creating a myth dealing with the themes of the Johnson County war but bearing little resemblance to the events. The novel was popular and provided the pulp for six renditions on the silver screen (in 1914, 1923, 1929, 1946, 1962, and 2000).

Though not explicitly connected with Johnson County, The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark is a novel that dramatizes and condemns a lynching of the sort that Wister's novel appears to defend.

Jack Schaefer's popular 1949 novel Shane contained themes associated with the Johnson County War but took the side of the settlers. The novel spawned a film Shane (1953) and a 17-episode TV Series (1966).

The 1953 film The Redhead from Wyoming starring Maureen O'Hara dealt with very similar themes and in one scene Maureen O'Hara's character is told "It won't be long before they're calling you Cattle Kate."

In the 1968 novel True Grit by Charles Portis, the main character, Rooster Cogburn, was involved in the Johnson County War. In the early 1890s Rooster had gone north to Wyoming where he was "hired by stock owners to terrorize thieves and people called nesters and grangers .... I fear that Rooster did himself no credit in what they called the Johnson County War."

The 1980 film Heaven's Gate and a TV movie called The Johnson County War (2002) also painted the wealthy ranchers as the "bad guys." Heaven's Gate was a dramatic romance vaguely based on events while The Johnson County War was based on the 1957 novel Riders of Judgment.

The story of the Johnson County War from the point of view of the small ranchers was chronicled by Kaycee resident Chris LeDoux in his song Johnson County War on the 1989 album Powder River. The song included references to the burning of the KC Ranch, the capture of the WSGA men, the intervention of the U.S. Cavalry and the release of the cattlemen and hired guns.