The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range conflict that took place in Johnson County, Wyoming from 1889 to 1893. The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged rustlers in the area, many of whom were settlers who competed with them for livestock, land and water rights. As violence swelled between the large established ranchers and the smaller settlers in the state, it culminated in the Powder River Country, when the ranchers hired gunmen, who invaded the county. The gunmen's initial incursion in the territory alerted the small farmers and ranchers, as well as the state lawmen, and they formed a posse of 200 men that led to a grueling standoff which ended when the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison relieved the two forces, although further fighting persisted.
Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film written and directed by Michael Cimino, starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, and Joseph Cotten, and loosely based on the Johnson County War. It revolves around a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s.
Eugene Kal Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune who co-hosted movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert.
Playing by Heart is a 1998 American comedy-drama film which tells the story of several seemingly unconnected characters. It was entered into the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. It stars Gillian Anderson, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Angelina Jolie, Jay Mohr, Ryan Phillippe, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Jon Stewart and Madeleine Stowe. Playing by Heart is an ensemble work that explores the path of love in its characters’ lives.
The Legend of the Lone Ranger is a 1981 American Western adventure film directed by William A. Fraker and starring Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse and Christopher Lloyd. It is based on the story of The Lone Ranger, a Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker.
Richard Pearce is an American film director, television director and cinematographer. In addition to feature films, he has directed made-for-TV movies and TV series.
Any Which Way You Can is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Buddy Van Horn and starring Clint Eastwood, with Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith, and Ruth Gordon in supporting roles. The film is the sequel to the 1978 hit comedy Every Which Way but Loose. The cast of the previous film return as Philo Beddoe (Eastwood) reluctantly comes out of retirement from underground bare-knuckle boxing to take on a champion hired by the mafia, who will stop at nothing to ensure the fight takes place, while the neo-Nazi biker gang Philo humiliated in the previous film also comes back for revenge.
The Cowboys is a 1972 American Western film starring John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Bruce Dern, and featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Slim Pickens. It was the feature film debut of Robert Carradine. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Dale Jennings, the screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr., and Jennings and was directed by Mark Rydell.
Conchata Galen Ferrell was an American actress. She played Berta the housekeeper on the sitcom Two and a Half Men from 2003 to 2015, and received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role. Ferrell had previously been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in L.A. Law.
Cattle drives were a major economic activity in the 19th and early 20th century American West, particularly between 1850s and 1910s. In this period, 27 million cattle were driven from Texas to railheads in Kansas, for shipment to stockyards in St. Louis and points east, and direct to Chicago. The long distances covered, the need for periodic rests by riders and animals, and the establishment of railheads led to the development of "cow towns" across the frontier.
The Ballad of Little Jo is a 1993 American Western drama film written and directed by Maggie Greenwald. It is inspired by the real-life story of Josephine Monaghan, a young woman who lived as a man in the late 19th century. It stars Suzy Amis as Monaghan, with Bo Hopkins, Ian McKellen, David Chung, René Auberjonois, and Carrie Snodgress in supporting roles.
Ellen Liddy Watson was a pioneer of Wyoming who became known as Cattle Kate, an outlaw of the Old West, although the characterization is a dubious one, as subsequent research has tended to see her as a much maligned victim of a self-styled land baron. Watson had acquired homestead rights on land with water resources vital to the wealthiest rancher in the county, Albert Bothwell, when she was accused by him of cattle rustling. She was abducted from her home and lynched along with her husband by Bothwell and some other ranchers he had incited against her. The bodies were left hanging for two days, and the reputation that attached to her until recently was quickly established by newspaper publicity. Accounts of Watson as a rustler are now regarded as highly biased. Her life has become an Old West legend and inspired a number of television and film accounts.
I Take This Woman is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by Marion Gering and starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard.
Samurai Cowboy is a film shot in conjunction with the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation, and Monarch Home video. The film was shot in 1993 at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. The film was directed by Canadian director Michael Keusch. For the director Michael Keusch, a graduate of the film program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, the film was a chance to revisit the province he grew up in.
Cold Feet is a 1989 comedy film directed by Robert Dornhelm. It stars Keith Carradine, Tom Waits, Bill Pullman, Sally Kirkland & Rip Torn.
The following works deal with the cultural, political, economic, military, biographical and geologic history of pre-territorial Wyoming, Wyoming Territory and the State of Wyoming.
Caroline Cameron Lockhart was an American journalist, author, newspaper publisher, rodeo promoter and rancher. Along with Buffalo Bill and Senator Alan Kooi Simpson, she is one of Cody Wyoming's most famous citizens.
The Elinore Pruitt Stewart Homestead, near McKinnon, Wyoming, United States, has significance dating to 1898. Also known as the Elinore and Clyde Stewart Homestead, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Hollywood Cowboy is a 1937 American adventure film directed by Ewing Scott and written by Daniel Jarrett and Ewing Scott. The film stars George O'Brien, Cecilia Parker, Maude Eburne, Joe Caits and Frank Milan. The film was released on May 28, 1937, by RKO Pictures.
Elinore Pruitt Stewart was a homesteader in Wyoming, and a memoirist who between 1909 and 1914 wrote letters describing her life there to a former employer in Denver, Colorado. Those letters, which reveal an adventurous, capable, and resourceful woman of lively intelligence, were published in two collections in 1914 and 1915. The first of those collections, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, was the basis of the 1979 movie Heartland.
