JOHNSON COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY

Our local history collection contains photographs, oral history cassettes (with printed transcriptions), video tapes, obituaries, newspaper clippings, family histories, cemetery records, Wyoming State Grave Registration project files, Historic Site Register information and miscellaneous additional sources.  This collection is name and subject indexed.  It is complimented by books form the library circulation collection, as well as books which do not circulate, but are available for supervised in-house usage.  Buffalo newspapers including : BUFFALO ECHO, BUFFALO VOICE  and the BUFFALO BULLETIN from 1800's to the present day.  The newspapers are on microfilm and physical format.  The Library has an extensive file dealing with the 1892 Johnson County Cattle War.

Johnson County Cattle War                    Go-devil

 Time and circumstance were bringing changes to the free range in what is now northeastern Wyoming.  The operators of the large cattle outfits, resisting these changes, recruited 25 gunmen from Texas and formed a vigilante group known as the Invaders.  The group gathered in Cheyenne and took a train to Casper and continued north by horseback.  The group planned to proceed secretly to Johnson County.  Supposedly, they carried a list of suspects they planned to kill.  At the Kaycee cabin, they encountered Nate Champion and Nick Ray and killed them.  The killings were observed and when the news reached Buffalo, a group of armed men rode out to meet the Invaders.  They met at the TA Ranch, and after several days, Federal troops rode out from Fort McKinney to rescue the Invaders.  They were taken to the Fort and then transferred to Cheyenne.  Political power ensured the group would never come to trial for the murders.

 Left: Dudley Champion,                                                         Invaders May 1892                                                                    TA Ranch

Martin Allison Tisdale, Nathan D. Champion

                Nate Champion (2nd from left)

Genealogy

Resources on the Reference shelf are for use in the library.  These are primarily indexes and are for quick reference use.  Included are guides to genealogy resources on the Internet.  Our vertical file has reproducible forms as well as catalogs showing newly published resources.

            Magazines:      Everton's Genealogical Helper is available for         checkout.

            Databases:       HERITAGE QUEST & ANCESTRY LIBRARY EDITION are available on the   public computers at the library and on your personal computer by using your library card  number and pin number.  The library's web site in http://wyld.state.wy.us/john

The Johnson County Genealogical Society meets at he library's meeting room the first Monday evening each month, form September through May at 7pm.