range wars
Cattlemen versus sheepherders
Range wars were violent conflicts over land use in the American West, typically between cattle ranchers and sheep herders, or between large ranchers and homesteaders.
The disputes centered on access to open grazing land and water rights during the late 19th century.
The Johnson County War of 1892 was among the bloodiest range wars.
The term now applies figuratively to any territorial dispute between competing interests.
- barbed wireSpiked metal fence material
- ranchersLivestock farm operators
- cattle baronsWealthy large-scale ranchers
- sheepherdersThose who tend flocks
- water rightsLegal allocation of H2O
Homestead Act · grazing lands · vigilantes · hired guns · property boundaries · resource scarcity · drought · farmers · cowboys · territorial disputes · no man's land · settlers · lawmen · land claims · cattle drives · landowners · outlaws · rustlers
- Westernscowboys, western, outlaws, sheriffs, western novels
- Wild Westcowboy, howdy, sheriff, giddyup, lawmen
- frontierfrontier, pioneer, pioneers, settlers, settler
- frontier historypioneers, settlers, homesteaders, frontier tales, westward expansion
- Southwest historySanta Fe Trail, frontier, Old West, Wild West, statehood
- frontier violencecavalry charge, wagon train attack, gunfight, shootout, cavalry raid