From 1889 to 1893, the 19th century’s version of billionaire, the cattle barons controlled the seats of power in Wyoming. The ranks included governors, senators, most of the legislature and even the presidency.
The open range was largely unregulated. Large cattle operations allowed cattle to graze freely until the round-up, where cattle were separated and delivered to the different owners.
Before the round-up, some stray cattle from the open range were branded. Large cattle owners claimed the calves were stolen.
Small homesteaders were moving into the territory increasing competition for watering holes and good pasture.
The Large Cattle, the billionaires of the time, passed the Maverick Act, which said all unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the large ranches.
They also forbid employees of the large ranches from owning cattle. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association employed an agency of detectives to investigate cases of cattle theft and intimidate settlers.
Merciless killers like Frank Canton were hired to eliminate the small ranchers. The small ranchers formed a competing organization, and began to stand up to the large cattle barons.
So, the cattle barons hired a bunch of killers from Texas to come to Wyoming, to murder small ranchers.
Nate Champion and Nick Ray were killed near Kaycee by the vigilantes, but not before holding off the vigilantes for several hours. The standoff allowed word to get to Buffalo. A posse was formed to take down the vigilantes.
The posse laid siege at a barn south of Buffalo. The Johnson County War ended at the TA Ranch, when the president, Benjamin Harrison, ordered troops from Ft. McKinney near Buffalo to take the vigilantes into custody. No prosecution ever happened, and the vigilantes slipped quietly back to Texas.
Today, we have the modern-day equivalent of Big Cattle trying to take over Wyoming. Instead of using guns and marauders, they finance the political process, slick advertising and politicians to accomplish their ends.
Here are some examples from today’s news.
The Wyoming legislature passed a 25% property tax decrease. Using terms like helping the people and protecting property rights from growing government, the property tax decrease was passed as a campaign tool.
Claiming to be populist actors, the proponents passed tax relief that disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and hurt the regular citizens.
The Freedom Caucus folks did not share 49% of the tax cut benefits would go rich folks in Teton County. They did not share that 4H programs, ambulance services, small communities and schools would be hurt by their actions. We may see much of Wyoming without hospital care.
A crisis in school funding was created by the tax cut. Instead of admitting folly, they bought red costumes and tried to turn the shortfall into a campaign issue.
Tax cuts aimed at helping the regular guy benefit the rich more than anyone.
Another attempt to benefit the rich was to sell our public lands. Those public lands were ostensibly to be used for housing.
Of course, what the proponents of the public land sale did not say was the sale was not in furtherance of the American dream. Regular folks would not be able to buy the land. The purchasers would be rich folks, foreign governments and corporations.
And, once the modern-day cattle barons locked up the public land, say goodbye to multiple use. Wyoming will be a park for the wealthy.
The flood of dark money pouring into Wyoming politics is frightening. Anonymous donors are pumping lots of money into the state to take control of Wyoming politics – without accountability.
We see slick political advertising claiming “patriotism”, “riding for the brand”, “defender of freedom”, “working for the small guy” or “fighting against Andrea Ocasio Cortez sponsored issues.” What we get are laws that benefit the wealthy. The fancy words are just disguises for daggers sticking in our backs.
We need to vet these candidates and find where their loyalties are. We need to demand no secrets from the voters. We need to know the sources of the money. We need to look behind slick mailers and fancy phrases to what is really going on.
Otherwise, we’ll be like small cattlemen trapped in a burning cabin near Kaycee.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
