Following the organization of an armed expedition by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the “Invaders” rode for 68 miles to K.C., the home of small-time rancher Nate Champion. Reaching the ranch, the Invaders planned to capture Champion and get a confession of rustling out of him before hanging him. It wasn’t until after the cabin was surrounded that the Invaders discovered that two trappers and Champion’s brother Nick Ray were also at the cabin. Taking the two trappers captive, the Invaders shot down Ray when he stepped out of the cabin.  While the shooting between Champion and the Invaders continued from noon to 3 o’clock, two people passing by witnessed the shootout and fled while being fired upon by some of the Invaders. In their escape, the people left their hay-filled wagon behind which the Invaders then used to burn down the cabin with Champion inside. Knowing his flaming fate was at hand, Champion chose his own way out and ran out of the cabin with a rifle in one hand and revolver in the other, firing on the Invaders as he was shot down beside the burning cabin. After disposing of Champion’s body, the Invaders found that their plan for assassinating the officials of Johnson County was spoiled by people alerting Sheriff Red Angus of Buffalo. Hearing that armed Johnson County citizens were attempting to head them off, the Invaders decided to reach the T.A. Ranch where they fortified against the posse. After reaching the T.A. Ranch, the Invaders took apart many of the wagons they brought with them and reinforced the barn and other structures to protect them against gunfire. As Sherriff Red Angus organized his deputies to confront the Invaders, he deputized any able-bodied men who they came across on their way to the T.A. ranch. With his posse now totaling over 200 men, Angus surrounded the T.A. ranch and the two sides hunkered down for a two day standoff with near constant gunfire from both sides. During those two days the posse built a mobile bunker to approach the Invader’s defenses and burn them down while being protected from gunfire. While the posse was constructing the “go-devil” from the Invader’s salvaged wagons, allies of the Invaders in Cheyenne alerted the acting governor of Wyoming Amos Barber of their besiegement by the residents of Johnson County. Governor Barber, being associated with the WSGA, immediately telegraphed a request for the federal troops stationed near Buffalo in Fort McKinney to put a peaceful end to the insurrection and put the Invaders safely into their custody. When the troops arrived, the shootout ended with no fatalities. The Invaders were apprehended by federal troops and returned to Cheyenne, where they faced a series of inconclusive trials.

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In 1892, after years of economic and political competition between smaller ranches and the larger mostly foreign-owned cattle companies, a series of vigilante lynchings took place across Wyoming, particularly in the Northeastern portion of the state where Johnson County is located. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA), representing the large cattle companies, accused many smaller cattle operations of stock theft, but local juries refused to convict because of lack of evidence or sympathy for the smaller operators. With seemingly no quick legal action able to stop any alleged rustlers, the WSGA devised a plan for an expedition to northeastern Wyoming to capture, coerce, or kill the rustlers and their associates. The network of stock growers and their associates was deeply entrenched in both state politics and economics. Judges, politicians, and bankers worked with ranchers to plan this expedition into rustler territory to root out the suspected rustlers. The scale of the operation was astonishing with the amount of sourcing of supplies, transportation, weapons & ammunition, and number of men involved. The crew of the expedition to Johnson County included multiple WSGA members, stock inspectors, and around twenty gunslingers brought by train from Texas. Using Cheyenne as their base of operations and calling themselves the Invaders, this 50-man group confidently had their photograph taken before at Fort D.A. Russell in Cheyenne before they left for Johnson County. Meanwhile in Cheyenne, the inner circles of the stock growers worked to establish their legal justifications for their violent actions against the suspected rustlers and their associates. Dozens of the expedition members, including the Texas gunmen, partied throughout both the day and night at many of the wealthier association members’ estates. When the Invaders regrouped in the morning, they boarded a privately booked train to Casper further north. While riding the train, some stops included a photo shoot of the train passing through Platte Canyon on its way to Casper. The expedition rode onward to the K.C. Ranch where they planned to kill one of their primary rustler targets, Nate Champion. Once again taking the opportunity to document their actions, the Invaders had the mounted expedition photographed before leaving to kill Nate Champion and move on to the town of Buffalo.

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