Buffalo, Wyoming

Buffalo, seat of Johnson County, was founded in eighteen seventy-nine at the base of the Bighorn Mountains, its name drawn from a hat among early settlers, offered by someone who had come from Buffalo, New York. Fort McKinney was established nearby to guard the Bozeman Trail, and the town grew as a supply point for ranchers. It became famous in eighteen ninety-two as the flashpoint of the Johnson County War.

Wyoming cattle barons, angered by small ranchers and homesteaders they accused of rustling, hired about two dozen gunmen from Texas, who joined a column of roughly fifty men and sent them north by secret train to seize control of the county. They were pinned down for three days at the TA Ranch south of town before federal troops rescued them. The large ranchers never regained their dominance.

Buffalo had defended itself.