Johnson County War

Headed for Wyoming in 1882 a woman a team and a wagon

Gonna make our dreams come true

Settled in the foothills of the big horn mountain slope

Life is sweet we lived on the meat of the deer and the antelope

We cut house logs on the moutain with the team we hauled 'em down

Peeled 'em and we stacked 'em up for a house and bought some ground

Traded for some cattle and turned 'em out on the range

The skies were blue and we never knew how things were gonna change

Ole powder river you're muddy and wide how many men have died upon

Your shores

When you brand a man a rustler he's gotta take a side

There's no middle ground in this Johnson country war

Well the neighbors stopped by yesterday while I was outside choppin'

Some wood

And they filled me in on the local news ain't none of it sounded good

Said they'd been some cattle stealin' by some no count outlaw bands

We'd all been branded rustler's by the big ranchers of this land

Well it was us against the cattlemen and the years just made it worse

First the drought then the tough winter Johnson county had been dealt

A curse

Then their came the story about the two dry golgia tax

Ranger Jones and John Tisdale both been shot in the back

Oh powder river you're muddy and you're wide

How many men have died upon your shores

When you brand a man a rustler he's gotta take a side

There's no middle ground in this Johnson county war

Then last night at supper time riders stopped by chance

They said cattleman and hired guns just burned the Kaycee Ranch

Two men had died this mornin' shot down in the snow

Now the vigilante army was marchin' for buffalo

Well the county was in an uproar an every man saddled up to ride

Caught the cattlemen at the TA Ranch and surrounded all four sides

We hailed the house with bullets and swore we'd make 'em pay

But the calvery came across the plains and once again saved the day

Well they marched 'em off to Cheyenne and no one went to jail

The cattlemen we're all turned loose and the hired guns hit the trail

And I guess the only justice wasn't much to say the least

Last winter me and mine ate mighty fine on the cattle baron's beef

Oh powder river you're muddy and you're wide

How many men have died upon your shores

When you brand a man a rustler he's gotta take a side

There's no middle ground in this Johnson county war

There's no middle ground in this Johnson county war