The Banditti of the Plains

"The Banditti of the Plains, Or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892 (The Crowning Infamy of the Ages)" is a book written by Asa Shinn Mercer. It is an account of the Johnson County War in the American state of Wyoming.

Title

The title was taken from a now-forgotten Western titled "The Banditti of the Range".

Mercer's unique view

It is written from the unique perspective of Mercer, who had come to Wyoming to edit the North West Live Stock Journal, the official publication of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA), which represented the monied interests intent on controlling the cattle industry. As the events of the range wars unfolded, Mercer came to sympathize with the homesteaders and turned against the WSGA. The book reflects his pro-settler view, and is an important document of the events.

A banned book

The first edition of this book is one of the rarities of western Americana. Immediately after printed, the Wyoming cattlemen objected and sued. The court ordered it destroyed. While the books were in the court's custody, a number were stolen and smuggled to Denver and later bound. For many years, the Wyoming Stockgrowers' Association, their sympathizers, and their descendants destroyed every copy they came across. Surviving copies are generally valued at over $USD 5000. The second edition simply disappeared somewhere between Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association was rumored to have hijacked and destroyed the second printing as it was being shipped.

How Mercer paid

Mercer saw his printing press in Cheyenne burned down; he was harassed, arrested, jailed and had the plates of his book destroyed. His writings were seized in the mails as obscenity; his business was ruined.

Vindication

Mercer made mistakes later history rectified. But his main views of the Johnson County War were ultimately proved true, and never again did the cattle barons attempt to invade Wyoming.

Modern history

Thanks to republication in 1954 by the University of Oklahoma Press, with a foreword by William H. Kittrell, the first edition text is now readily available; it appeared in paperback in 1976.

* [http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=978-0-8061-1315-9 Listing by the publisher, University of Oklahoma Press.]