Qualla: TA Ranch Historic District

TA Ranch Historic District: Introduction

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The bullet holes are still there. Look closely at the old log barn and ranch house near Crazy Woman Creek, and you can trace the scars of a three-day siege that nearly tore Wyoming apart. In April 1892, roughly fifty mercenaries hired by wealthy cattle barons found themselves surrounded by almost four hundred furious local ranchers, homesteaders, and townspeople. The trenches they dug still mark the ground. This is the TA Ranch, the only intact site from the Johnson County Range War, where the American West's competing visions of land, power, and justice collided in gunfire.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

TA Ranch Historic District: A Doctor's Investment

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Caveman1949, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dr. William Harris of Laramie established the TA Ranch in 1882, purchasing the brand and herd from Tom Alsop and driving cattle north to Johnson County. Harris never lived here himself, remaining in Laramie to practice medicine while Charles Ford managed the operation. This absen...

Image: Caveman1949 | CC BY-SA 3.0

TA Ranch Historic District: The Invaders Arrive

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1892, tensions between the cattle barons and small landowners had reached a breaking point. The stockmen accused the newcomers of rustling. The locals saw the accusations as a cover for driving them off the land. In April, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association assembled a smal...

Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0

TA Ranch Historic District: Three Days Under Siege

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. The gunmen fortified the ranch. They cut gunports in the upper walls of the barn, holes that remain visible today. On elevated ground west of the barn, they dug trenches commanding views of the surrounding country. The locals surrounded them and built their own breastworks, at le...

Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0

TA Ranch Historic District: Horses, Herefords, and History

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0. Harris traded the ranch to J.P. Gammon in 1904. Gammon raised Percheron draft horses, later switching to Hereford cattle and adding hogs in the 1920s. The ranch expanded with new structures: a log cookhouse in 1904, a milk barn, meat house, hog house, and cattle shed in 1915. The...

Image: Zeete | CC BY-SA 4.0