ArizonaRealCountry.com 45 March 2019 Cheyenne, got off at Caspar, and then proceeded by horse and cart towards Buffalo, intending to shoot down any errant Cowboy or homesteader in their midst. They arrived at the KC ranch of Canton nemesis Nate Champion, surrounded the ranch during the night, and in the morning commenced a furious all- day gun battle with Champion, whose single-handed courage apparently unnerved many of the invaders, including Major Wolcott. Finally, with the arrival of night, they set one of their wagons aflame and pushed it towards Champion's cabin. He rushed out, guns blazing, but was promptly cut down by the gunmen. Just then a very curious thing happened, a thing that showed how complex a man Frank Canton truly was. Champion had kept a diary, recounting as he could the attack on the ranch and the mortal wounding of his partner Nick Ray. After his final diary entry, ("The house is all fired. Goodbye boys, if I never see you again") Champion rushed out the cabin door to avoid the flames and had been slain in the attempt to escape. Entering the cabin, Canton came across that small diary, miraculously untouched, and instead of tossing it in the flames handed it over to one of the reporters accompanying the invasion. Perhaps somewhere in his mind Canton's moral compass had kicked in, or perhaps it was a sign of respect for Champion, who, as aforementioned, Canton may have known in their mutual Texas Cowboy days ("He came out fighting and died game. If he had been fighting in a good cause he would have been a hero," Canton, Frontier Trails, p. 92). Either way, Champion's last testament became one of the most honored and most poignant narratives in the history of the Old West. If Canton had his druthers the invasion would not have halted that evening but would have headed straight for Buffalo, especially since they had been discovered by one of the alleged rustler leaders who had unwittingly passed by the KC Ranch during the shootout and who had incredibly lucky in being able to escape and sound the alarm to the inhabitants of Buffalo, who were rapidly putting together a defense force. In fact, Canton argued for a resumption of the advance, fearing that there was no time to lose. But the expedition was led by Major Wolcott, who might have been a Major during the Civil War but lacked sand when it came to making crucial decisions in Johnson County. Stunned by the ferocity of the day's event, Wolcott insisted on camping for the night at a friendly ranch nearby. By the next morning, while they prepared to advance, the invaders were surrounded by Canton's rival and enemy, Johnson County Sheriff Red Angus and his "posse" of enraged Cowboys and homesteaders. This time it would have been Canton, Wolcott, and their gunmen paying the ultimate price as Nathan Champion did, but for the timely arrival of U.S. Cavalry who arrived at virtually the last minute, sent on the direct pleadings of Wyoming Senator Francis Warren, a friend of the WSGA and the future father-in-law of General John J. Pershing, to President Benjamin Harrison. Wolcott and his gunmen, including Canton surrendered to the 6th Cavalry, not to Sheriff Angus who had been looking forward to a necktie party. Canton, together with Wolcott and the entire leadership of the WSGA would be put on trial but upon being acquitted by a friendly jury, quickly realized that Wyoming would no longer be a safe place for he and his family to reside in. So he hightailed it out of Wyoming, first settling for a time in Nebraska, but upon accepting a commission as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in the Indian (Oklahoma) territory under the renown "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker, moved on to Oklahoma, then undergoing the depredations of the Doolin-Dalton Gang. In part two, next month, I will conclude the Frank Canton story, bringing up his lesser-known exploits in helping Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, and Chris Madsen, the Oklahoma Guardsmen, in suppressing the Doolin-Dalton gang, his feud with Heck Thomas, his subsequent career as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Alaska, bringing law and order to the Klondike in the wake of Soapy Smith's demise. Also, his return to Oklahoma as the honored Adjutant General of the Oklahoma National Guard, his late in life confession, and the role the writer Owen Wister had in making Frank M. Canton immortal as a beloved television and movie character known as "The Virginian." Charlie Russell's "Waiting for a Chinook" It was the great "Die-Up" of 1887 that ended the Open Range and caused friction between the big ranch conglomerates such as the Wyoming Stock Grower's Association on one hand, and the desperate Cowboy ranchers and homesteaders on the other, with Frank Canton becoming the hired gun (Stock Detective) for the WSGA. charlesmarionrussell.org