Tag: nature

The story of Ella Watson is a two-sided story. Ella Watson was a woman who owned a small ranch in Wyoming. She became known as a cattle rustler, outlaw know as Cattle Kate. There is the story the newspaper printed. This account was printed immediately after Ella and her boyfriend or partner were lynched. But then there is the story that was told after more facts were discovered. Ella Watson has been portrayed as an evil villain, but that is probably not the real story.

Ella married her first husband when she was only eighteen years old. She left him when he proved to be an abusive husband. She moved to Rawlings, Wyoming, where she first worked in a hotel. She also did something that was unheard of in Wyoming in those early days. Wyoming was not yet a state but a territory. Ella, a woman, filed a homestead claim for one hundred and sixty acres of good grazing land. After filing for the land she started raising cattle. The men in the territory did not take a woman rancher well.

Ella also met Averell Verill, who was many things in the small town near the Sweetwater River. He was the postmaster and land surveyor, ran a small general store, and was the justice of the peace. Ella helped him in his store, and he probably helped her with her homesteading claim. Averell also purchased land or filed a homestead claim. Between the two of them, they had a rather nice but small ranch.

Lawless Wyoming

This was a time when there was almost no law in Wyoming. Cattle barons owned large ranches, and the cattle business was booming. The cattle were allowed to roam and sometimes wandered from the herds. Sometimes, unbranded calves and cattle were hard to prove just who owned the cattle. At first, this wasn’t a big problem because the cattle barons were still making high profits. However, there were several seasons when drought hit the area and the market for beef bottomed out. The grazing land became overused from so many herds of cattle, and water became an issue.

Ella and Averell owned property with a fairly good water supply. However, they had fenced-off sections of their property. From Western stories and movies, we have heard about cattle ranchers and deadly fighting over water rights. I would guess that this is what started the dispute between Ella Watson and the rich cattle barons.

On July 20, 1988, a group of landowners, who were probably drunk, went to Ella’s cabin and forced her into a buggy. After they had Ella, they went after Averell. Ella and Averell were then hung from a cottonwood tree. It was then that the stories began. Stories that Ella had been rustling cattle and that Averell had been running a house of prostitution in town. There really was no evidence of any of these claims. But this is what the newspapers printed, and these stories spread across the United States. These stories made Ella out to be a villain and female outlaw of the West. The men who did the lynching were never tried or brought to justice.