Editing Asa Mercer (section)

==The Johnson County War==
{{main article|Johnson County War}}
Mercer became well known throughout the West as a publisher and eventually found his way to [[Cheyenne, Wyoming]], where he published the ''[[Northwestern Livestock Journal]]'', a public relations vehicle for the moneyed cattle interests. As Mercer came to see the clearly underhanded treatment of individual ranchers by the cartels, he began to write more scathing accounts of the events that were unfolding on the [[open range]]. His account is told in his book ''[[The Banditti of the Plains]]'' (1894), which was suppressed in its day and is still difficult to find in public libraries in some parts of the [[Western United States|Western U.S]].

Following the events of the Johnson County War, which included destruction of his newspaper office by arson, Mercer settled into the quiet life of a rancher in [[Hyattville, Wyoming]].