There wasn't much between Laramie, Wyoming and Virginia Dale, Colorado--just the tiny town of Jelm, Wyoming. And the only worthwhile property in Jelm was the ranch of Grant Maxwell. Now the government's Federal Land Grant Act was handing out 640 acres of plains land to former soldiers, who came west thinking they'd been bequeathed a piece of paradise. They came in droves and they became squatters on inhospitable land. At first, the landowners of Jelm tolerated the occasional theft and rustling. After all, Grant Maxwell himself had said that you couldn't put a man in jail for trying to feed his family. But as the squatters got bolder and the ranchers got less patient, trouble began to brew in Jelm, Wyoming.