Location: 255 Nolan Avenue, Kaycee, WY |
GPS: 43d 42m 46s -106d 38m 21s |
Map / Satellite Image: Google Link |
Travel Directions: Remarks: Interestingly, this area has another connection to Brokeback Mountain. Kaycee is in the heart of Johnson County, site of the notorious Johnson County War, a bloody conflict between small and large scale ranchers (generally sheep ranchers and cattle barons). Still a bit resentful, locals refer to this as “The Cattlemen’s Invasion of 1892.” In the 1890s, homesteader John Nolan established a ranch here on the Powder River. The brand he used was “KC.” Two years later, powerful, moneyed “cattlemen” burned Nolan’s house and murdered two men, as part of a plot to scare away small ranchers and obtain access to thousands of square miles of valuable unfenced grazing land. This mainstay conflict of western lore is depicted in the worthwhile 2002 oater, The Johnson County War, now a staple of cable movie channels. That film’s screenplay was also written by McMurtry and Ossana, it was made in Alberta (very near to where Brokeback’s ill fated Hippie Scene was shot), and much of its production crew also worked on Brokeback Mountain. Ang Lee has said that what he saw in The Johnson County War, coupled with Ossana’s recommendation, opened his mind to the possibility of shooting in Alberta as he planned his Brokeback production in late 2003. See: Quotation: [1] Brokeback Mountain - Story to Screenplay by Annie Proulx, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Scribner) ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9416-4, page 12. |
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