- Narrator: On the Western frontier of 1875, a tragic phase of lawlessness was the range war. A range war started when two owners of large cattle outfits had a personal dispute. Then it spread to cowhand retainers of the cattle barons with professional gunfighters hired by both sides, making the war hot and deadly. Thus, when the Fentresses and the Wades invaded Wichita, Marshal Wyatt Earp had no choice. He must break up the fight or the city streets would become their battleground, and every citizen might suffer the fate of the innocent bystander.