Located in Casper, Wyoming Territory* the Bessemer Vigilance Committee is a group of old west enthusiasts who enjoy the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting. If you're new to Cowboy Action Shooting, visit our history page and our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. If you dream about living in the days of Billy the Kid, Doc Holiday or Annie Oakley, you'll fit right in. For details on what we've been up to, read our most current issue of the Gunsight Press, and check out the results from the recent Lawdogs vs Cowboys and Jailbreak matches on our events page.
* Named after Lieutenant Caspar Collins, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, who was killed defending the bridge across the Platte river against a horde of some 2000 hostiles in the Battle of the Platte Bridge Station, July 26, 1865. The Platte Bridge Station’s name was then changed to Fort Caspar. That young Lieutenant was further honored as a mountain, a creek, and a town adopted his name. Unfortunately, the mapmaker couldn’t spell, so on most maps, you will find Casper spelled with an "e" instead of an "a" as his parents intended. And, yes, Wyoming Territory did become a State, but that didn’t happen until 1890.
The town of Bessemer sprang up in 1889 and managed to get 667 votes in the election for the choice of county seat, but when the town counted every man, woman and child and still could not identify that many voters, the election was invalidated and Casper became the Natrona County seat. After that effort at immortality failed and since the railroad never quite made it to Bessemer, the town disappeared with the name now remembered as a bend in the river, a few miles west of Casper. It was a few years after the time
Today, the ghost town of Bessemer is perpetuated by the proud group of cowboy action shootists, the Bessemer Vigilance Committee.
It doesn’t get any more "old west cowboy" than it does in Casper. From the early mountain men that trapped beaver in the 1700’s to the hunting grounds of the great Sioux nation, and the Pony express were a part of the old west and Casper. With the wide expanse of high plains grassland that was home to huge buffalo herds for centuries and today graze cattle by the thousands, central Wyoming is cowboy country. Thousands of western emigrants came to this valley in covered wagons for the easiest river crossing and the easiest crossing of the continental divide by way of the South Pass, about 150 miles west. The wagons first crossed the Platte by way of the Mormon ferry and later the Reshaw and Guinard bridges, that were protected by the Cavalry of the Platte Bridge Station. Once across the river, the major trails divided and continued westward as the Oregon, California, Mormon or Bozeman trails.