The so-called Castaic Range War officially erupted on Feb. 28, 1890, when two men allied with rancher William Wirt Jenkins were shot and killed in Castaic Cañon during a bitter land dispute with rival claimant William C. Chormicle.

The first victims of the Castaic Range War were Dolores Cook, 36, a California native, and George W. Walton, 25, who had arrived in the area only months earlier and filed on a homestead tract that overlapped land claimed by Chormicle under a Southern Pacific Railroad “permit.”

The underlying conflict stemmed from overlapping federal land grants in Castaic issued decades earlier to the Atlantic & Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads, grants that were later partially forfeited and returned to the public domain, creating confusion and competing claims throughout the Castaic area.

Jenkins, an Ohio native who came to California during the Gold Rush and later helped drill the first oil well in nearby Pico Canyon in 1869, had established his Lazy Z Ranch along Castaic Creek. In 1890, Chormicle,  a rancher from Santa Paula, purchased 1,600 acres in the same area, setting the stage for confrontation.

Three days before the shooting, Walton had hauled lumber onto the disputed tract to begin building a cabin. According to testimony later reported in the Los Angeles Times and at trial, Chormicle objected and had the lumber thrown off the property. On the morning of Feb. 28, Walton returned with Cook and Cook’s brother-in-law, Jose Olme, to retrieve and reload the lumber.

As they passed the shanty of Juan Leiva, where Chormicle was staying, an altercation broke out. Walton struck Chormicle during a heated exchange. Chormicle and William A. Gardner then retreated to the cabin.

After unloading the first haul at Walton’s homestead site, the three men went back for a second load. With Walton riding atop the wagon and Cook following in a buggy, they again passed Leiva’s shanty. This time, gunfire erupted from the windows.

Walton was shot and killed almost instantly. Cook was struck and fatally wounded. Olme leapt from the wagon, dodging bullets as he ran alongside Cook’s frightened horse, eventually escaping to the Jenkins ranch for help. Cook was transported there but died about three hours later.

Cook was a Fernandeño man of Tataviam, Kitanemuk and Tongva descent, and Castaic was his ancestral homeland. He left behind a widow and four children. His descendants include the late Chief Charlie Cooke (1935–2013) of the Fernandeño-Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and current tribal leadership.

Chormicle and Gardner fled into the canyon immediately after the shooting but surrendered about a week later to Ventura County Sheriff W.H. Riley. At trial in March and June 1890, prosecutors argued the men had fired from ambush. The defense contended they acted in self-defense, alleging Jenkins and his allies conspired to drive Chormicle off the land by force.

After an 18-day trial — one of the longest in county history at the time — the jury deliberated just 20 minutes before acquitting both defendants in the death of Cook. Charges in Walton’s death were dismissed the following day.

Though the courtroom battle ended swiftly, the feud did not. For nearly 25 years, the Jenkins-Chormicle conflict simmered and flared over land, water and grazing rights, claiming more than 20 lives in what became known as the Castaic Range War.

For yesterday’s Today In SCV History, click here.