 However, as more and more homesteaders called "grangers" moved into Wyoming, competition for land and water soon enveloped the state, and the cattle companies reacted by monopolizing large areas of the open range to prevent newcomers from using it.They also forbade their employees from owning cattle for fear of additional competition, and threatened anyone they suspected to be rustlers.The often uneasy relationship between the larger, wealthier ranches and smaller ranch settlers became steadily worse after the harsh winter of 1886–1887, when a series of blizzards and temperatures of –50 to –40 °F (–45 to –40 °C) followed by an extremely hot and dry summer, ravaged the frontier.