Ned McGowan was one of a group of associated miners at Hill's Bar, the richest and first gold-bearing bar of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, at which a ramshackle "town" had sprung up, 5 miles below Yale. Hill's Bar was under the control of McGowan's party of former San Franciscan firemen associated with the Law and Order Party, who had flourished from the claim they had named "The Boatmen of San Francisco". Yale, on the other hand, had fallen into the sway of members of the notorious San Francisco Vigilance Committee, which had ruled San Francisco through summary execution of suspected criminals. They were also the arch-enemies of the Law and Order Party – and of Ned McGowan especially.