National Park After Dark - Outlaws of the West: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

This week we head back to the 1800s wild wild west. We follow Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch gang – the most prolific bank and train robbers in outlaw history. Butch Cassidy created an extremely organized group of outlaws who spent their time fleeing authorities on horseback into the most remote areas of Utah, taking sums of money that would be worth millions today. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Beam: Use code NPAD to get 40% off your first subscription order or 20% a one-time purchase.BetterHelp: Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our linkApostrophe: Save $15 off your first visit with code NPADMicrodose: Use code NPAD to get free shipping and 30% off your first order.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The vast desert landscapes of Utah holds a wild wonder. Miles and miles of red dirt, massive canyons, cliffs, monoliths, and snow-capped mountains. The canyon walls and cliff dwellings hold. millions of years of history, acting as homes to juniper trees, desert sage, rattlesnakes, coyotes, lizards, and more. These vast, empty landscapes have housed some of the most prolific criminals the Wild West has ever seen. From Arches National Park to Canyonlands, from Capitol Reef to Zion, Old Western Outlaws saw these places as the perfect opportunity to hide out, ambush and thief.

Welcome to National Park After Dark. The Wild Wild West. We're finally heading here. I thought we'd never get here. It's been a year. I know. And we're here. Amazing.

Welcome to the Wild Wild Wild West. Will Smith is not here. When did that movie come out? A really long time ago. I'm going to venture to guess 2012. I'm going to say, say like 2002. I mean, that's what I meant. Okay, can I just say, yeah, full disclosure, Cassie and I just went out to dinner and we had a few glasses of wine and we're never together

when we're recording and we just took advantage and we're going to just see what happens, I guess. We're not big drinkers either. No. Just to disclose this. So the fact, even a bottle of wine, a bottle, a glass of wine or anything is kind of a big deal for us. Yeah. It's been a trying time, and I feel like I've leaned on wine more so than ever. And we just, here we are. And yeah, we're going to Utah, which I am psyched about, because we got an email about this, about wanting this park. It was actually on Patreon. Oh, okay.

And it was a message on Patreon. And one of our outsiders, our Patreon members commented and said, hey, check out this story in California. Reef, this area. It's so interesting. You have to talk about it. I've been waiting for it forever and you haven't covered it yet. So hello. We are doing it finally. And I did center like the intro because we always do the intro for a national park around Capitol Reef. But the reality of the story is that it's not only in Capitol Reef, but it's everywhere around Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas. We're going to Argentina. We are heading around the place. And I just chose Capitol Reef because we haven't talked about it.

And there are significant things about this park. And there is a trail inside of this park named after the person that we will be talking about today. Okay. I'm dying to know. I got a feel for what the episode's going to be like. But who is it centered around? We are going to be talking about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the most prolific bank robbers, train robbers of the West.

there has ever been. Wow. Okay. I'm ready. I am so ready. This is, I mean, if I know my mom's listening when this comes out and she is just like such a Western. It's odd because she grew up in Vermont and New England. But she loves the West and the whole like cowboy type of lifestyle and the whole history and that. So this is going to be an interesting one. This will be right up her alley then. All right. So heading to Capitol Reef National Park, it is located. located in southern Utah and was established as a national park in 1971. It was originally established as a national monument in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but it was not open for public visitation until 1950. The park protects and preserves 241,904 acres, which is 979 square kilometers

of desert landscape. And a major defining feature inside of the park is that, you know, the park is the water pocket fold, which is a nearly 100 mile, which is 160 kilometers, steep fold or wrinkle in the earth crust that sits about 7,000 feet, which is 2,133 meters higher on the western side than the eastern side. So if you look up pictures of Capitol Reef National Park, you'll see it's like flat on some sides and like this big canyon. It looks like a big fold of the earth, essentially. And this warps in the earth's red. rocks has created these huge canyons. There's domes, cliffs, and monoliths that make this desert landscape incredibly beautiful and also filled with rugged terrain and the Fremont River runs along it

as well. This park is believed to have been formed. I mean, it wasn't established as a national park, but this area has been formed that scientists believe about 50 to 70 million years ago. Okay. So it is geological. significant. Very. Capital Reef also has little to no light pollution, which makes it some of the darkest night skies in the entire U.S. And it also makes it a fantastic spot for stargazing. Because it was designated as an international dark sky park in 2015, it has become a huge staple in a place to look at the constellations and all that good stuff. The National Park has made it a priority to

educate and raise awareness here about light pollution and participate in international sky week every single year. There are also a wide array of species that call Capitol Reef National Park their home, including mountain lions, black-billed magpies, which are birds, marmits, porcupines, pronghorred antelope, prairie dogs, coyotes, and there's even black bears that live in this region. They also have over six different species of plants that are either endangered or very rare that the park protects. Some of the very first inhabitants of the area were the Fremont culture natives who lived in the northern part of Capitol Reef water pocket folds that I talked about before around the year 1000, but they abandoned the area in the 13th century, which was likely due to a severe drought. Many years later, the Paiute natives inhabited the area, and after that, Mormon people established a settlement in the Fremont River Valley of that area.

This area was used to extract limestone and uranium, but eventually in the 1920s, the community abandoned the area due to harsh weather conditions, but there are still some buildings remaining within the area. There's a house that's been restored by the National Park Service. So there are remnants of this history there. That's always so cool, just to see traces of what came before. And so long ago. Like you're standing in something that is so much older than you and so much older than anyone you've ever met. Yeah. History is so cool. Like hot take. We love history. I think we say that every single episode. We're just like, you know, just like history is just like we used to hate it. We're learning more about what actually interested us and it's history. We're actually heading into the outdoors. That's such a good point. This is more tailored to our own interests. Exactly. So today we're going to tell the story. I mentioned it a little bit at the beginning, but we are going to be talking about the story of the most prolific American train and bank robbers and leader of gang of criminal

outlaws in the West, which this gang was known as the Wild Bunch. Robert Leroy Parker, who is famously known as Bouch Cassidy, and there is a famous movie that was made many years ago. It's Bouch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This is essentially the story that we're telling, but we're diving like super deep into it into real historical facts. Have you seen it? I haven't. I actually did not watch this movie for the research at all because I read a lot of things that it was very loosely based or it was dramatized and I didn't want to bring any of that into the podcast. I don't want to dramatize it. I want to say it for what it is. It doesn't need dramatization. Like it's insane. Already on its own. Yeah. It would be cool to see, you know, after you tell the story and, you know, I hear it. If we watched it together after

and it's like, oh, this is different or that didn't happen or actually this happened, you know. I would love that. Yeah. I think that would be really cool and we should watch that. Okay. We'll see how far we get. It's 9 o'clock in night, maybe tomorrow. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want.

Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So Robert Leroy Parker, which is famously known as Bush Cassidy, was born in April of 1866 in Beaver, Utah, which is located in the southwestern part of the state. He was born from two English immigrants, Maximilian Parker, and Anne Campbell Gillies.

Both of their families had converted to the Mormon. in faith when they were kids and they had actually moved to Utah from Europe where Max and Annie met and they were married when they were just 20 years old. Robert Leroy Parker was the first of 13 children that the couple had. So he's the oldest of 13 kids. That's a lot. Robert, who was later known as Bouch Cassidy, and I'm going to try and refer to him more as Bouch Cassidy through this because that's what he's famously known as, but his actual name was Robert. And Nick, name Bob and I just think it's confusing to add all those names. So we're just going to call him Butch Cassidy. Just stay consistent. Yeah. He was a very kind soul. He had a really soft side for animals, wild and domestic.

There was one point as a kid where he had a magpie as a pet, which was the bird. And his sister said that he was always tending to this bird and he was always very interested in livestock, but not as like a farming way, but as like a I love animals I want to care for you kind of way. He raised pigeons, chipmunks, rabbits. He named each one of them. And he was the oldest child of the 13 children that he had. So he was really the son who said an example for all of the other children. He would take them on little adventures.

He'd build rafts for them so they could float on nearby ponds. He was kind of like the older brother that everyone loved and looked up to. Yeah. In 1879, their family moved from Circle Village. Utah, where they had made their money farming and raising cattle. And at the age of 13, Butch Cassidy began working on other farms to help support the family financially. So like a little different from now, you don't see 13-year-olds doing hard labor on farms generally. Hopefully not, at least not in this country. Yeah. You don't. Yeah. But their family wasn't well off. They didn't have a lot of money

and they struggled very significantly financially, and there were times where they lost livestock because of severe droughts, and they weren't making money at all. His father was often out of the picture entirely as well because he was off venturing to different states outside of Utah that weren't experiencing these severe droughts to try and bring home money to their family.

So there were a lot of times that Butch Cassidy was like the man of the house. He was the oldest child. He was always trying to bring in. money. He was helping take care of the kids. He just had a pretty significant role in his family. And to kind of paint a picture of this period in the 1880s, this area in Utah had been settled by immigrants and they were European Mormons that less than 50 years before this were colonizing the area. So there wasn't really a lot going on here. Farming and agricultural practices were very new.

as when they first arrived, many of the settlers actually lived off of like buffalo hunting, and soon they realized that they were overhunting all the buffalo. They started having to create farms, and they were really learning how to navigate living in the middle of a desert, essentially. Yeah. And this was when cattle ranching started. Cowboys became a big thing. Horse wrangling was taking over Utah.

This was also a time where slavery had only just been abolished in 18. And this was the 1880s. So this was very new. There's just a lot going on in this time in history that kind of sets the whole stage for this era. It's just a big pivot and a lot of change. Yeah. And also at this time, child labor laws weren't in existence. Right. At all. So this was a time where children were expected to work. They were supposed to help provide for their families. Girls were actually expected to work intensive labor jobs from 8.000. ages 6 to 12 and they often were working from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night. And then women's job was until they turned 12 years old, they would work these labor jobs and then they would head home to learn about homesteading practices and lively duties. And before being married off, which was around the age of 14, they would learn all of these like house duties and wife, wife traits, I guess. And boys had a similar schedule where they were working these intensive labor jobs from like 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. But at the age of 16, before they started marrying, which was around the age, they were learning how to run their own farms.

Okay. So it was very, very different from right now. About a year after Butch Cassidy had began working on other farms, he had his first run in with the law. It was in 1880. He had headed to a clothing shop to buy some clothes. And when he arrived there, it was closed. So he decided that he was just going to go in. He really wanted some clothes. He needed it. And he broke in. He stole a pair of jeans, some pie that was in the store. And he left a note writing I owe you. He's like, I'll pay you back later when I come back for another visit. The owner ended up not being cool with this. I owe you, no, essentially. And he pressed charges. And he.

he had him arrested. But when he was brought to trial, the jury ended up acquitting him and the charges were dropped. But in this Mormon family, very religious, small town, it was really bad because he had essentially humiliated his family with the accusation that he was stealing, that he had become a thief, essentially. So he had really brought shame to their good family name. Robert or Butch Cassidy, shortly after he got a job at another ranch where he was a job at another ranch where he had met a Harding Cowboy who was known by the name of Mike Cassidy. And Mike Cassidy was a name that they referred to at the time was a cow puncher. What's that?

It's essentially a cowboy, like a cow wrangler and farmer kind of guy, but it was the name cow puncher, which I think. It's just a term at the time. Like, I don't like that. Cow hugger. Yeah, it sounds aggressive. It does sound aggressive. But Mike Cassidy had wild stories about rough and tumble like cattle towns, drunken saloons, women, gambling.

He had spent time in booming mining towns. He was at ranches all over the country. He spent a lot of time in brothels. And he took Butch Cassidy under his wing. And he brought him into a ranch job. He showed him the duties of a cowboy, how to shoot and handle a gun, and would shower him in gifts of new riding saddles farm gear. He really like took him under his wing like I'm going to make you a really good cowboy essentially. He shared his experience and knowledge of the world and even though a lot of his

advice did not coincide with like the Mormon faith and their values, Butch Cassidy was starstruck and he was in awe of him and he was so inspired that his name, because we talked about his name was like Robert Leroy and it ended up being Butch Cassidy. He took his last name, Cassidy. He took his last name Cassidy as like eventually when he becomes like very big this guy's name was Mike Cassidy he's like well he inspired me he trained me he did all this stuff and he took the last name Cassidy as his main name okay so it's just like yeah his big inspiration yeah he's like this cowboy is amazing yeah essentially and one day in June after working on the farm with Mike Cassidy for a while butch had come home and his demeanor was very

off. His siblings were doting and hanging on his arms like they usually did whenever he came home, and he was very standoffish, and he was a little solemn in his demeanor. And he had said to his mother that he had something that he needed to say, but he didn't want to say it with his siblings present. Later that evening, when the kids were in bed and not around, he had spoke to his mother. And he told them that the pay he was getting in Utah was very low and that he didn't see a future in that area. And he also said that it was time for him to go. He wasn't a kid anymore. At this point, he was only 18 years old, which is like weird for, I mean, it's an adult, but like, he's like, I'm a full grown adult now. It's time for me to spread my wings and fly. Right. Which any 18 year old kid,

whether you're in the 1800s or now, you can relate to that, I think. So he's 18 and he wanted essentially a real chance at money. He's like, I'm porous. He's like, I'm done with this. I want a different life for myself. Exactly. That's exactly what it was. And he had heard that there was a ton of mining jobs in Telluride, Colorado. And he wanted to leave there instead. There was a lot of money there. And not only was he leaving, but he was leaving first thing in the morning. Oh, very abrupt. Very abrupt. And his mother's first response was, you're not going to leave with that outlaw Mike Cassidy, are you? Because she had known that he had been hanging out with him a lot. Gotcha. And he replied that he was, but he also had another friend going with him. Like, he wasn't just going for Mike Cassidy. This relieved his mother,

like a little bit, but she begged him to stay until his father returned because his father was often out working in other states, but he was planning to come home the following night. But But Butch Cassidy didn't listen. And the following morning, just as sunrise. He saddled up his horse named Babe, and he held a lead rope to his thoroughbred colt, who he had named Cornish, and he rode off towards Colorado. So he was out of there. He's like, bye, I have to do this. So his father returned later that night, and he was shocked at what he had heard. And he left quickly into town because he was like, no, there's something more going on. He would not just up and leave for a job. He would hang out. He would at least say bye

to me was essentially his thought. So his father rode his horse into town to check out the local townspeople to be like, hey, what happened here? When he arrived, he found out that two of Mike Cassidy's outlaw friends had branded some cattle that were recognized to be owned by another rancher in town. And when they had showed their bill of sale to be like, no, these are my cattle, the bottom bill of sale had Robert Leroy Parker, which was Bouch Cassidy's name. He had signed over the bill of sale. And this meant because these cattle did not belong to Butch Cassidy and meant that he had in some way assisted in stealing another rancho's cattle and signed this fake bill of sale saying that they were his. And with this, because he had already gotten in trouble for like shaming their name and his little like

shoplifting spree that he had had. Now there was just no way that he could return into town. He was like, this name was a huge shame. It was like, no, you have. There's proof that you have lied, you've stolen, and his father was like, okay, you left because you're in trouble. Right. Mm-hmm. When Butch Cassidy entered Telleride, Colorado, he had left the sheltered Mormon life that he had led in his life before.

You know, he was surrounded by religion and working and, like, honest work. And when he rode into Telleride, Colorado, he was blown away by what was there. There were saloons gambling. There were dance halls, which were like sometimes they were like strip clubs and things like that. I'm sure a bunch of brothels. So many brothels. Like this was a party scene. There were thousands of people here.

They clearly had money and there was a lot of it there. And cowboys here were spending their money on women, booze, gambling, and it was such a lawless area. It was where people were tricked, robbed, shot, and stabbed over squabbles. It was like this adrenaline pumping adventure and Butch Cassidy had thrown himself into it all. As soon as he came in, he's like, this is my place. Yeah, he's just like the heavens open. He's like, this is my life. Like, this is what I was meant to do.

You know, when you're like the sheltered kid in the religious family, you turn 18 and you go wild. Yep. This was Butch Cassidy, essentially. He's like, I just walked into Telleride, Colorado, and I am going wild. Yep. So when he got here, he ended up getting a job. And I was looking into it. And it wasn't exactly certain of what he got for a job.

And historians looked into it, but there's not a lot of documentation. But it was documented that he was making, like, good money. And it was also documented that he was spending it all. And he was spending it all on beautiful women, gambling and alcohol. In one hand out the other. Yeah. Like, we're going wild right now. So him and a friend by the name of Matt Warner, who was also into gambling a lot at the horse racetracks that were in the area, had made some of their money gambling on horses.

And they would also do some ranch work along with the gambling. And it kind of went hand in hand. When some of the gamblings didn't go well or the races didn't go well or anything like that, they were still spending their money on women and alcohol. And eventually, after all of this, they found themselves broke. really wow I never heard something turn out another way it's like wow history has seemed to repeat it's all over and over again for a long time and at this point they were kind of tired of ranch jobs because with the way they were spending their money it didn't coincide with their lifestyle that they were trying to live so butch cassidy sat down with his friend matt warner and tom mccarty

to talk about options over the winter the winter kind of slowed down for ranching and they knew that they were going to be pretty hard for money at that time. And they discussed things that they could do. And they discussed conducting some type of raid that they could do. And their mind was on to rob a bank. Okay. So we just went from there was no like different step. Like, okay, so ranching slows down in the winter. What can we do in the winter that would still bring us money? They're like, okay, we're just going to totally just break the law. Yeah. They're like, we got to figure it out. And we're going to sit down and we're going to plan this because the banks have all. the money and we don't have any. So let's just go right to the source. Yeah. And it did take them a while

to figure it out and like commit to their plan and really set down a plan where they weren't going to get caught. And it actually took until June. So on June 24th, 1889, they decided that they were ready to commit their first bank robbery at San Miguel Valley Bank in Telleride, Colorado. Matt Warner walked into the bank with a check in his hand and approached the bank teller. When he handed the check to the bank teller, the bank teller had looked it over, examined it to make sure that what he was giving him was real. And as he did that, Matt Warner grabbed him by the neck and pulled his face down to the desk. He told him not to make a sound or he was going to kill him. Then he called the rest of the Cowboys in that he was with, and that included Butch Cassidy and Tom McCarty, and they walked into the bank.

Butch Cassidy came in, he grabbed cash from the teller and the vault that was around them, which amounted in $20,750, which in today's money is more than $600,000. It's a big, big payout. Big payout for very little effort. When they were done grabbing their money, Matt released the bank teller who had fell on the floor when he released his neck because he was just like so scared of, what was going on, and Matt pointed his gun at him and said that he ought to kill him because he had been a coward the whole time, and he was clearly very fearful. But Matt didn't, and the four of

them mounted on their horses and slowly rode away. After they had reached a couple blocks away from the bank, they took off on their horses and a full gallop and let out a loud hauler and let out shots from their rifles into the air, and they galloped off into their horizon. Just celebrating. celebrating like we did it yeah it's such like an outlaw outwestern thing it's like we rode off into the sunset guns blazing on our horses yeah yeah just such outlaw activities and this was their first ever attempted and successful bank robbery that they committed and this began a two-decade long string of robberies two decades yeah okay i really thought i knew like when you say butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid.

You know the names. I know the names and I know the general story around it. I didn't know it was that long of a streak. They were the most prolific robbers in the West ever. Wow. Okay. So after they left, they knew that the authorities were most likely already on their tail. And the three men stayed in a full gallop on their horses trying to put as many miles between them and telleride as possible. On their second night on the run, they had seen a group of men on horses that were on their tail. And in hopes to distract them, they found a stray pony, probably like a wild pony that was out there. They tied some branches to its tail and drove it towards the posse following them. So essentially they were creating tracks behind this horse to make

it look like like this was the direction that they were heading. And these people that were on their tail, they took the bait. And in the dark, they chased the ponies and follow the track that was held behind in the dark and they went totally off track from where they were following them originally. A complete diversion. Totally. Totally. Totally fell for it. Everything's working out in their favor.

And this delayed them entirely. And it created a huge frustration when they realized that they were tricked. And it actually caused the whole crew to give up their chase of the people who just robbed the telleride bank. So they were like, okay, well, we don't know where they went. Yeah. So I guess that's it. Like we have no idea what direction.

this is in. And then the three men, they decided that they were going to hide out in a canyon in southwestern Colorado for a short period of time before they started heading to Utah. And then they decided to take refuge in the Abahoe Mountains, which is an area just south of Canyonlands National Park. They had found a cave here and they were able to hide out in it and allow their horses to drink water and rest and really just take like a breath because their horses are working so hard to get literally across Colorado to Utah at this point. After they were well rested, they headed north into Moab and they used a ferry to cross over the Colorado River. After crossing the river, they headed a little further north on their horses and they ended up in the area of what today

is known as Arches National Park. And that's why I like I pick Capitol Reef, but they're literally like all over Utah. They're in so many national parks. Like this story just so coincides with our theme. We're just all over the place. All over the map. Yeah. When they arrived here, they were greeted with these far off distant views of snow cap mountains. There's thousands of beautiful bright red natural stone arches. They're soaring pinnacles. Giant balanced rocks. There's just an amazingly beautiful desert landscape that they have found themselves into. And even though they were far away at this point, they knew that that didn't mean that they had gotten away with their bank robbery. And they knew

that it was possible that the people in Telleride had actually contacted the Utah authorities, and they were informed of what had been happening, and they were now on the lookout for them. So even though they're in Utah, they're in arches, they're experiencing this beautiful landscape, they're like, we might still be in trouble here. Now, while the arches and pillars of stones made it an easy place for them to hide, they also realized that this was a perfect place to conduct an ambush on them. and they began to get really paranoid. They're thinking, Utah authorities know that we're here.

It would be so easy for them to hide behind all of these pillars and just totally ambush us, catch us. They start getting very paranoid about it. And they also had very few water sources that were in the area, so they knew that they couldn't stay there very long. As they continued their journey through the Salt Valley of Arches, they would very frequently stop to scan the landscape for any incoming people. and eventually their paranoia was confirmed. Matt looked out over the vast landscape and he could see about three miles out, which is 4.8 kilometers. Behind them was a group of men on horses and they were clearly after them. From then forward, they found frequent possees of men coming from different directions towards them and it was obvious that they were all out to find the notorious bank robbers

of Colorado. They had to be swift and find ways not to leave their tracks. They would try to through streams and on salt flats where their hoof prints wouldn't be left behind, and they began camping at night with no fires and hid within the canyons and crevasses of the desert. After days on the run and a quick exchange for new horses from the Paiute native tribes, so they had actually conducted a way to make it almost a relay where they would stop places and like get new horses so they could just keep going. Keep going without needing to pause for rest. Exactly, which is so smart.

The crew found themselves in Browns Park, Utah, which is an area along the Green River in northern Utah on the border of Colorado, Wyoming, and connects to Dinosaur National Monument. Oh, we had a couple of people write in about Dinosaur National Monument when we were doing Park Week and stuff. There was a lot of people who are like, this is so underrated, but it's such a cool place. Yeah, and I was looking at a lot of photos of it. I haven't personally been there. I was like, wow, this is a really, really cool area. As someone whose first dream job was a paleontologist, it is on my list for sure. Like, I have to go there. Yes.

So the vast landscape with very few people that ever visited this area, minus a few cattle farmers that had inhabited this place, plus the mountains and large grass fields that their horses could graze in, and this area had a river with potable water, it made for an ideal location for these meant to hide out in. They had all the resources they needed. It was hard to get to. It was just perfect. And this was also known as an area for outlaws to hide out in because it had a lot of rock formations and hideouts. And also, law enforcement of this area avoided it because it was so easy to be ambushed by outlaws.

Oh, so they just kind of steered clear. Yeah. So this was like the perfect little hole. It's like you're in this valley of canyons. You have water. You have food sources. and law enforcement doesn't want to come here because you're going to see them before they get there. Right.

And also, another reason that this place was so good for outlaws to hide out in is because it bordered three states. So authorities didn't want to come here because they feared that they had no jurisdiction. They could just ride over the state line and they could no longer do anything. It was like the perfect location to get away with a crime. Yeah. And the perfect place to just hide out. It's like, okay, if law enforcement's going to come from Utah, I'm just going to ride over 20 minutes to Wyoming and then you can just wave to each other. You have no jurisdiction here.

Yeah. Another plus of this location was Matt Warner, who was with Butch Cassidy, had actually raised horses here in the park around Diamond Mountain. And he not only knew the area, but he also knew a horse rancher that had no issue associating with outlaws. So they went there and they spent three days. on his ranch, hiding out, resting, getting food from them. They had food, water, beds. Like, they were living very comfortably here for a few days until day four arrived. And the posse of men on horses ended up finding them in this location. So they hurried. They packed their things quickly. And they had another destination in mind. And this destination is known as robbers roost. It's a known

hideout between outlaws in southern Utah in the capital reef area. And this is still an area that is very well known today. It was characterized as very rugged terrain with expansive canyons and a place that law enforcement would have trouble navigating to. So this was a perfect hideout because it was so hard to find. If you didn't know how to get there, you couldn't. Now, in this situation from them leaving Brown's Park to go to Robbers Roos, if they ever made it, it's very unclear for historians. There's been no documentation, but Robbers Roost is very elusive and it's very secret. So there would never be documentation of them getting there. But there is no documentation on where Butch Cassidy and his friends were for the next few months. So they were somewhere. They were

somewhere and if they were in robbers roost, no one would know. Okay, so there's, so you're saying there's a chance. Saying there's a chance and they were probably there and there's just no documentation because no one would know. It was so secret. Right. When it was finally deemed safe, Butch Cassidy did end up taking his money and he left Utah. He worked a few ranch jobs around Browns Park in Wyoming before he decided to use a portion of the money that he had gotten in the Telluride Bank robbery to buy land in Wyoming and to create his own ranch to raise horses. History has found when you research, he seems to get his act together for a few years and there were no more reported crimes with him involved or he just didn't get caught.

But this area in Wyoming that he found was very difficult to get to and it had like huge rock cliffs and it would be very hard for law enforcement to get there. So it has been believed that he bought this property to. elude law enforcement and create a hideout for other outlaws. So he was off the radar. He didn't get in trouble for anything until 1894 when he was found to have stolen horses from another rancher and was sentenced to two years in prison in Wyoming. But not long after his release in 1896, he was back to the life of crime. In August 1896, Butch Cassidy rallied together over 200 outlaws to Browns Park. They met in a remote valley of Green River where Cassidy proposed that they form

a train robbing, bank robbing, cattle and horse stealing outlaw gang. Okay. All encompassing. He's like, we're stealing everything. There's nothing that we're not going to steal. And this was a professional group of outlaws that Buck Cassidy had handpicked that he knew were these like, horsemen, big ranching, like a very cowboy-esque men. They weren't amateurs. No, none of them. And it was also under the agreement that this gang that he was forming, these outlaws would only steal from big corporate companies. So they were not people who stole from the poor. They were stealing from companies who were actually taking from small-time homesteaders in the area. So they were, Their essential goal was to go after these huge railroad companies, these big banks and these big time cattle ranchers.

They didn't want to go after the little guy, the small town people. And with all these ideas, this gang agreed that Butch Cassidy was to become the leader of it all. And they weren't a single organization. Like it wasn't like, we do this all together. They were all over different states and they were small groups of people and they were reformed robberies. and small amounts of groups everywhere. So there were smaller, like, subgroup chapters of a main organization. Yeah, they all ran under the Wild Bunch, which was what the name was called.

But there would be people in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Texas. They were just everywhere. All ran under Bouch Cassidy. And like I said before, each member was a highly skilled horseman and dedicated to the cause. Butch Cassidy aimed to be a group of outlaws that weren't known for violence like some other outlaws were. Not that violence wasn't allowed and still members of the gang definitely committed violent acts, but they were mostly known for taking from the rich, getting a lot of money, and they would give back to poorer families. Every robbery that they would do was planned precisely and very well executed.

They weren't like, go do whatever you want. They created this like relay race for every robbery they ever did to make sure they had supplies, horses, and they never got caught. It was just very well thought out. Nothing was just a spur of the moment, sloppily put together. No. They were like very organized. Very, very organized, very smart, very intelligent.

And the first robbery that the Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy participated in together happened, the same year in Montpelier, Idaho. For a second, I thought I was used to Montpelier in Vermont. So I'm like, wait, whoa, we're really all over the map. They took those horses a really long way. Yeah. Shit. Montpelier, Idaho, Butch Cassidy, and two outlaws by the name of Elsie lay and Bob Meeks

were at a bar not too far away before it happened. They were having a few drinks before they would commit to the heist. So they're like, let's get a little buzz on before. we go rob this bank essentially. And they reached the bank right before it closed. They tied up their horses to a hitching rack across the street from the bank and they left Bob Meeks to watch over the horses as the other two headed into the bank. Butch Cassidy and Elze Le walked in with her guns drawn and forced the bank teller and a woman inside up against the wall. The people inside here didn't know this, but Butch Cassidy had no intention of killing or shooting anyone. In fact,

the gun that he carried, he had sworn to himself he would only use if it was completely necessary and for his own or a loved one's protection. So during his gambling days in Colorado, he had watched as a friend of his shot and killed a Ute warrior over a horse bet that had gone bad. And after that, he was essentially so traumatized and mortified and didn't want to be part of killing people that he had sworn from that day forward, that he didn't want to kill anyone, he didn't want to use violence, and he didn't. But he was very happily using threats. Right. Yes. And no one knew that he felt that way either.

It wasn't like when he used these threats and he drew his gun, no one questioned that he would shoot them. Well, because if they knew his true intentions or lack thereof, the threats would be empty. No one would take him seriously. And no one would give him money. Right. So Elsie kept his drawn gun and pointed at the two people while Butch raided the bank. And Elsie, at the time, he actually did take his gun and he struck the teller across the face and demanded to know where all the money was kept. Butch Cassidy was scurrying around the bank.

He was quickly scooping up all the cash that he could find and he was throwing it into a gunny sack. When he was finally satisfied with the amount of money he grabbed and that he had gotten everything that he could, He then walked out of the bank, nonchalantly, got onto his horse, and slowly began to walk away. Bob Meeks hopped onto his horse and followed after him, and last to leave was Elsie. Within minutes of them leaving, sheriffs had rounded up on horses and began chasing them. They chased them for two weeks straight from Idaho to just outside Grand Teton National Park. They escaped with around $15,000, which is half a million dollars in today's money, and the only one that they ever arrested for this crime was Bob Meeks,

who when he was caught, claimed he had never even gotten the chance to get his share of the money and he had no idea what the other two did with it. So was he lying about that? I don't know. From history, it says, like, he never got the money and he was arrested before they were ever able to split it. Okay. But who knows? I have questions about that.

I know. I'm like, it's like, oh, you took the fall, like, as soon as you get out of jail, like, here's your share. Yeah. It just seems like they would have a more fair and ethical. Like, just from the way that they run things from the different organizations, subchapters they have, to how regimented they were and how careful they were. And obviously, people are very loyal to the cause. There's a reason for that. And I just don't think that they would just be like, oh, yeah, we just like, we're not going to pay you.

Bye. Yeah. Thanks for going to jail for us. Right, yeah. It just doesn't seem like that. I agree with you. I feel like he ended up, whatever happened to him, I feel like he ended up getting his share at some point. During this time, Butch had met a man by the name of Harry Longabaa, who eventually turned into Butch Cassidy's right-hand man and went by the same name as the Sundance Kid. So Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Okay, I was waiting to see when this was going to. He's got to come into this.

Yes. The Sundance Kid is an East Coaster. He grew up on the East Coast. And after reading about the Cowboys and the Western lifestyle, he ended up running away from home at the age of 17 to pursue his dream as a Western outlaw. He worked his way on many cattle ranches and farms. And he became an extremely talented horseman and was one of the best shots with a gun in the entire West. What year is this? I'm sorry. This is like in the 1880s. Oh, okay. He was such a good shot with a gun that he could hit a three-inch target from a long distance. And when him and Butch Cassidy met, they clicked right away and they continued an extremely

long string of heist. So they were two peas and a pod. They met and they're like, hey, we're both hard in cowboys now. Like, let's get some money. Match made in cowboy heaven. Yeah. outlaw heaven i should say not every boy not every cowboy is an outlaw they continued their career as criminals essentially and they went on to organize

different train robberies where crews would rob payroll boxes so they essentially they would go a huge employment i guess in this time frame was building the railroad systems and working on the railroad systems and they had these payroll boxes where like once a week or however it was they would essentially have a box full of money and they would hand out

the payroll to each of the people in 1890 they held up a union pacific railroad train near wilcox wyoming here they used dynamite to blow up the saves holding the money and left with over 30,000 in cash so that's like a million dollars in today's money such a crazy amount of money just over and over and So much. The following year, they robbed another train near Tipton, Wyoming. Again, they used explosives to blow up the safe, and they escaped with $55,000 in cash. So even more. I was going to say, okay, so almost double.

Yeah. Robbers Roost in southern Utah became a regular hideout for Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the Wild Bunch. And this was the perfect hideout, not only because of the rugged terrain, but also, because it was almost impossible to be ambushed there from law enforcement. But it was a very easy spot to ambush any law enforcement that was coming into the area. So you could see them, but they couldn't see you. Essentially was this area. And this was also a great spot because the authorities refused to come here.

They knew that if they did, they would pay for it with their lives. There were no laws out here. This was outlaw country, essentially. Another popular hideout for the outlaws was Butch Cassidy's property up in Wyoming, which was known as the hole in the wall. This remote area is located in the Big Horn Mountains of Johnson County, Wyoming, and it was remote and difficult to get to. He built a ranch on the property along with a cabin that still stands there today. It was a very safe place to hideout and be able to regroup and make plans

for future heists. Butch Cassidy and his gang formed a series of hideouts along a designated route that today is known as the Outlaw Trail. And instead of the being a specific trail, it's a series of hideouts that ran from Montana through Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and into Mexico. Along the trail, they had resources and people who had helped refuel the outlaws with supplies, ammunitions, and horses. They had formed this relay system where each robbery that they would do had stations set up along the route and they would resupply and keep going. And this was what made it nearly impossible to get them. So they could easily perform a robbery in Montana and go to Mexico. Yeah, because they just had this system

all mapped out, all planned out, that they could just zip on down somewhere else, completely somewhere else. They had just supplies. They had people who are willing to work with them, house them, probably cover for them, all set up and lined up. They literally had this set down to a T. They knew exactly what they were doing. One of the big things that made them so untouchable to law enforcement was that they realized that the same horses couldn't perform rides for a long time, whereas the sheriffs had the same horses and were chasing them on the same horse throughout the route. So they're changing horses, they're going while they have these horses that need to break. At this point, they had become so prolific and talented at their bank robberies and train robberies

that the railroad system started employing their own detective service to try and combat and catch these outlaws. So they're like, you know what, the sheriffs aren't doing enough. The railroad system is that are like, we're going to create our own organization and we're going to try and get these guys because no one else is doing it. Our own task force essentially. Yeah. Or like you guys are robbing everything we have. You guys are robbing literally like millions of dollars and we're losing so much money. They put together a specific posse that was known as the Union Pacific Mounted Rangers along with special trains that carried horses, stalls, and living. arrangements for these rangers. So essentially they had these trains that specifically went to locations

to try and stop these outlaws. They weren't just regular men either. Like they were expert horsemen with horses that had been trained for long pursuits. They were experienced trackers and excellent shots with guns. This train was implemented to be set out to any location that Butch Cassidy robbed. So they were like loaded and ready to go after Butch Cassidy. In the beginning of this, this force was hardly a concern for the Wild Bunch game. Their hideouts along the outlaw trails were well established and they knew that law enforcement would never enter places like robbers roost. But as time went by and closer and closer calls started arising to them being caught, Butch Cassidy really started to feel the pressure that his outlaw days might not be sustainable forever. At this point, the West was changing.

Law enforcement was getting a lot stronger. They were more effective. There were telegraph lines that were being put in so there were more communications between people. Telephones were being invented. The old Western ways were slowly dying out. So a time where things were so secluded and so remote, people were really starting to be able to talk more and technology was happening. And he started considering that the old Western ways were really dying and he needed to essentially maybe start obeying the law or he was going to get caught and he was going to be thrown in jail. Well, he was operating during a time that really worked to his advantage. Like lack of communication, lack of, you know, just like there's aura lag in communication and things

weren't so instantaneous. And people weren't, you know, there weren't like task forces out. Nothing was organized. Like he, you know, he just, he was kind of ahead of the system. And now that the system was kind of catching up to him and he was starting to operate in a time that was changing and that was working to his disadvantage. It seems like, should I cut my losses? and just kind of quit while I'm ahead.

Yeah. I have so much money. I have tons of money. I've gone years and years with minimal time in jail, what, you spent two years in jail? Yeah. Yeah. Nothing.

And it's like, you know, things are really changing. I'm recognizing this. Law enforcement is getting stronger. Things are starting to happen. Maybe it's time for me to get with the times and stop. What's that song? It's like, you got to know when to hold them. No when to fold them.

No when to walk them. Walk away. No when to run. You can ever, you don't... I don't know. I mean movie fucking song. I don't know, but it sounds like essential for this. It's essentially like just know when to like call it.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I love it. I also love that it sounds country. And this is an old Western episode. The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. Can you play it?

Sure. Hold on. I want to play it. Like, I got to get the... The chorus. Yeah. Yeah. What I'm talking about, essentially.

This is right for bestis. There'll be time enough for counting. When the deal is done. You've never heard this song? No. And I listen to country, old country. Okay, we'll listen to it after in its entirety. But people are like, great.

Anyways. Back to the story. No, I feel like there's so many people who are singing along with that. And they're like, yes. Yes. Oh, my gosh. It's just a song I haven't heard in so long. And it just, yeah.

Reminded you of this. Reminded me of this. Yeah, it's just like, cut your losses, no one to walk away. And I feel like Butch Cassidy doesn't know when to walk away. Am I right? We'll see. Okay. But at this point, he's like considering he's like, you know, it's time to walk away.

He didn't have a criminal record in a few Western states. So he's like, you know, I've never killed anyone. There's, I've never done a violent crime. It's just been bank robberies. Like, yeah, I've thrown a few people. But I've never actually hurt any. and so he toyed with the idea of striking up a deal with the Union Pacific Railroad. Butch had hired a high-powered attorney by the name of Douglas Preston.

And over the past few years, he had helped him to get out of some legal trouble in the past. And he reached out to him to get a deal in place that could wipe his record clean and would allow him to be forgiven without any consequences to his actions. There was a meeting that was set in place to have a discussion with the Union Pacific Railroad. And the idea was to agree and promise that he would no longer rob their trains. And not only would he no longer rob them, but he would also offer his services as a messenger and guard to their trains. He knew their roots better than anyone. And he had this gang and posse of men who he could relay these protections to the entire Wild Bunch gang to be like, we're protecting these trains. No one's robbing them.

They can go about their business. and in exchange for this promise from his gang, he would no longer have to live his life in hiding because there were so many people looking for him at this point. And the authorities would no longer pursue him for his previous robberies. And be like, you're good, you're forgiven. The end. It sounds like something that is very enticing on paper,

but to totally flip your whole script. Like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do a 180 and so are all the other people that are going to work for me. That's going to go over really well for me. And you know, it's just kind of like, okay, so a criminal now becomes an informant type of thing. It is. But if when I was reading it, I had the same thought of you. I'm like, oh, he's going to totally give up his ways and the gang and everything. But he's only promising not to rob railroads.

He has said absolutely nothing about banks. Okay. So there's a little bit of a loophole here. They're just like, okay. So I will agree to this specific guidelines. but you never said anything about anything else. Yeah, it's like it's the railroad that's hired this posse essentially to come after him, not the banks.

So it kind of sounds like he's like, you know what, I'll make a deal with you. You're kind of close on my tail and no one will rob you anymore and you'll be good and will actually protect you. And I didn't really research like that he had intentions to rob banks, but nowhere did I find it was like, I'm going to give up my ways entirely. it was just like, I won't rob the railroads. But because Butch Cassidy was worried that the railroad company would portray him and would actually arrest him if he agreed for a meeting, he had his lawyer make a trip out to see them first. So they were, he essentially his lawyer was supposed to meet up with the railroad system and accompany them to meet Butch Cassidy.

And their plans were that they were going to meet on horses in a remote valley and then have their conversations there. Butch showed up early and he waited on a high peak above the valley to scout out the situation to watch them show up make sure that this was legit. The time that they were supposed to meet came and went and Butch Cassidy waited a little longer. He waited and he waited and no one showed up. And when no one showed up, including his lawyer, that he had paid and trusted for many years, he believed that he had been double crossed. He wrote a note and left it under a rock where he had waited. And it wrote, damn you, Preston, you have double crossed me. I waited all day, but you didn't show up.

Tell the Union Pacific to go to hell and you can go with them. Which Cassidy. Oh, shit. Okay, what do you mean left it under a rock in this remote area above the valley that no one would think to go look at? He's like, they'll get this. They're going to get this and they're going to see that I'm back to my. ways and I am not going to stop robbing everything everywhere. And there is so much more to the story and we're going to dive very deep into it in our next episode. Oh my God. What? Because he goes on

a wild rampage of revenge escaping and ends up in a whole other country, which is a whole another story and something Mexico. You would think, you would think on horseback. Right. You would be like, I'm going to go to Mexico. He goes a lot further. There is so many layers to the story. I had no idea what is going on. Okay, so Cassie back out again with the two-parter. People were upset with you the first two-parter you ever did. The first and only. The night of the grislies, everyone hated me. We were like scarred. We just like never did it again. We're like, we'll never do a two-parter again. Fast forward one year later, welcome to our two-parter. Yes. But when I was writing this episode, it took over 30 pages.

So we'll see you next episode. Just a couple more days. Just a couple more days. Yeah. We can do it. You got to know what happened to Bush Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And his network of outlaws. Yeah.

So I really love this episode because it's just like you think you know, but you don't. It's something that I think a lot of people just know the, just like the name, you know. and you don't really know why or how you heard of it. And then now it's like, wow, I really didn't know anything about this. There's so much to this story and there's so much going on and it just keeps going. Okay, I'm excited. Well, thank you everyone for hanging in with us. We'll see you in just a few days and we'll finish this up and get to know what really happened.

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