Rock Springs and Green River: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Without doubt the two most engaging characters to roam the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid remain legends of the Old West - thanks in large part to the classic 1969 Hollywood film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (which starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford).Butch Cassidy was born George LeRoy Parker in the town of Beaver, Utah, on 6 April, 1866. Taught the art of cattle-rustling by ranch-hand Mike Cassidy, Parker borrowed his mentor's last name, then picked up the handle "Butch" while working as a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming. He pulled his first bank job in Telluride, Colorado, in 1889, and soon found himself in the company of a like-minded group of outlaws known as the Wild Bunch , among them Harry Longabaugh - the Sundance Kid. The gang's resume would include horse-rustling as well as the robbing of trains, banks and mine payrolls; they gave away a fortune in gold to friends and even strangers in need, hence their reputation as latter-day "Robin Hoods".
The image of a dashing, philanthropic band of outlaws did not sit well with authori-ties, who mustered teams of lawmen - and gunmen - to go after them. The gang took to laying low through the winter months in Brown's Hole , a broad river valley in remote northwest Colorado, and they were known to visit the southern Wyoming towns of Baggs, Rock Springs and Green River. The gang were eventually undone by their own vanity, when, during a visit to Fort Worth, Texas, five of the men posed for a group photo in smart suits and derby hats; the photographer proudly placed the photo in his shop window the following day, where it was seen by a detective from the famous Pinkerton's agency.
Wearying of life on the run, Butch and Sundance sailed for South America in 1902, and were soon trying their hand at gold-mining, while robbing the occasional bank or train. The Hollywood version was true enough to this point, but Butch Cassidy did not die in a hail of bullets at the hands of Bolivian soldiers in 1909 as depicted in the film - although it seems that Harry Longabaugh did. The last say belongs to Josie Morris, an old girlfriend from Butch's Brown's Hole days, who insisted that he came to see her on his return from South America, and claimed furthermore that he died an old man in Johnny, Nevada, some time during the 1940s.
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