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Tuesday, July 24, 2007
This Date in History
July 24, 1899 - Sam Ketchum dies of blood poisoning in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Butch, Sundance Live On In Debate Over Their Deaths
CHEYENNE - If the Pinkerton detective bunch had left them alone, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have lived out their days as law-abiding ranchers in Argentina.
At least that's what Cassidy's great-great nephew Bill Betenson believes about the outlaw pair.
On Thursday, Betenson spoke about their lives in Argentina for people at the Western Outlaw-Lawmen History Association's Cheyenne Shootout.
"They were so well-liked down there," Betenson said of the bank and train-robbing pair. - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online
Friday, July 13, 2007
Rawlins Republican 09.08.1900
(Thanks to a reader there are now eight new articles posted to the Print Archive...enjoy. And remember, if you have any articles related to the Wild Bunch that you would like to share, please send them in. There are currently just over a hundred articles in the archives with new articles being added as they are discovered. Thanks again to the reader who sent them in. - m/a/z/e)
ACTIONS AROUSED SUSPICION.
Suspicious Characters at Encampment Held up Men Who Followed Them.
J. G. Rankin returned from Grand Encampment on the stage Thursday. Mr. Rankin confirms the report that two men rode into that town last Monday, and their actions aroused the suspicion of the people of that village that they were crooked, but Mr. Rankin says he has no evidence to prove that they were members of the gang which held-up the Union Pacific train at Tipton on the 29th. Three other parties were also seen in the vicinity.
There was no officer at Encampment to make any arrests, Deputy Sheriff Horace Nichols being at Saratoga, so no attempt was made to halt the men. Mr. Rankin secured a good description however. One was a large man; the other small. Both were dressed in rough clothes and heavily armed. Mr. Rankin says the report that he followed the suspects is a mistake. He did furnish horses, however, to a man who produced papers to show that he was an authorized detective, to follow the parties to Battle. The name of this party Mr. Rankin declines to give, because he secured it under a pledge of secrecy. Mr. Rankin's son, Ed, accompanied this party.
Ed told his father they overtook the two men in the timber a few miles out from Encampment. When the two men saw them coming they jumped from their horses and got behind a tree. Throwing their guns down on the men following them they demanded to know what their business was.
Rankin and his companion assured them that they were miners, going to Battle Lake to look for work. They invited these men to go with them and they finally consented.
The men put up at a hotel in Battle over night, but were careful to take their Winchesters and six shooters to their room with them. The men had an abundance of money. They set up the drinks a couple of times at different places, each time having a twenty dollar gold peace changed.
That night after the men had gone to bed Rankin and his companion went to the stable where they had put up their horses and went through their effects, but did not find a clue to their identity.
The next morning Rankin and his companion told the men that they were going to the Ferris-Haggarty mine. The men said they were also going over there. They started on ahead, and as soon as they got into the timber out of sight they turned off the road and disappeared. Rankin and his companion did not see them any more.
Mr. Rankin denied that he sent a message to General Manager Dickerson informing him of the presence of these men, but the message was sent by the party who claims to be a detective.
These men may not belong to the train robbers' gang, but Mr. Rankin is convinced that they are wanted for something.
Latest Rumors About Robbers
Last night's Laramie papers state that a dispatch was received at Assistant Superintendent Whitney's office yesterday from Price, Utah, stating that the Union Pacific train robbers had been located near that place, and a large posse has gone out with the expectation of effecting the capture of the bandits.
It is not known whether Sheriff McDaniel and his posse are with this posse or not. Nothing has been heard from the Carbon county folks since United States Marshal Hadsell and his deputy left them Monday.
Dickinson Says Hunt Will Continue
A dispatch from Omaha says: "No matter what the telegraphic reports may be, the search for the men who dynamited and looted the Pacific Express car at Tipton, Wyo., a week ago, has not been abandoned. Our men are still on the trail and will follow no matter where it may take them. We may not get the robbers for some days, but eventually we will run them to earth," thus spoke General Manager Dickinson of the Union Pacific railway company, who has been directing the search for the robbers.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Ghost town is the life of Capitol Reef
The only thing that isn't in Fruita is Fruita.
The town began in 1880 when Mormon pioneers settled next to the Fremont River and planted 2,700 fruit trees. Soon enough, cherries, apples, apricots, peaches, pears and plums appeared.
Plagued by harsh winters, isolation, really rugged (but beautiful!) terrain and the fact that the town lay along the Outlaw Trail frequented by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (charred timbers in Capitol Reef's Grand Gulch are believed to be from one of Butch's hideouts), Fruita didn't exactly flourish but due to all the good fruit it produced, it managed to stay alive for almost a century.
Fruita didn't officially die and become a ghost town until 1971, when the federal government - inspired by all that rugged but beautiful terrain - did what the winters, isolation and the Wild Bunch couldn't do.
It made the neighborhood, already a national monument, a national park. And killed the town. - More at Deseret News
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
This Date in History
July 3, 1901 - The Great Northern Railroad's Coast Flyer No. 3 is robbed near Wagner, Montana by members of the Wild Bunch.
July 3, 1902 - The Chicago Rock Island Express is robbed near Dupont, Illinois. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid are named as suspects. However at the time of robbery Butch Cassidy was in South America. The Sundance Kid and Etta Place were visiting the U.S. at the time of the robbery and therefore Sundance could have played a role.
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