April 21, 1897 - Pleasant Valley Coal Mine Robbery

When Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay made the decision to rob the payroll of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in Castle Gate, Utah, they knew it would not be easy. The PVCC was owned by the Denver & Rio Grande railroad whose trains brought the payroll every two weeks on alternating days. In order to pull off a successful heist, the robbers would either need a great deal of luck, or hang around town waiting for the train to arrive. As Castle Gate’s population was largely comprised of PVCC employees, any strangers hanging around town would stick out like a sore thumb.

To get around this Cassidy and Lay, using the aliases Tom Gillis and Bert Fowler, took on the guise of horse racers passing through the town on their way to the next big race. Horseracing was a common enough pastime in the area to alleviate any suspicion towards the newcomers. The two outlaws managed to keep up appearances while they waited for the train to arrive with the payroll.

Finally, on the afternoon of April 21, 1897, the payroll train blew its horn signaling the arrival of the payroll. PVCC company paymaster E.L. Carpenter and his clerk, T.W. Lewis, left the PVCC office to meet the train. They were not the only ones.

After picking up the payroll, the two men headed back to the office where they were intercepted by Cassidy and Lay. Cassidy got up close to Carpenter and quietly demanded he hand over the money bags. Taken completely by surprise, the paymaster did as he was instructed.

Cassidy tossed the bags to Lay, startling his own horse in the process. The spooked horse took off in a run, while the equally spooked paymaster did the same, screaming for help as he ran. Shots rang out from the office, but no bullets made their mark. Lay was able to catch up with the rogue horse in short order and the two outlaws raced to make their escape with $7,000 of the miners money.

Back at the office, Carpenter attempted to telegraph Price Sheriff Gus Donant, but the telegraph wires were cut, likely by Joe Walker. Unable to contact the sheriff long distance, Carpenter commandeered a train to Price and notified the sheriff in person. The delay gave the outlaws valuable lead-time.

Sheriff Donant put together a posse and notified the nearby towns of Huntington and Castle Dale to do the same. In typical Wild Bunch fashion, Cassidy and Lay used a series of relay horses, set up by Joe Walker, and quickly lost the pursuing authorities. The Huntington and Castle Dale posses came across each other and, each mistaking the other for the outlaws, engaged each other in a brief firefight before realizing their error. The Huntington posse may have included Joe Meeks, the older brother of Wild Bunch member Bub Meeks.

It is said that after switching out horses at one of the relay stops, Cassidy and Lay passed the stolen money to Joe Walker to transport it to a designated meeting place. A new posse consisting of PVCC paymaster Carpenter, Pete Anderson, Greg Whitmore of Provo, Utah, U.S. Marshal Joe Bush from Salt Lake City and another man stayed on the chase but came up empty.

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