On April 22, 1897, Audaciously, in one of the most daring daylight robberies, Butch Cassidy, Elza Lay, Bob Meeks, and Joe Walker robbed the Pleasant Valley Coal Company located at Castle Gate, Utah up Indian Canyon. Days before the Wild Bunch scouted out the town and made their plan. In order to look less suspicious each day Butch and Elza would ride horses bare-back into town and would let people know that they were conditioning them for a horse race in Salt Lake City.
On the day of the robbery, a train from Salt Lake City coasted into Castle Gate carrying the payroll. In order to discourage robbery the company used an irregular schedule. A whistle would blow at the train master’s office to alert the workers to come and collect their paychecks. Shortly before the train arrived, Elzy had hitched his horse in front of a saloon and wanted for the train whistle. Butch was loitering near the stairway of the company office.
As the baggage was unloaded from the train, three men, including the company paymaster and two guards, gathered the payroll, consisting of three bags of gold coins, estimated at $8,800, emerged from the baggage room and headed to the Company Office some 75 yards away. But before they could reach the office Butch held the three men at gunpoint, taking the largest bag from the paymaster. In the meantime, Elzy approached relieving them of another bag. The crafty outlaws jumped on their horses and rode as fast as they could out of town. The paymaster ran to the telegraph office to wire for help but Walker had climbed the telegraph pole and cut the line.
The outlaw’s loot was never recovered and many believe that it was hidden by the gange somewhere near Robbers Roost. But maybe the loot is near Vernal . . .
Pictured is what the Paymasters Office looked like in 1897 and another picture courtesy of the Uintah County History Center with the miners showing an empty pay bucket.
History Moment 14 of 20
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