Early Day Outlaws

In the old West, some gunslingers relied on a single-action frontier model .45 Colt and on fanning it faster than their rivals, a skill that sometimes kept them alive and out of the hands of a weary public. By choice or circumstance, some joined the "wild bunch," rough-riding, shooting men known for disregarding other people's cattle brands. In the 1880's, Kid Curry ranged in the Little Rockies country about forty miles southwest of here. On July 3, 1901, Curry and his partners, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Deaf Charlie, held up the Great Northern Railway's No. 3 passenger train and blew up the express car safe near this point. Montana's most famous train robbery brought them a bag of gold coins and $40,000 in unsigned and worthless banknotes, and soon afterward Curry and his gang left Montana.

Montana · United States