06/24/2020
Take the tour and learn about Butch Cassidy's very first bank robbery on Telluride's main street.
June 24, 1889: 131 years ago Wednesday, Butch Cassidy launched his considerable bank-robbing career right here in Telluride, Colorado. Cassidy, born Robert Leroy Parker, came to Telluride either to seek work or to sell stolen horses.
After thoroughly casing the San Miguel Valley Bank, which stood where the Mahr building is today, he and two accomplices stole about $20,000 and supposedly rode calmly out of town before the alarm was raised. They then allegedly took shelter in the famous Robber’s Roost hideout in Southeastern Utah.
Butch Cassidy later formed the infamous Wild Bunch gang and was of course the subject of the 1969 movie written by William Goldman and starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.