Hole-in-the-Wall

A defensible notch that sheltered outlaw gangs for fifty years

The Great Red Wall runs for miles through the Big Horn country of Johnson County, Wyoming, a long escarpment of colourful red sandstone. At one point it opens in a narrow gap, and beyond the gap lies a fertile, sheltered valley watered by Buffalo Creek. That notch, and the valley behind it, are the Hole-in-the-Wall, one of the major outlaw hideaways of the West.

The place was made for hiding. It was remote, easily defended because of its narrow passes, and impossible for lawmen to approach without warning the men inside. From the late 1860s to around 1910 gang after gang used it, among them the cattle rustlers of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, the Logan brothers, Black Jack Ketchum and, from 1896, Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, who made it one of their three headquarters along with Brown's Park in Colorado and Robbers Roost in Utah. Rustlers drove stolen horses and cattle up a narrow trail over the wall, the only way in from the east, and pastured them in the valley. At its height the hideout had several cabins where outlaws sat out the hard Wyoming winters, perhaps 30 or 40 men in six cabins by some historians' count, with a livery stable, a corral, livestock and supplies, each gang chipping in for the upkeep.

The small ranchers nearby mostly left them alone. Kenneth MacDonald, an immigrant sheep rancher, founded the Willow Creek Ranch here in 1882, and local ranchers often helped the outlaws, both to avoid trouble and because the gangs stole from the big cattle barons and robbed trains rather than their neighbours. The Pinkerton agency sent its detective Charlie Siringo into the country to get in with friends of the Wild Bunch and learn their secrets. The log cabin built in 1883 by Alexander Ghent, where Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and others met, was later moved and now stands at the Old Trail Town museum in Cody.

Only a few chunks of cabin foundation remain in the valley today, slowly disappearing under the grass. The Hole-in-the-Wall sits on the working Willow Creek Ranch, and the Bureau of Land Management keeps a primitive three-mile foot trail that starts on state land and ends on federal land at the gap. Getting to the trailhead takes a high-clearance four-wheel drive on an unmaintained two-track through six ranch gates, to be left as found. There are no services, so walkers carry their own water and food. From the top of the wall the view across the green valley shows exactly why the outlaws chose it.