With the same tenacity shown by the legendary outlaw himself, Utah lawmakers are once again trying to turn the site of the childhood home of Butch Cassidy into a state monument.
Filed Tuesday in the Utah State Legislature, the resolution's sponsors want to create the Butch Cassidy State Monument on land near the home that still stands outside Circleville — a town in a rural part of the state's southern half.
Despite previous failed attempts to seek a designation for the site, the resolution sponsored by Rep. Carl Albrecht reads "that it is in the best interest of Piute County to preserve and maintain the Butch Cassidy home as a state monument."
The dilapidated wooden home rests just off U.S. Highway 89, and has become a popular stop for fans of the legendary cowboy who gained fame and notoriety.
Cassidy worked closely with his partner — "Sundance Kid" Harry Longabaugh. The two were immortalized in a 1969 film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Longabaugh and Cassidy were bank and train robbers who eventually fled to South America to escape justice. It is believed that Cassidy possibly died in Bolivia around 1909. He was a member of a collection of bank and train robbers who tore through the Western United States in the 1880s and 1890s and were called the Wild Bunch.
Cassidy was born on April 13, 1866 in Beaver, Utah, and grew up in the Circleville home about an hour away by road, until he left as a teenager. Although the land where the home sits is currently privately owned, it would be leased to the state to create the monument. The resolution states that a land lease agreement with the property owners — along with Piute and Garfield counties, which would manage the monument — has already been reached.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Salt Lake City, with additional reporting from Scripps News.
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