Pleasant Valley Coal Company

This is where Butch Cassidy became famous. On April 21, 1897, the noon train brought the Pleasant Valley Coal Company's payroll into Castle Gate, and as paymaster E. L. Carpenter carried the gold from the depot to his office stairs, Cassidy stepped up and took it at gunpoint — some eight thousand dollars, in front of a hundred onlookers. His partner Elzy Lay held the horses; accomplices had cut the telegraph and staged fresh mounts down the canyon. Carpenter gave chase on a commandeered locomotive, but the outlaws slipped past and vanished toward Robbers Roost.

What the plaque says

Near this site stood the Pleasant Valley Coal Company office and store. On April 21, 1897, in of of the most daring daylight robberies, Butch Cassidy, Elsa Lay, and Bob Meeks robbed paymaster E.L. Carpenter and made off with over $8000.00 in gold and silver of which only approximately $1000.00 was ever recovered.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Prehistoric Museum at USU Eastern — 9.7 mi
  A small-town museum punching way above its weight in dinosaur science
• Price — 9.7 mi
  A gritty coal mining town with a surprisingly excellent dinosaur museum
• Skyline Drive — 31 mi
  A hundred miles of dirt along the 10,000-foot crest of the Wasatch Plateau

More markers nearby

• Utah's Coal Industry — steps away
• Castle Gate Mine Disaster — steps away
• Geneva/Horse Canyon Mine Monument — 3.5 mi
• Francis M. Ewell — 4.2 mi