Did I Find Butch Cassidy's Long-Lost Hideout on Google Earth?

[00:00:00]A while back, I received an intriguing email from someone who believed they had spotted a cabin on Google Earth in a remote desert location.

[00:00:08]Honestly, that alone was enough to get my attention.

[00:00:12]But the email went on to say that this mysterious structure sat near an area once traveled by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

[00:00:20]According to the sender, the cabin was located close to one of their known routes through the desert.

[00:00:26]And that was all I needed to hear.

[00:00:28]But after weeks of trying to fit it into my schedule, >> [music] >> I finally had the chance to head out and investigate.

[00:00:35]Because of the long drive and an early start for the hike, I decided to camp nearby the night before.

[00:00:49]I don't know how well you guys can see me right now, but um I am camping here tonight, and I have a little bit uh ways to go tomorrow morning um before we go see if this is Butch Cassidy's hideout that has been long forgotten, long lost.

[00:01:05]We might be some of the first people there to see it. So I am very excited to see how this trek goes tomorrow, and I know you are, too. Um but right now I'm very tired. Uh today I drove 7 hours total of driving, so I am done with driving.

[00:01:21]Um so I'm excited to go to bed, wake up early, and hopefully have a good night, and I'll see you in the morning.

[00:01:31]Before falling asleep, I couldn't stop thinking about what I might find tomorrow.

[00:01:38]Was this really a cabin? If so, who [music] built it? And why would anyone choose to live in such a remote place?

[00:01:46]Was it connected to the outlaws who once passed through this area?

[00:01:52]By morning, I hope to have some answers.

[00:01:56]If you don't know anything about Butch Cassidy, I'll share just a little bit about him.

[00:02:01]He was born Robert Leroy Parker in 1866.

[00:02:06]Butch Cassidy became one of the most famous outlaws of the American West.

[00:02:13]Along with his gang, known as the Wild Bunch, he carried out a string of train and bank robberies across the Rocky Mountain West during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

[00:02:24]Southern Utah and the surrounding desert country provided ideal hideouts, offering remote canyons, hidden routes, >> [music] >> and countless places to disappear.

[00:02:35]And that's exactly why I'm excited for today's trek.

[00:02:57]Hey everyone, I just got started and had a pretty terrible night's sleep.

[00:03:03]Um just kept waking up.

[00:03:05]Should have brought like three pads instead of just one good pad. I need three good pads.

[00:03:10]Anyway, so I just started this hike. What I'm looking forward to most is finally seeing what the square shape is. It looks like a cabin, some type of building.

[00:03:18]Um I'm very curious because the location of it makes it seem like why would there be a cabin here? Unless it's like a hideout.

[00:03:27]Um just because think about in the late 1800s, there aren't airplanes, there aren't satellite photos. If you want to hide, this might be the best place to do it.

[00:03:38]So, for that aspect alone, I am just so intrigued by what this place could could be.

[00:03:46]So, it's very possible this is just some cabin or some structure that has been just out here, lost. If you're like me and intrigued by this adventure so far, click subscribe so you don't miss out on the next adventure.

[00:05:12]You can tell not many people go on this trail.

[00:05:15]It's overgrown in many parts.

[00:05:20]So, my plan is to follow this for a while.

[00:05:23]Then, I'm going to cut off of it and at a spot that has some at a spot that has a lot of sandstone, so I plan is just hike over all of that over to this square cabin thing.

[00:06:49]>> You can barely see it, but there's a a cottontail rabbit over there.

[00:06:55]Just sitting there watching me.

[00:06:58]Just through these dead trees right here.

[00:07:04]See it?

[00:08:34]>> So, I think that trail goes down that way.

[00:08:37]I'm going to go somewhere on top of this stuff.

[00:08:41]But, you can see that this is a pretty flat area for the most part.

[00:08:46]Like, that's one of the things I was looking for was could you get a horse through all this? Yeah, really easy.

[00:08:52]Um, but I'm I'm wondering as we get closer cuz of my topography maps it looks a lot steeper.

[00:09:01]So, I'm wondering what that's going to look like.

[00:09:06]So, the crypto right here.

[00:09:08]Cryptobiotic soil.

[00:09:10]That's why I'm hiking through this dry wash.

[00:09:13]Cuz there's not really a trail anymore, but this dry wash is now my trail.

[00:10:02]>> Whoop.

[00:10:04]Need to go down again.

[00:10:26]All right, so right behind me, somewhere back there, you can see a little cut in the rock.

[00:10:31]So, on my topography map, you can see that it's uh kind of a a gentler slope over these cliffs. So, I could go over there, which I don't want to do yet, but the one I saw is right there, and it seems easier. So, let's go to that one.

[00:11:44]>> Oops, kind of a barrier here.

[00:11:47]Oh.

[00:12:01]So, I'm coming to this spot where a lot of the cattle hoofs are going to.

[00:12:08]I'm seeing if there's any water down here.

[00:12:11]This is really interesting.

[00:12:17]Really cool geology. Look at that.

[00:12:24]This looks like uh rib cage of a dinosaur.

[00:12:32]So, I'm going to have to get over this.

[00:12:34]This seems to be the easiest way.

[00:12:37]Um just go up and kind of scramble.

[00:12:41]Give it a shot.

[00:13:17]Oh.

[00:13:27]Probably won't be coming down that way.

[00:13:30]It's pretty steep.

[00:13:34]One of the things I have learned is that when you're doing hiking like this, you have to be open to changes.

[00:13:43]Which in my experience happen every single track.

[00:13:46]Unless I hike on like, you know, Angel's Landing Trail and it's all set and everything is nice.

[00:13:53]But this is fun.

[00:13:55]I bet on the other side of this there's a massive cliff.

[00:14:05]Oh, nope.

[00:14:07]Okay.

[00:14:09]Well, so the animals got down. There is like trails down there.

[00:14:31]See, where did the animals go?

[00:14:33]Probably over here, huh?

[00:15:04]Really cool.

[00:15:16]This is very um crumbly, as you can tell.

[00:15:20]I don't want to slip on this stuff.

[00:15:24]If it was steeper, I probably wouldn't even climb it.

[00:16:18]Can you imagine Butch Cassidy walking through here?

[00:16:22]Uh [snorts] it's quite the maze.

[00:16:26]It's easy to get lost if you don't have good orientation skills.

[00:16:30]Um you could easily be cliffed out like I was at some spots.

[00:16:36]Um and just the thought of like we're going to be searching out here for a long time might be enough for people to be like ah I give up.

[00:16:46]So, this might lend more into the idea of thought that this is a remote outlaw um hideout.

[00:17:14]So, I'm following these game trails and dry washes over there cuz all this you know, is hills and mountains and stuff, but there's a nice ledge over here that I can follow that's going to be safe before I have to cut left and then back around to where I think this cabin is.

[00:17:54]What kind of tracks does that look like to you?

[00:17:58]They're small.

[00:18:01]Maybe a fox.

[00:18:28]I haven't seen a single boot footprint human footprint shoe print, nothing um since I left that main trail since near the beginning.

[00:18:49]Long ways down.

[00:18:59]So, I need to go over here and that side.

[00:19:51]>> Okay, so we're getting closer to where this hill is.

[00:19:56]And hopefully we can see that cabin or whatever it is.

[00:20:00]We are on our way. We're almost there, I think.

[00:20:18]Can I go over there?

[00:20:20]This way?

[00:20:23]Looks like I've cliffed out here.

[00:20:25]So, I'm going to go up this way and hike around and see what's up there.

[00:20:31]It's a nice little bench area.

[00:20:37]Hahaha, this is cool.

[00:20:39]Careful, guys.

[00:20:57]It's perfect.

[00:20:58]Maybe.

[00:21:07]>> [snorts] >> Oh, shoot.

[00:21:10]Woah.

[00:21:28]Can I get down from here?

[00:21:32]No.

[00:21:33]Oh my gosh, I can't do this.

[00:21:38]Ah.

[00:21:38]>> [sighs] >> Dang it.

[00:21:45]Right when I was like, "Dang it.

[00:21:47]What have we done? We went too low."

[00:21:50]I realized how many people have been over here in that exact spot.

[00:21:55]In all the centuries and thousands of, you know, millennia, how many, uh, people have been to this exact spot?

[00:22:06]Probably not many.

[00:22:38]Cool paint marks.

[00:22:40]Um, from iron, right?

[00:23:15]>> Got to be careful.

[00:23:26]So, can you see that right there? That's it.

[00:23:29]And guess what? It looks like there's something on top of there.

[00:23:33]I I I can't see cuz there's like some brush, but I can see there's something up there.

[00:23:40]And I have to go up here and then over there to get a better look. So, let's go. I'm getting excited.

[00:23:52]Are those stacked?

[00:23:55]Maybe.

[00:24:31]Nice little ledge for me.

[00:24:35]This is a cool little area.

[00:24:55]>> [snorts] >> Got some more lizard apartments right there.

[00:25:01]Those are cool.

[00:25:04]So, I just checked. This other side is very steep.

[00:25:08]Probably won't be able to do it that way.

[00:25:10]So, my only option is to go right here and see if we can get closer. We might not even be able to see it up close.

[00:25:19]Um but this way seems impossible. It's just yeah.

[00:26:15]So, I'm coming just around the corner.

[00:26:17]I can't quite see it yet, but I can see the hill that's on.

[00:26:23]Yeah, guys. I don't forget about the I can up there.

[00:26:26]>> [sighs] >> I'll know for sure once I go around this this bend and there's a saddle.

[00:26:32]Um >> [panting] >> we'll see if it's possible.

[00:27:04]>> It was nice and safe.

[00:27:06]May not look it on the camera, but this is very safe.

[00:27:13]Pretty safe.

[00:27:15]I'm confident safe.

[00:27:40]Okay, you might not be able to see it, but I see it right up there.

[00:27:42]Looks like there's like some wood on the very top of where that cabin rectangle thing is.

[00:27:51]I just don't know how I'm going to get over there.

[00:27:55]Okay, so I just dropped down from this area safely. Safely.

[00:27:59]Safely slid down.

[00:28:01]I'm easily get back up.

[00:28:04]I climb up here, too. And I saw something that is very interesting. Look at this.

[00:28:15]Does that look like stacked stones to you?

[00:28:20]Does to me.

[00:28:22]Right below where the supposed cabin is.

[00:28:28]Is this Butch Cassidy making this, showing the way?

[00:28:37]Look at this like flat plaza area.

[00:29:04]>> This is nice hiking.

[00:29:30]Some little animals here.

[00:29:32]Some little fox or something.

[00:29:34]Actually smaller cow. Look at this compared to my foot.

[00:30:21]How am I going to get up there?

[00:30:23]It's on top of this.

[00:30:30]>> [snorts] >> Do you see any other cairns?

[00:30:42]See, those cairns are interesting because they're cairns to nowhere as far as we're concerned.

[00:30:49]But to somebody who is trying to get somewhere, could be cairns to a secret hideout.

[00:30:59]Yeah, see look.

[00:31:01]Another one.

[00:31:05]Maybe.

[00:31:06]That looks like a cairn to me.

[00:31:23]Little squirrel.

[00:31:25]Ooh, that's cool.

[00:31:30]How am I going to get up there?

[00:31:32]Look how steep it's right on top of this.

[00:31:34]>> [sighs and gasps] [snorts] >> Yeah, I don't know. Even that way looks pretty impossible.

[00:32:14]Maybe I can go around a little bit and see.

[00:32:18]There's no way I can get up that.

[00:32:22]But that might be a way. Hopefully there's a little weakness in the rock that I can easily climb up.

[00:32:30]But there's there's just no way I could do that.

[00:32:46]>> Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.

[00:32:50]Please. Please. Please. Maybe.

[00:32:57]I think we're going to do it. Oh, yes.

[00:33:00]Maybe.

[00:33:02]Maybe right there.

[00:33:08]Yeah.

[00:33:09]I think we can do it.

[00:33:11]All right, guys. I am right below it.

[00:33:14]Where this alleged hideout is.

[00:33:17]Or cabin. Something.

[00:33:19]It might not even be related to Butch Cassidy.

[00:33:22]Okay.

[00:33:23]You have to go up this.

[00:33:27]Made it up here. It's pretty easy.

[00:33:30]Looks harder on the camera, of course.

[00:33:32]Found this cave up here, though.

[00:33:38]>> [snorts] >> Nothing's in there.

[00:33:44]These interesting rocks.

[00:34:13]Beautiful.

[00:34:19]It's just right up there.

[00:34:21]Almost there.

[00:34:23]We can finally see what this is.

[00:34:25]This has been a very complex trek.

[00:34:29]It's taking a lot of route finding and adjustments.

[00:34:35]But we made it.

[00:34:42]>> [snorts] >> I'm sure how much you love some water.

[00:34:50]>> [panting] >> Here's the top.

[00:34:54]This whole thing has been definitely doable not by horse but by hiking.

[00:35:00]There has some wood right there.

[00:35:04]Um What the Is this a cabin?

[00:35:21]Uh No, it's not.

[00:35:26]Why would it be, too?

[00:35:28]What?

[00:35:30]>> [panting] >> Yeah.

[00:35:35]How does on Google Earth it looks like a square.

[00:35:39]Is it just how it's cut?

[00:35:41]Let's see that piece of wood.

[00:35:43]Oh, there's like wire on top of it.

[00:35:47]Huh.

[00:35:51]>> [snorts] >> That was interesting.

[00:35:59]Something Somebody stacked these to put that there.

[00:36:04]No, this stuff isn't stacked but this stuff right here.

[00:36:07]>> [laughter] >> Look.

[00:36:09]There's wire.

[00:36:12]>> [gasps] >> It's frustrating.

[00:36:20]So, I want to see where this square thing is.

[00:36:24]Square cut.

[00:36:26]Okay, so there's There's the cut there.

[00:36:30]Right there.

[00:36:31]And on Google Earth it just looks like a big square.

[00:36:35]So >> [snorts] >> somebody came by and hiked this.

[00:36:45]Is there anything else around there?

[00:36:51]Remind me, do not hike on top of that because the other side a cliff so I would have to come back this way anyway.

[00:36:57]Well, one thing we can't say is Butch Cassidy definitively wasn't here. He could have been here.

[00:37:07]Um yeah.

[00:37:09]Little disappointing.

[00:37:12]But I had an idea. How about this?

[00:37:14]How about um I know and I've been to one of Butch Cassidy's actual hideouts. It's located in what's called Robbers Roost.

[00:37:24]Here in Utah and um he was actually there. So, I will take you there. We will do that right after this.

[00:37:31]And I will show you why that place is such a great hideout and why this one stinks.

[00:37:36]So, let's go do that.

[00:37:48]>> And now I'm on my way to Robbers Roost, a remote region long associated with outlaws of the Old West, including Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

[00:38:00]Today I'll take you to a location that has traditionally been connected to Butch Cassidy.

[00:38:07]For years this spot has been part of local stories and historical accounts.

[00:38:20]Robbers Roost offered exactly what outlaws needed. Rugged terrain, hidden canyons, reliable water sources, and easy escape routes.

[00:38:29]>> All right, we're getting close.

[00:38:32]Uh it doesn't look like there's going to be a lot of canyons out here, but there are actually a lot of canyons out here.

[00:38:38]And we're going to go see a couple of them.

[00:38:40]>> Along the way, I'll share some of the clues that have kept this legend alive for more than a century.

[00:38:47]>> So, the BLM maintains these roads to a certain condition, which is actually pretty good. I haven't had any problems except for one area that was just overblown with sand.

[00:38:58]And it was a little tricky because it was very deep.

[00:39:01]Um but I'm on my way.

[00:39:05]And 6 more miles to go before we see the spring.

[00:39:09]So, it's really windy, but I hope you can hear me. Just behind me, you can see that it dips down in the terrain, and there are three springs out there that Butch Cassidy may have used.

[00:39:27]What's up, guys?

[00:39:32]Okay, so I'm about 300 ft from going down into the canyon uh where Butch Cassidy and his gang uh hid.

[00:39:46]And what a place this is. This is uh very interesting place.

[00:39:54]It took about an hour and a half to get out here driving. So, imagine horses and cattle coming all the way out here and having a posse try to find you.

[00:40:06]Like, you were not going to be found out here.

[00:40:31]>> See there is our cow friends.

[00:40:33]They're very scared of me, very curious.

[00:40:34]Look they're lined up.

[00:40:38]Ready to charge me.

[00:40:42]So I wanted to show you over here.

[00:40:44]Um this is the bottom of this little area. Um little bit farther down is where the canyon drops into a slot canyon. Um but right here is uh a spring.

[00:40:56]And we're going to see if there's water in it right now.

[00:41:01]These huge cottonwood trees been here for a long time.

[00:41:10]There's water over here.

[00:41:21]Oh yeah, there's water.

[00:41:32]Yeah, see look it's flowing just a little bit. The water overflowing.

[00:41:45]There's more water over here coming out somewhere.

[00:41:49]We'll follow it in a minute.

[00:41:52]Um but these cows obviously have a really good source of water.

[00:41:57]Probably comes out somewhere.

[00:42:02]Right here is the seep.

[00:42:04]Something that I just noticed is uh bullet holes um or bullet marks in the rock up there.

[00:42:12]Could some of those have been Butch Cassidy shooting over here?

[00:42:17]Probably. I mean, he probably used this spring for his horses and uh he stole cattle, right?

[00:42:23]Pretty sure.

[00:42:25]Um but I want to show you this uh little canyon over here.

[00:42:59]When I came out here years ago, I was hiking up on these little cliffs and I kept seeing like these little outlines. I saw like two outlines of structure remnants.

[00:43:13]So, I wonder if those were like cabins or or rock shelters or something.

[00:43:17]Right here, here's another spring.

[00:43:20]I think it's just a continuation of the one over there.

[00:43:24]Just to feed more cattle or sorry, water more cattle over here.

[00:43:31]That looks pretty old though.

[00:43:33]This one looks good.

[00:43:36]Oh, dead bird.

[00:44:11]>> People carve their names here.

[00:44:13]Some of them I remember are very old.

[00:44:18]Yeah, look at this one right here.

[00:44:22]October 26, 1905.

[00:44:26]Christian Sin Elson.

[00:44:29]Christian Sin Nelson. Christian Nelson, there we go.

[00:44:36]P E R T D Biddle.

[00:44:46]And Wolverine 8 19 August 19th, 2000 or 1912.

[00:44:55]That's cool.

[00:44:58]There's a couple over there.

[00:45:01]I want to show you right here.

[00:45:12]The top of this canyon.

[00:45:15]This slot canyon that is.

[00:45:39]Right here.

[00:45:48]Top of the slot canyon.

[00:45:53]See that?

[00:45:56]There's anchors right there.

[00:45:59]So this is a canyoneering route.

[00:46:04]And um Looks like those are rope marks from before. People would tie off right there.

[00:46:10]And it looks like rope marks, right?

[00:46:15]I don't know the name of this canyon.

[00:46:17]Um but my friends But this is a canyoneering route.

[00:46:26]Just come through.

[00:46:28]Go down and go down down down down to the very bottom and keep going.

[00:46:31]I don't know where this empties out, whatever.

[00:46:34]Uh but it seems kind of fun.

[00:46:36]Oop, look at that.

[00:46:40]Ooh.

[00:46:53]And I just thought about this. So, don't just trust other people's equipment. So, those anchors already there.

[00:46:58]And if you're thinking about doing canyoneering and you see anchors or bolts, make sure to you know, test it out before you commit to doing it.

[00:47:50]You might be wondering, like I was before, did Butch Cassidy or any of his Wild Bunch carved their names on the rocks.

[00:47:59]I don't think they did here.

[00:48:01]As far as I know, I don't think they did.

[00:48:19]All right, so now we're headed up canyon.

[00:48:22]There's two more springs up there and there's a lot more historical uh names on the rocks that we will see.

[00:48:31]And more cows.

[00:48:33]Or cattle.

[00:48:40]To tell you the truth, it's somewhat comforting to see cattle where I hike because I don't know.

[00:48:52]It just It just is.

[00:48:54]Even though I don't mess with them, usually just say hi, pass by.

[00:48:59]That's kind of it.

[00:49:22]See that white stuff down there?

[00:49:26]Uh must be a lot of salt in the soil, right?

[00:49:30]It's kind of just everywhere.

[00:49:35]So, I've been here years ago. And when I first was coming in here, you know, driving down, I could see exactly why, you know, Butch Cassidy and his wild bunch used this this canyon. There's three springs.

[00:49:50]It's very flat down in here.

[00:49:53]Um like it's easily escapable.

[00:49:57]It'd be easy to bring cattle and horses down in here.

[00:50:00]There's a lot of different ways to do it that aren't steep at all.

[00:50:05]Um it's it's so hidden.

[00:50:08]Like you saw the terrain we were driving in here.

[00:50:11]It's just like flat and all of a sudden it goes down into this canyon.

[00:50:14]So it'd be great a great way to hide.

[00:50:18]And this is a huge massive area. Like this entire Robbers Roost area is just massive.

[00:50:24]So it'd be easy to for people to get lost who don't know what they're who don't know what they're doing.

[00:50:40]Dead cow over there.

[00:50:44]Looks like it's been dead for a while.

[00:50:56]I wonder how many times Robert Leroy Parker came out here to to hide. And where did they hide specifically?

[00:51:07]Well, here's a very good indication that they may have stayed right in this exact spot.

[00:51:14]I'll show you.

[00:51:16]See that little tower right here?

[00:51:24]What is this?

[00:51:27]You'll see really quickly.

[00:51:31]It's a fireplace.

[00:51:38]Like there was something here, some kind of cabin or something here.

[00:52:07]>> It's a very interesting idea that Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch could have been just right here at this fire at night planning their next robbery, planning their next train robbery, just hanging out waiting for, you know, law enforcement to go away.

[00:52:25]Uh, but look at where this is at.

[00:52:29]This canyon bottom right here.

[00:52:31]Lots of protection.

[00:52:40]So, people have known about this place for a while.

[00:52:43]As you can, uh, as you saw with the, uh, historical names on the rocks, the recent names on the rocks, too.

[00:52:50]Um, so, it's most likely this place is just picked over, um, by by by visitors.

[00:53:00]There's a couple of inscriptions I missed. One said Frenchy up there or French.

[00:53:04]There's something made out of bullet holes and it just says Rob, r o b, for maybe Robbers Roost.

[00:54:05]>> So back there is the other spring.

[00:54:08]Last time I was there it was just a trickle like very little water came out but still enough that if you create a little pool or reservoir you could have couple of sips when you needed it.

[00:54:41]Oh yeah, the other spring is back that way.

[00:54:50]Looks like a park, huh?

[00:55:02]A lot of good pasture for cattle, huh?

[00:55:15]But somewhere in there is the spring.

[00:55:23]Um Right there.

[00:55:29]That's the spring.

[00:55:53]>> And that's kind of the whole tour of this place.

[00:55:57]Um last time I was here I spent a good couple hours just hiking all around this canyon.

[00:56:03]Just seeing what I could see.

[00:56:06]And it was basically just those three springs, the historical um What was it? Historical names.

[00:56:15]And I think I saw a couple petroglyphs up here somewhere.

[00:56:19]I don't remember where they are.

[00:56:20]I've been in some canyons that just feel weird, feel creepy, and just feel the overall vibe is like ooh, I don't want to stay here.

[00:56:30]But this one with all the the birds and you know, other wildlife, grass, like it just feels a little more positive and upbeat.

[00:57:19]I hope you enjoyed this adventure, learned something new. I I learn something new every adventure.

[00:57:26]Saw something new.

[00:57:28]What uh did you like most about this trek? Let me know down below in the comments what you guys thought about this adventure.

[00:57:35]Thank you so much for being part of my channel. I hope to see you next week and I'll see you on the next adventure.