Way out in the far northeastern corners of Utah and northwestern
Colorado, just south of the Wyoming border, a lonely valley stretches along the
Green River: Brown’s Park, or Brown’s Hole if you prefer. Nowadays, it is a far
piece from anywhere and not all that easy to get to. But it was a well-traveled
place in the Old West.
For time out of mind, it was frequented by the Shoshoni, Ute, and
Comanche. Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Navajo also visited. Fur
trappers set up shop there in the 1830s, and Fort Davy Crockett opened up to
supply and defend them in 1837. Ranchers followed the mountain men, wintering
cattle there as well as establishing ranches.
One of those ranches spawned Ann and Josie Bassett, who collaborated
with cattle rustlers, horse thieves, robbers, and other bandits who made Brown’s
Hole an outpost on the Outlaw Trail that ran from Robber’s Roost to the south
and Hole in the Wall to the north. Among the most renowned outlaws who hid out
there were Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch and, later, the fugitive Tom Horn.
Despite an enduring desire to go there, I have yet to set foot in
Brown’s Park. One of these days…
