History & News

An Outlaw and His Rock Springs Lawyer

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Photo No. 1 - Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, inmate number 187, Wyoming State Penitentiary

Photo No. 2 - Douglas Preston and associates at the Sweetwater County Courthouse, Green River, in 1898 or 1899. Preston is marked Number 4. Number 16 is Judge David H. Craig. The table and the courtroom balustrade are part of the collection of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, though they are not currently on exhibit.

Photo No. 3 - Douglas Preston maintained his law office in this building at the corner of North Front and J streets in Rock Springs, Wyoming. At different times an opera house, a labor temple, and the Grand Theater, it currently houses a tattoo parlor.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - January 21, 2025)     A new article on WyoHistory.org, the online platform of the Wyoming Historical Society, tells the story of two men famous (or infamous) in Rock Springs and Sweetwater County history.

“The Outlaw and His Lawyer: Butch Cassidy and Douglas Preston,” by Dick Blust of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River, chronicles the interwoven careers of outlaw Robert Leroy Parker - better known by his alias, Butch Cassidy - and his friend, Rock Springs attorney Douglas A. Preston.

Though he was a member of Wyoming’s Constitutional Convention of 1889, a signer of Wyoming’s State Constitution, a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives, and served two terms as Wyoming’s attorney general, Preston is best remembered as the lawyer for one of the Old West’s most well-known bandits.

Preston and Cassidy first encountered each other in Fremont County in 1891, when Cassidy was charged with horse theft and defended by Preston - unsuccessfully, as it turned out: ultimately, he was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment at the Wyoming State Penitentiary, then located in Laramie.

In 1895, Cassidy managed to set up a personal meeting at the prison with Wyoming Governor William Richards and requested a pardon. There is evidence that he promised in return to commit no further crimes in Wyoming. Richards agreed, and Cassidy was released early in 1896. Seven months later, he and two accomplices named Elzy Lay and Bub Meeks robbed the Montpelier Bank in Montpelier, Idaho, of some $7,000. 12 years and numerous bank holdups and train robberies later, Cassidy, along with Harry Longabaugh, (the “Sundance Kid”), was reported killed in a shootout with authorities in Bolivia.

Preston’s relationship with Cassidy has long been a controversial subject among historians. Though he had a long and distinguished career - ended only by his death in an automobile crash west of Granger in 1929 - he reportedly laundered money for Cassidy and said himself the two often had secret meetings at desert locations between Sweetwater County and Brown’s Park, along the Utah/Colorado border. It was also said that the two sometimes met at Boar’s Tusk, north of Rock Springs.

The article can be found online at

https://wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/outlaw-and-his-lawyer-butch-cassidy-and-douglas-preston

There are other articles related to Butch Cassidy at WyoHistory.org, including “Bub Meeks and a Wild Bunch Winchester” at      

https://wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/bub-meeks-and-wild-bunch-winchester . 

Meeks’s life after the Montpelier robbery was a litany of misfortune, as the article chronicles. His rifle is currently on exhibit at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum.

The museum is located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and there is no charge for admission.

County Museum makes special presentations for grade school students

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Photo #1 - Aidan Brady of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum spoke at three Rock Springs grade schools this week

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - August 30, 2024)     Aidan Brady, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum’s Public Engagement Coordinator, had a busy week with presentations at three Rock Springs grade schools.

Brady spoke to over 130 third graders at North Park, Walnut, and Desert View Elementary Schools on a wide range of topics, including Sweetwater County’s prehistoric history, dinosaurs, fossils, ancient mammals, Lake Gosiute and trona, wood and adobe structures, and the influence of geography and landforms on where people chose to live in the past.

Museum Executive Director Dave Mead encouraged educators, parents, and parent-teacher groups interested in learning more about museum programs for students Grades K - 12 to contact Brady at (307) 872-6435 or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

County Museum volunteer digitizes over 20,000 historic photographs

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Photo #1 - Diane Butler with the “Album Collection” she recently completed digitizing  at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River:   198 albums containing 21,000 photographs.

Photo #2 - A photograph from the extensive New Studio Collection at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, taken in 1921: the entrance of the Grand Theater in Rock Springs.

Photo #3 - The New Studio on what is now South Main Street, circa 1950. It remains open for business at the same location to this day.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - July 19, 2024)     Diane Butler, a volunteer at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, recently reached a major milestone in her work for the museum. She has been engaged in digitizing historic photographs in the museum’s archives and has now completed digitization of the “Album Collection;” 21,000 photographs in 198 three-ring binder albums.

“Diane isn’t missing a beat,” said Executive Director Dave Mead. “She has already begun her next project - digitizing the museum’s New Studio Collection, some 100,000 negatives and glass photographic plates.”

The New Studio, believed to be the oldest still-operating business in Rock Springs, opened in 1919 under the ownership of Charles August. Charles ran the business until his retirement in 1945, when he turned it over to his sons, Mike and Anthony. The brothers operated the Studio until 1976, when it was purchased by a staff member, Oliver "Bud" Tebedo. Bud ran things until 1994, when he sold the operation to sisters Diane Butler and Susan Knezovich. In 2000 Susan sold her share to Diane. Diane began working at the Studio at age 17 and retired in 2019, passing the torch to R.J. Pieper and Angela Thatcher, the current owners.

The museum acquired the extensive New Studio Collection of negatives and glass plates in 2015. “The New Studio Collection represents a timeline of over a century of Sweetwater County history,” Mead said. “And there could not be a more suitable or better qualified person than Diane to take on digitizing it.”

2024 Pony Express Re-Ride reaches Granger

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Photo #1 - Liane Lamb, Green River, and her tall bay, Leonard, arriving in Granger on Saturday

Photo #2 - The Pony Express mochila being transferred from Liane Lamb’s mount, Leonard, who had just arrived in Granger, to Ridely, the pinto mare ridden by Jaden White. The mochila was an ingenious, time-saving arrangement. Mail and rider’s time card were carried in four pocket - two to a side - called cantinas. Openings cut in the leather fit over the saddle horn and cantle. When a rider changed horses, the mochila was lifted off, placed on the saddle of a fresh horse, and the ride continued immediately. Each mochila carried up to 20 pounds of mail.

Photo #3 - Jaden White of Pinedale receiving some last-minute tips from National Pony Express Re-Ride official Howard Schultz. Just a few minutes later, White and his paint mare Ridely were on their way, headed west for the Uinta County line.

(Sweetwater County, Wyo. - June 23, 2024)     This year’s Pony Express Re-Ride passed through Sweetwater County ahead of schedule Saturday, stopping to change riders and horses in Granger at 4:15 PM, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum said in a special release today.

For 18 months, from April, 1860, to October, 1861, the Pony Express operated from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. Lone riders, working both ways in relays, carried mail the nearly 2,000 dangerous miles in an average of 10 days across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada to California. 157 relay stations were established across the country, including one in Granger. During its brief life, the Pony Express carried about 35,000 pieces of mail.

Headquartered in Pollock Pines, California, the National Pony Express Association (NPEA),

a non-profit, all volunteer organization, was founded in 1977. Each year, over 700 volunteer riders and their horses recreate the Pony Express’s ride over the entire cross-country distance. The Pony Express route enters Sweetwater County about two miles south of the old Dry Sandy stage station site and runs from there to Little Sandy, Big Sandy, Big Timber, the Lombard Ferry Site across the Green River, and on from there to Granger.  

The first rider left St. Joseph on June 17, and the last is scheduled to arrive in Sacramento on June 27.

For more information about the National Pony Express Association, the Pony Express, and the 2024 Re-Ride, go to the NPEA website at https://nationalponyexpress.org/ .