Day 488 - 489 - The Hunt for Butch Cassidy
Day 488 Chilean - Argentine Border
The border crossing from Puerto Montt to Bariloche is 8 hours, partly because it takes a long time to get through two border crossings: one at Chile and another in Argentina. I had never seen such a border crossing. Each one took an hour, at least. These are some pictures of the Argentine border with its towering mountains (and a flag), desiccated forests and motorcycle enthusiasts who drive through Patagonia. Mostly they come from Germany or France. We’re not sure why the forests were destroyed. Possible from a volcano eruption about 10 years ago.
Day 488 - Bariloche
On our drive to find Butch Cassidy’s ranch we headed South. The Pre-cordillera mountains at sunset were fierce and fiery. The sky felt like passion and love. We had finally made it to the charming tourist town of Bariloche. It sits along the glacial, alpine lake Nahuel Huapi. It is immense and absolutely pristine. It reminds me of Tahoe but prettier, deeper and bigger. We picked up our car to begin the search for the ranch of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Etta Place in Cholila, 3.5 hours south. They bought the property with the money they made robbing banks in Montana and Utah. That was when The Union Pacific hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to bring them in dead or alive. The bounty was over $10,000 for the two bank robbers. More on that later.
Day 489 - Cholila
We arrived in the town of Cholila where Cassidy and Sundance (Harry Longbaugh) and Etta or Ethel Place settled down in the dead of night. We drove across 10 miles of dirt roads to get to the place we’re staying- La Pilarica. Mostly fisherman and women come here to relax and fly fish the nearby river. Bill and Vivian run the place and we’re there when we arrived close to midnight. Bill built the beautiful hostel 19 years ago and he and his wife run it. They did quite a job! As you can see. Bill’s family settled here in the early 20th century. His grandfather ran a mule team (160 mules) that hauled wool from Cholila to Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic coast. Tough work. He was known as the best mule team operator in southern Chile. Bill says his grandfather probably knew Butch. Everyone did because everyone in the town loved them including the mayor and sheriff. 120 years later the town hasn’t changed much.
Searching for Butch Cassidy - 1
In searching for the outlaws we passed some local gauchos, waved and then bounced on to Cholila. We knew to look for the police because the house was supposedly near by.
STILL Searching for Butch Cassidy - 2
We found the one local policeman in Cholila. He seemed terrified to see me. I asked if he knew where Cassidy’s ranch was and he indicated up the road to the right but I didn’t understand a word of detail and he didn’t understand any of my English. Donde esta casa de Butch Cassidy was the best I could do. We continued into the pampa. See the video for more.
STILL Searching for Butch Cassidy - 3
On the search we found a small ranch. I thought maybe this was it. But it wasn’t. A local, quite toothless but very helpful, sat with me. I suggested a map and we worked on that drawing pictures in the dirt. Then headed off again in a new direction. For miles we bounced along and then we hit a creek too deep to risk fording in our little VW. As we prepared to head back we ran into some German tourists who spoke English. They gave us specific directions. And we headed back another way much closer to the police station!! That’s me talking to them in their car.
Found Butch Cassidy’s!!!
I am catching up on some notes about tracking down the ranch that Butch Cassidy, the Sundance kid and Etta Place bought in Argentina after they were forced to leave the United States when they robbed so many banks and trains that an elite private posse was created to them down. They bought the ranch in 1901 and lived there five and seven years give or take. They actually became real citizens in the small town of Cholila, Argentina. They knew the mayor and became friends with a former sheriff from Montana (possibly inspired by the sheriff they meet in the movie). They lived a relatively quiet life - until some of the posse began to get close. At the time there was a bounty on each of their heads of $10,000 which was an enormously high price in those days. They sold the ranch, Etta Place returned to the United States, and Butch and Harry (the Sundance kid) headed north to Bolivia. Their time living in Argentina at the ranch isn’t mentioned in the famous movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but they did eventually work in a mine in Bolivia and they may have robbed that mine, or they finally went back and made a big bank robbery in Bolivia and that was win the Banditos Yanquees were gunned down in that country. Or at least that’s what most people think. But some say that both survived and Butch Cassidy’s sister swears that her brother came back and visited her in Montana in the 1930s.
Pretty nice for 1901. Here are some still interiors of the living room, kitchen and a bedroom (I think).
Leaving
Afterwards we found a bar nearby that has a museum loaded with details about the ranch and the Hole in the Wall Gang that Butch Cassidy ran. That’s where you see the color video of Butch bottom right and Sundance bottom left. The other picture gives you a view of the mountains from the ranch. Looks a lot like Montana where Cassidy grew up. For any fans of the movie it’s all great fun.
