Hoofprints of the Past MuseumA cabin at Hole-in-the-Wall Pass. 1898. In a remote mountain pass in Wyoming, a group of outlaws once hid from lawmen, plotted their next heists, and caught up with fellow bandits. They were known as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, but they werent one cohesive organization.Between the late 1860s and the early years of the 20th century, Hole-in-the-Wall Pass served as a hideout for cattle rustlers, bank robbers, thieves, and more. The most infamous gang was Butch Cassidys Wild Bunch, but they were joined by a series of lesser-known criminals who used the pass in the years before and after their reign as the Old Wests most fearsome outlaws.The various gangs that gathered at the hideout shared a corral and stable, but they had separate cabins and supplied food and horses for their own members. They rarely collaborated on heists, but they did team up to defend the pass from lawmen.As the days of the Wild West came to an end, so did the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. But tales of the daring outlaws still captivate the nation to this day.How The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang Built Their Hidden CommunityBeginning in the 1860s, various groups of outlaws started gathering at Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in central Wyoming to hide from lawmen. It was so remote that it took several days to reach by horse from the closest town, and it was concealed by the surrounding hills. A stretch of land within the pass was large enough for several cabins, a stable, and a corral for horses and other livestock. These buildings were constructed by bandits who teamed up to make their hideout an impenetrable fortress against the posses that were hunting them down.Caveman1949/Wikimedia CommonsThe path to Hole-in-the-Wall Pass is well concealed and easily defensible.The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang was a loose coalition of the Wild West outlaws who took their name from the pass itself. Over a period of about 50 years, a wide-ranging series of gangs and individuals took advantage of the hideout between heists.The most infamous of these gangs was Butch Cassidys Wild Bunch. The Sundance Kid, Laura Bullion, Kid Curry, News Carver, the Tall Texan, and more stayed at the pass when they werent robbing banks or holding up trains. Other criminals who used the hideout included Tom Black Jack Ketchum and allegedly even Jesse James.The pass became especially valuable during Wyomings brutal winters. Snowstorms and freezing temperatures made travel across the frontier dangerous. Outlaws could hunker down at Hole-in-the-Wall Pass for months at a time without fear of being captured.Each gang maintained its own horses and provisions inside the hideout. Every group also followed its own chain of command, and no single outlaw controlled the entirety of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.Public DomainButch Cassidy (seated on the far right) with members of the Wild Bunch in 1900.As such, there were rules to maintain peace within the pass. Members were reportedly forbidden from stealing other gangs food and supplies, and regulations were in place to handle any disputes that arose.The separate gangs also planned and carried out their own robberies with little involvement from the others, though members occasionally rode together during larger operations. But while these groups didnt typically collaborate when it came to their crimes, they did work together to defend the pass from lawmen.The Wild West Hideout That Lawmen Couldnt PenetrateAs Charlie Siringo, an agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, wrote in his 1912 memoir A Cowboy Detective, he was once ordered to go undercover and infiltrate the pass.Public DomainCharles Siringo was a Pinkerton detective who worked to track down the Wild Bunch.I started for the Big Horn Basin in the vicinity of Hole-in-the-Wall in northern Wyoming, Siringo recalled. I had received instructions to go up there and get in with friends of the Wild Bunch, and learn their secrets This of course meant a horseback ride of over 1,000 miles through the most God-forsaken desert country in the United States.The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang was uniquely prepared for situations like this. The pass was easily defensible, and lawmen couldnt approach without the knowledge of the outlaws within. Bob Devine learned this the hard way.For years, the natural defenses of the mountain pass protected the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang from lawmens attempts to invade the hideout. But in 1897, a local posse of ranchers went in determined to take back cattle that had been stolen from them.As recorded in Alfred James Moklers 1923 book History of Natrona County, Wyoming, Bob Devine sent a letter to the editor of the Casper Tribune announcing his intentions. [I]t is an indisputable fact that the Hole-in-the-Wall is a hiding place for thieves, and has been for years, Devine wrote. Thousands of dollars worth of cattle have been stolen by these outlaws, brands burned out and their own brands substituted.These thieves perhaps members of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang replied with a letter of their own: Bob Devine you think you have played hell you have just begun you will get your dose there is men enuff up here yet to kill you. It was signed by the Revenge Gange.Sam Beebe/Wikimedia CommonsThe remote cliffs and narrow passages of Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming, provided the perfect hideout for infamous Wild West outlaws.Devine disregarded this threat and headed up to Hole-in-the-Wall Pass with a posse on July 23, 1897. They came across three outlaws named Bob Smith, Al Smith, and Bob Taylor and a shootout ensued.As the newspaper later reported, Devine and his son, Lee participated in the fight and both had been wounded, the senior Devine receiving only a slight flesh wound from a bullet.The incident shocked many people across Wyoming because it proved that the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang wasnt untouchable after all. And in the years that followed, the group of outlaws would slowly fall apart.The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang Fades Into LegendThroughout the first decade of the 20th century, members of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang were picked off by lawmen. Some were killed in shootouts, others were captured and imprisoned, and still more simply decided to retire from their life of crime. And by 1910, the Wild West itself had started to disappear. Railroads spread deeper across the frontier, and law enforcement became far more organized. The isolation that once protected the outlaws slowly vanished. As time went on, fewer bandits used the hideout, and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang faded into history.Paul Hermans/Wikimedia CommonsA cabin used by the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang on display at Old Trail Town in Cody, Wyoming.Over the past century, the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang has been romanticized through books, television, and films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And today, visitors can still explore the rugged Wyoming landscape that once sheltered some of Americas most wanted criminals. One surviving cabin that once hosted Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch was moved to a museum in Cody, Wyoming, and has become a tourist attraction.Tourists can also walk the trail that once led to the remote hideout. Standing at the top of the rocky Hole-in-the-Wall Pass today, its easy to see why the outlaws chose it. Its steep cliffs and hidden trails made the pass feel less like a criminal lair and more like a fortress where some of the Wild Wests most notorious gangs could disappear from the world.After learning about the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, go inside the stories of nine Wild West lawmen. Then, read about the Dalton Gang that terrorized Kansas and Oklahoma.The post How The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang Got Its Name From A Secret Outlaw Hideout In The Mountains Of Wyoming appeared first on All That's Interesting.