Description

The Campbell County Rockpile Museum is pleased to welcome author Bill Betenson for a presentation on his book “Butch Cassidy: The Wyoming Years.” This event is FREE and open to the public, donations are accepted. 

Author Bill Betenson grew up hearing family stories around the campfire about his famous uncle Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as the outlaw Butch Cassidy. Betenson has spent decades asking questions about the life and exploits of Butch Cassidy. He presents new details, raises questions, challenges old assumptions, and presents informed interpretations. 

For this book, Betenson focused his attention on the time Butch Cassidy spent in Wyoming, starting in 1889 when he hightailed it north to Wyoming after robbing his first bank. The book details Butch's escapades, rustling and robberies, capture, trials, and imprisonment until his pardon in 1896. It follows Butch to the Southwest where he was the mastermind behind other Wyoming robberies before he set sail for Argentina with the Sundance Kid and Etta Place. Some believe Butch returned to Wyoming to visit with old friends beginning around 1925. Butch Cassidy's story is full of contradictions, aliases, and mysteries. It is also filled with fascinating men and women who lived in a very different rough-and-tumble world. 

Betenson has tracked down old accounts, descendants of Butch's cohorts, records from dusty courthouses, and seldom seen photographs. He has traveled all over the West and visited Argentina to stand in the doorway of the cabin where Butch, Sundance, and Etta lived.  Bill Betenson has a passion for Western Americana and family history. He enjoys traveling and researching places where Butch Cassidy spent time and “did time” over one hundred years ago. He especially appreciates the people he’s met and the friendships he’s made along the way. Bill enjoys speaking and writing on Butch. He published his first book, “Butch Cassidy, My Uncle” in 2012 and a second in 2020 called, “Butch Cassidy, The Wyoming Years”. He has also written several articles and has appeared in several TV documentaries on his great uncle.  

With a degree in Mechanical Engineering from BYU, Bill has worked in the oil and gas industry for over thirty years. Bill is married and has four children and seven grandchildren. He enjoys fly fishing and has fished from Alaska to Argentina.