What Really Happened During the Great Western Colorado Train Robbery?

As the sun set over Western Colorado in early June of 1904, a member of Butch Cassidy’s “Hole in the Wall” gang was preparing for what would be one of the last train robberies in Western Colorado.

Harvey Logan, a.k.a. Kid Curry, had big plans as he waited on the Westbound Denver and Rio Grande train due into Parachute, Colorado, at 1:15 in the morning. Keep scrolling to find out the true story behind the Great Western Slope Train Robbery.

The Wild West Era on Colorado's Western Slope

As Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid high-tailed it to South America, the remaining members of their old gang struggled to make ends meet. Harvey Logan was convinced that the 1:15 a.m. train arriving in Parachute on June 7, 1904, carried gold.

He boarded the train, held the crew at gunpoint, and ordered them to take the train to Strait Flats, a couple of miles down the track away from town. Logan's accomplices were there waiting to meet the train, and together with Kid Curry, they blew the door off the train's safe. This is when it all hit the fan. There was no gold. Logan likely had held up the wrong train.

The Chase Across Battlement Mesa

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Logan and his accomplices could not believe their luck. They mounted stolen horses and fled quickly toward the Colorado River and the nearby Battlement Mesa. Word of the robbery soon reached lawmen from Parachute and Grand Junction, who had formed a posse to pursue Kid Curry.

Logan and his outlaws crossed the Battlement Mesa before a gunfight broke out with the pursuing lawmen near Mamm Creek. Then another gunfight broke out at East Divide Creek. Logan fled from Parachute to nearly County Road 311 (the road to Collbran) before he was shot by his pursuers.

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Visit Historic Train Robbery Sites in Colorado

The story ends with Logan taking two bullets to the chest before taking his own life. His accomplices fled and were never found. The Historical Marker Database says the Pinkerton Detective Agency identified the dead man as Harvey Logan, alias "Kid Curry." The body was taken to Glenwood Springs and buried near the site of Doc Holliday's grave.

From the midnight robbery, the escape over the Battlement Mesa, and the multiple gunfights in the Grand Mesa/White River National Forest, it was a fitting end for the era of Wild West train robberies in Colorado. Historical markers and details about the manhunt can be found at the Battlement Mesa Information Center.