6th Annual Bartender Recharge

Sept. 26, 2023 at The Westerner
Photos by Miguel Mendoza

More than 650 bartenders from Utah attended the 6^th Annual Bartender Recharge. In addition to giving back to bartenders, the event also raised more than $5,500 for the Folds of Honor Scholarship Fund. This popular yearly event is the brainchild of Casey Metzger of Top Shelf and Seth Hill of The Downstairs and is made possible by generous sponsors.

1. Raina from Black Art Tattoo and Dakotah Harlan at the event’s tattoo experience
2. No Name Crew enjoying the BBQ fare (left to right) Max Bramson, Logan Pierce, Craig Volk
3. Annie Duong, Michael Kalvig, Asia Dove, Jedidiah Johnson 
4. Crowd Line Dancing
5. Seth Hill and Casey Metzger

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Children’s Center Utah Unveils New Facility

Sept. 25, 2023 at Children’s Mental Health Campus, West Valley City
Photos by Anthony Oliver, Love Communications

The Children’s Center Utah hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the grand opening of its new children’s mental health campus at 3725 W. 4100 South in West Valley City. This milestone marks the completion of the multi-million dollar project aimed at providing comprehensive mental health support. The new campus showcases the successful collaboration between public and private partners, highlighting the importance of investments in early childhood mental health. Founded in 1962, The Children’s Center Utah provides comprehensive mental health care to enhance the emotional well-being of infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. For more information, visit childrenscenterutah.org.

1. First Lady Abby Cox speaking
2. Abby Cox, Rebecca Dutson, and Gail Miller
3. Donors and TCCU employees, including First Lady Abby Cox; Rebecca Dutson, president and CEO of TCCU; and Gail Miller of the Larry H Miller and Gail Miller Family
4. Foundation Rebecca Dutson presenting the donor wall
5. Cassie Bertot, Family Advisory Board Member, The Children’s Center Utah

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2008 University of Utah Sugar Bowl Team Hall of Fame Event

Sept. 2023 at Flanker Kitchen + Sporting Club
Photo by Katie Eldridge

In September, The University of Utah’s 2008 undefeated Sugar Bowl team was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. The induction was celebrated with an after-party at Flanker Kitchen + Sporting Club, at The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City. It had been 15 years since a lot of the teammates had seen each other making for a fun party. Utah Sports Hall of Famers Sealver Siliga, Robert Johnson, Matt Asiata, Sean Smith, Koa Misi, Stevenson Sylvester, John Peel and Derrick Shelby were all in attendance.

1. Coach Quinton Ganther
2. Sealver Silig
3. Aaron Tong
4. Robert Johnson
5. Stevenson Sylvester
6. Jacob Bentrude and Kepa Gaison

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Party for Clean Power

Sept. 28, 2023 at Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center, Taylorsville
Photos by Kristan Jacobsen

Utah Clean Energy, Utah’s leading climate change advocacy organization, presented Utah’s premier climate solutions event, the annual Party for Clean Power, on Sept. 28, 2023. The event brought together more than 350 local leaders to catalyze new ideas, inspire action and celebrate progress in the fight against climate change. Utah Clean Energy is a public interest organization working to turn the tide on climate change by expanding renewable energy, energy efficiency, storage, and clean vehicles.

1. Guests at Utah Clean Energy’s Party for Clean Power
2. Climate Champion Awardee Reverend Dr. Oscar T. Moses, Calvary Baptist Church, with family and friends
3. Performers from Brolly Arts
4. Bert Zimmerli, Zimmerli Family Foundation; Erica Marten, Utah Clean Energy; Sarah Wright, Utah Clean Energy CEO; Karey Barker, Cross Creek; John Robertson, Zimmerli Family Foundation
5. Guests at Utah Clean Energy’s Party for Clean Powerv
6. Doug Hatch, Sharpe/Marken Party; Trish Hatch, Guardian ad Litem Office; Steve Keyser, Utah Paperbox

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Eat Drink SLC

Sept. 13-14 at Tracy Aviary
Photos by Austen Diamond

Eat Drink SLC celebrated Salt Lake’s culinary and libation world for two nights in September. Net proceeds benefited three nonprofits: Tracy Aviary, SB Dance and Women of the World, a community organization that empowers immigrant, asylum-seeking women and their families. Since its inception, Eat Drink SLC has raised more than $100,000 for worthy nonprofits.

1. Xio Bao’s Romina Rasmussen and Lisa McCune
2. Hill’s Kitchen’s Aly Wallman, Lucy Clark, Alvaro Cisneros, Chris Straughan  
3. Lorenza Wines’ Michele Ouellet, Lesley and Wade Rockwood
4. Franklin Avenue’s Josh Handley, Erik Anthony, Matt Crandall, John Parrott, Milo Vigil  
5. Yoko Taco’s Jaime Ordaz, Kiersten Duffin, Chef Devon Auchterlonie 
6. French Libation’s Kelsey Laderriere 
7. SB Dance performer Jorji Diaz Fadel

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Park City’s Promontory Club Celebrates Opening of the Hills

Sept. 2, 2023 at Promontory Club, Park City

Park City’s Promontory Club celebrated the debut of its third golf course, The Hills, on Sept. 2, 2023. Approximately 500 members and influencers turned out for the festivities, which included golf cart tours of the course, a putting competition and culinary delights from Sage, the modern Italian dining concept that will be located in the new clubhouse dedicated to the course.  

The Hills, conceived by golf course architect Forrest Richardson and design partner Jeff Danner, is an 18-hole course with all par-3 holes. Along with the new course, clubhouse and Sage, there will be four indoor golf simulator bays with state-of-the-art Trackman technology. Cascade Green, Promontory’s 18-hole putting course, was inspired by the famous Himalayas at St. Andrew. It is complemented by The GAP, a full practice facility and on-range Golf Academy, complete with multiple hitting bays and a state-of-the-art TaylorMade Fitting Center. 

1. DJ Dolph
2. Scott Law, Cynthia Brown, Walter Bennett and Eveleen Babich   
3. Marilyn Batter, Carol and Rob Richardson
4. Seth Lansky, Kemper King, Josh Lansky, Corey Melnick, Matty Van Leeuwen   
5. Brad Green, Debra Green, architect Solim Gasparik

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Call for Photos

We welcome your photos of recent social events around Utah for consideration. Please send high resolution photos (.jpg format) to magazine@saltlakemagazine.comwith the subject line “Social” and a package of images and event information in a file transfer service. Submissions must accompanied by names and a description of the event (who, what, when, where, why).

You can spend decades delving into the place you live and keep finding more. Utah’s national parks are well-trod turf for me. But I took a seven-day road trip to rediscover them—in winter. The otherworldly landscape of Southern Utah is transformed. Yes. It’s cold. Yes. It snows. Who thinks of hiking up the Virgin River in Zion National Park when it’s 50 degrees and the water’s edge is rimmed with ice? Well now, hopefully you will. Follow my trail with our detailed guide to winter in the national parks (“Explore the Mighty 5 in Winter”) With planning, decent gear, plenty of weather-dictated improvisation and a healthy dose of internal fortitude, you too can witness these wonders without the main drawback in warmer times of year, the crowds. 

Oh, Right. Crowds. During peak seasons, the line to get into Arches spills out into the highway, and, up north, the highways become a parking lot nicknamed the “Red Snake.” It has become a universal lament. I don’t blame the many, many visitors drawn here from around the globe to experience our mountains and red cliffs—heck, I’m one of the folks spilling the tea. But it does become wearisome and it’s an easy kvetch. 

It was with this in mind that we asked writer Tony Gill to tackle the thorny issue of transportation in the Wasatch (“Big Trouble in Little Cottonwood”). The gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon appears to be moving forward, but the plan has plenty of detractors and has generated more than a lot of confusion. We all agree that winter traffic on Utah Highway 210 is untenable but is a Gondola the answer? We don’t know. But hopefully, our look at the history, the players and the uncertain future will give you some ammo for your next dinner-party debate.

Joining a multi-level marketing (MLM)company is not a requirement for living in Utah. It only feels that way. MLMs or “direct-sales” ventures are big business here and prominent features of the state’s cultural and physical landscape. Interstate 15 through Utah County is lined by grand, spacious buildings emblazoned with marquee signs celebrating the largest MLMs in the state—DoTerra, Young Living, Nu Skin, Younique, LifeVantage, and the hits keep on coming. We’ve all been hit up on social media with a “Hey Girl!” from a former high school classmate who is “reaching out with this AMAZING miracle product!” Unfriend. MLM girlies are always hustling and almost every Elder on your mission did a stint selling solar panels or pest control after he got home.  

Why, pray tell, is Utah such fertile ground for MLMs? The culture within the ward houses likely plays a part. The LDS faith promotes industriousness and self-reliance. Young return missionaries easily morph into a fleet of pre-trained, often bi-lingual salespeople who are no strangers to knocking on doors. After marriage, LDS women are encouraged to build loving homes and, for many, hawking essential oils can earn pocket change (and break up the monotony). The Church also provides a built-in community (and weekly meetings) to recruit “downline” sellers. For one reason or another, some LDS folks are particularly susceptible to some of the sleazier schemes. In fact, Church leaders have admonished members to avoid being “too vulnerable to the lure of sudden wealth.” 

Meanwhile, Utahns in high places have a history of looking out for these companies. Many MLMs peddle health and dietary supplements with unproven effects, unevaluated by the FDA. How is that legal? Thank the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who championed the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act which legitimized the sale of supplements and limited FDA oversight. Meaning, that if a company gets too bold with its claims, the FDA cracks down by sending them a strongly worded letter. 

Despite the blessing of the U.S. Government, some MLMs have a nasty reputation for their business practices. For example, LuLaRoe was the subject of LuLaRich, an Amazon Prime documentary. The series shows how the LDS founders of MLM apparel company, LuLaRoe, used deceptive recruiting practices—preying largely on women who shared their religious beliefs—and saddled them with mountains of unsold, and often unwearable, inventory and massive debt. (Sales reps are not directly employed by the companies and often have to buy upfront the product to sell.) The model particulars might differ slightly from company to company, but it usually involves committing sales reps to market and sell products directly to consumers and to also recruit “downline” reps who pay a commission to their “upline” rep with every sale. Kind of like a pyramid. 

Still, the direct-sales industry brings in a lot of money to the state, accounting for 2.2% of the annual earnings in Utah in 2020. Ten of the largest MLMs headquartered in Utah (surveyed in 2020) made $10.3 billion in sales, the majority of which (about $6 billion) was made overseas. Those profits do not trickle “downline,” however. Those 10 Utah companies had 21,500 independent sales reps in Utah whose median earnings (before expenses) ranged from only $70 to $3,000 per year. 

That could explain why some MLM reps come across as aggressive and pretty desperate when they DM you on social media. 

So, maybe, the next time an MLM girlie or solar sales bro emerges from the past with a sales pitch, why don’t we let them down easy?

“I’m 26, I’m Single, I’m a schoolteacher, and that’s the bottom of the pit.” The line, spoken by actor Katharine Ross as Etta Place in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, stood out. After all, I too am a 26-year-old unmarried woman and I cringed at the line. Sure. That might have been true for many women on the frontier in the 1890s. But it wasn’t just dismissiveness, it was the overt neglect by screenwriter William Goldman to develop Etta’s character at all. (Goldman won an Oscar for the script, BTW.) Goldman and the producers had spent eight years researching the origins of Butch and Sundance, tracking down childhood homes and first-hand accounts so they could tell the story. So what of Etta Place? If she was indeed a trusted member of The Wild Bunch and an accomplice to Sundance and Butch during their escape to South America, as the film depicts, surely she was more than a doe-eyed love interest. I wanted to learn more about this woman. I wanted to know: How did this school teacher become one of only five women in The Wild Bunch? What led her to a life on the run? Unlike Goldman, I wanted to find the real Etta Place. 

Despite Etta’s noteworthy role in the bandit group, her life before is obscure. Only one known photo of her remains, taken by the famous portraitist De Young in 1901 after her wedding to Harry Longabaugh in New York.  

Ms. Place: She was born around 1878 in either Castle Gate or Price here in Utah, but other accounts place her birth in Texas or Pennsylvania. She was well-spoken, arrestingly beautiful and may have been educated on the East Coast. Skilled on horseback and an even better shot with a rifle, historians believe she first joined The Wild Bunch at their Hole-in-the-Wall hideout around 1896. And from the De Young portrait we know she was married to Sundance around 1900. After that photo was taken Sundance, Etta and Butch boarded the SS Herminius in New York bound for Argentina under the names Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place and James Ryan, according to the ship’s 1901 registry.

How Etta came to meet two of the Wild West’s most infamous outlaws remains a mystery, as does her fate after fleeing to South America. Throughout my hunt for the truth, three central theories about her origin emerged.

Theory No. 1: The Calculating Courtesan

Etta might’ve first encountered Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch gang during their many (many) visits to Texan bordellos. High-class ladies of the night worked at Fannie Porter’s brothel in San Antonio, where it’s possible Etta Place took up residence as a young woman. Porter offered her girls’ hospitality to high-paying customers, including outlaws flush with ill-gotten cash. Fannie Porter’s was a rendezvous for The Hole-in-the-Wall gang after fleeing the scene of various train robberies and stick-ups. 

Etta married Sundance in 1900 and joined The Wild Bunch in their escapades, assisting them with getaway horses and posing as a distraction. Although no marriage license exists, a Pinkerton Agency memorandum from July 29, 1902 states Mrs. Place “is said to be [Sundance’s] wife and to be from Texas.” The Pinkerton Agency, a private security force paid by the railroads to protect trains from robbers and hunt outlaws, was always one step behind the outlaws. After getting ahold of Sundance and Etta’s 1901 De Young portrait in New York, agent William A. Pinkerton complained in a letter to his brother “It shows how daring these men are, and while you are looking for them in the wilderness and mountains they are in the middle of society.” 

Although it’s unclear if Etta was truly a high-priced prostitute, she almost certainly was not a schoolteacher. This piece of revisionism as depicted by the film, can be attributed to screenwriter Goldman who didn’t want to portray his ingenue as a prostitute. “To me, she had to be a schoolteacher,” Goldman recalls in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade. And so our Etta went from soiled dove to eye-batting school teacher on the silver screen. 

Theory No. 2: The Noblewoman

Accounts depict her as a woman of class and education. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that Etta might’ve come from a well-off family. Biographer Ed Kirby notes in his book Rise and Fall of the Sundance Kid that Etta was the daughter of George Capel, the son of the sixth Earl of Sussex. (The surname “Capel” just so happens to be an anagram of “Place,” coincidence?) Kirby believed Etta’s mother was actress Jane Place, who happened to be a sister to Anne G. Place Longabaugh—none other than the Sundance Kid’s mother. Was Etta actually related to Sundance? An article from a Sept. 29, 1991 issue of St. George newspaper The Daily Spectrum corroborates the theory, writing “Etta Place was in fact, Sundance’s cousin, not his lover as popularized in the movie.” 

Theory No. 3: The Rancher Turned Rustler

The most popular theory, supported by timeline comparisons, lifestyle similarities and photo analysis posits that Etta Place may have actually been Ann Bassett, another bold frontier woman who lived during the late 19th century. Members of the Outlaw Trail History Association have been chasing this theory for some time, particularly researcher Doris Karren Burton. 

In her book, Queen Ann Bassett (Alias Etta Place), Burton notes similarities between the two women. Bassett, also born in 1878, was raised by cattle ranchers in Brown’s Park (on the Northwest border of Utah and Colorado). Citing the 1962 book Where the Old West Stayed Young by John Rolfe Burroughs, Burton describes Ann as an actress, “She could play the role of a cultured young gentlewomen; or she could be a perfect little hell-cat. She was spirited and high-strung, and a tempestuous daredevil.” 

Life on the ranch was hard, and hostile competition among Cattle Barons necessitated the Bassett sisters take up shooting and horsemanship. During this lawless time, the family often turned to illicit methods in order to protect their land. The sisters became cattle rustlers (cattle thieves) who formed alliances with outlaws laying low in the area, including Butch Cassidy himself. Burton believed the sisters formed close, perhaps even romantic, relationships with the Wild Bunch members. “Ann was in love with Butch Cassidy,” she writes. Although she quickly turned her attention to Sundance, “Ann Bassett soon tired of one man,” says Burton. “And Sundance liked the women.” Eventually, Ann is chased out of Brown’s Park for rustling and travels to Texas in February of 1901. In 1902, she returned to her family home, citing her time away as traveling in South America. Hmm.

In addition to their penchant for mischief, educational background and notable event timelines, the two women also share striking physical resemblance. Burton asked Dr. Thomas G. Kyle of Los Alamos National Laboratory to compare Etta’s De Young portrait and a verified image of Ann using NASA’s facial recognition technology. 

The finding reported the two images were likely the same person, with the odds being 5,000 to one. Burton concludes “The 1-5000 chance is based only on the photo analysis, and greatly increases adding the fact Etta and Ann were in the same areas at the same time and knew the same people.” 

So, mystery solved? Nothing involving women and history is ever so simple. What seems like conclusive evidence is challenged by reports of Ann’s later life. In which she stood trial for cattle rustling during the same period Etta would’ve been in South America. Ann settled in the Southwestern Utah town of Leeds until her death in 1956, not once confirming her alleged double life as Etta Place.

What of Etta’s Fate?

What happened to Etta once she left for South America with Butch and Sundance is as much a mystery as her origin. Between March 1901 and June 1904, Etta might’ve made several visits back to the United States to visit family and receive medical treatment. The Pinkertons even traced Etta and Sundance to the World’s Fair in 1904. Researcher Doris Burton claims Etta visited Denver in 1904 for appendicitis treatment, other historians believe she faked her own death and returned to Fort Worth under the name Eunice Gray. Another theory purports that Etta left Butch and Sundance in South America and traveled to Paraguay where she married famous boxing promoter Tex Ricar. Other historians assume Etta was accompanied by Sundance from Chile to San Francisco in 1905 and remained there while he returned to South America. 

Etta Place remains the true mystery in the otherwise well-researched history of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an ethereal and elusive figure. The Wild Bunch might’ve intentionally obscured her identity, but I suspect this is just another case of history giving little attention to women. One thing is sure. She was a damn good criminal. As Robert Redford’s Sundance says, “No one expects a woman.”  

Meet Four More Outlaw Ladies of Note

Laura Bullion aka ‘Rose of the Wild Bunch’

Wanted For: Bank Robbery, Train Robbery and Forgery

Born to a Texan train robber, Laura Bullion became acquainted with outlaws William Carver and Ben Kilpatrick at the age of 13. After working on and off at Fannie Porter’s brothel, a popular hideaway for the Wild Bunch and other Western outlaws, Bullion made her way to Utah with Carver where she met Cassidy and the others. Known to sell stolen goods, disguise herself as a man during robberies, and provide the outlaws with a steady supply of horses, Bullion quickly caught the attention of detectives and national media. In 1901 Bullion was found in possession of $8,500 in unsigned stolen banknotes and was arrested for forgery and robbery. After her sentence, Bullion would go on to live a civilian life in Memphis under the alias Freda Bullion Lincoln

Fannie Porter

Wanted For: Harboring Criminals and Vagrancy

Madam Fannie Porter ran a high-end ‘boarding house’ in San Antonio in the late 1800s. The luxurious bordello became a popular hideout for Butch Cassidy and the rest of the Wild Bunch and is theorized to be the place that Sundance Kid met Etta Place, who may have been working as a prostitute for Porter. Although she was well connected and respected, Porter was arrested briefly in 1880 for vagrancy (read: prostitution). Her boarding house remained a pitstop for outlaws on the run, and its rumored she threw Sundance and Butch one last going away party before the outlaws fled the country. 

The Basset Sisters Ann and Josie

Wanted For: Cattle Rustling, Assisting Outlaws and Suspected Mariticide

Ann and Josie Bassett became respected troublemakers for defending their homestead ranch in Brown’s Park against cattle barons (think Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone). Capable frontier women, the sisters also received formal education on the East Coast and were known for their silver tongues and striking good looks. The sisters formed close relationships with famed gunslingers, including Butch Cassidy who Ann dated at 15. Josie would go on to date Wild Bunch member Elzy Lay, and the sisters were two of only five women to know the location of the gang’s hideout, Robber’s Roost. Ann and Josie both lived into their 70s, Josie married five times with one husband suspected of having died of poisoning. Josie also claimed Cassidy visited her in 1930 and lived in Utah until his death in the late 70s. None of her claims have ever been corroborated. 

Stops and Sights on the Outlaw Trail

Stop #1 Robber’s Roost

A hard-to-find desert hideaway, Robber’s Roost lives up to its elusive legend. To find the hole-in-the-wall, make your way to Hanksville near Capitol Reef. Head north on S.R. 24 for 16 miles and keep an eye out for a brown sign for Hans Flat Ranger Station, then take a right. All that remains of the rugged refuge is a crumbling stone fireplace and an underlying tone of mischief.

If You Go… Bring plenty of water and some emergency supplies, there aren’t any Wild Bunch women to offer supplies and fresh horses should your life of crime lead you astray.

Stop #2 The Cassidy Trail

Beneath courtly red rock cliffs and otherworldly hoodoos lies a trail frequented by both well-meaning hikers and wanted criminals. The Cassidy Trail winds through Red Canyon inside the Dixie National Forest and was a popular route for Butch to evade the law and pursuing Pinkertons. The trail was also a major location for the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
If You Go… Cassidy Trail starts at Red Canyon trailhead in Red Canyon, look for a discreet parking lot at the first left after passing the visitor center. 

Stop #3 Brown’s Park

An isolated valley along the Utah and Colorado border, Brown’s Park has been home to fur trappers, cattle rustlers, cowboys and outlaws since the 1800s. Its remote location and protection from harsh weather made it a frequent pitstop to Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and the Basset Sisters. Referred to as a place where “The Old West Stayed Young,” Brown’s Park has become a ritzy outdoor destination. 

If You Go… There’s lots to do inside Brown’s Park, but if you just have a day or
are passing through, take the Brown’s Park Scenic Backway. Traveling through
Diamond Mountain, into Brown’s Park and crossing the Green River, the 2-hour drive will give you a peek into what life on the trail looked like for Cassidy and
his Wild Bunch. 

“I’m 26, I’m Single, I’m a schoolteacher, and that’s the bottom of the pit.” The line, spoken by actor Katharine Ross as Etta Place in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, stood out. After all, I too am a 26-year-old unmarried woman and I cringed at the line. Sure. That might have been true for many women on the frontier in the 1890s. But it wasn’t just dismissiveness, it was the overt neglect by screenwriter William Goldman to develop Etta’s character at all. (Goldman won an Oscar for the script, BTW.) Goldman and the producers had spent eight years researching the origins of Butch and Sundance, tracking down childhood homes and first-hand accounts so they could tell the story. So what of Etta Place? If she was indeed a trusted member of The Wild Bunch and an accomplice to Sundance and Butch during their escape to South America, as the film depicts, surely she was more than a doe-eyed love interest. I wanted to learn more about this woman. I wanted to know: How did this school teacher become one of only five women in The Wild Bunch? What led her to a life on the run? Unlike Goldman, I wanted to find the real Etta Place. 

Despite Etta’s noteworthy role in the bandit group, her life before is obscure. Only one known photo of her remains, taken by the famous portraitist De Young in 1901 after her wedding to Harry Longabaugh in New York.  

Ms. Place: She was born around 1878 in either Castle Gate or Price here in Utah, but other accounts place her birth in Texas or Pennsylvania. She was well-spoken, arrestingly beautiful and may have been educated on the East Coast. Skilled on horseback and an even better shot with a rifle, historians believe she first joined The Wild Bunch at their Hole-in-the-Wall hideout around 1896. And from the De Young portrait we know she was married to Sundance around 1900. After that photo was taken Sundance, Etta and Butch boarded the SS Herminius in New York bound for Argentina under the names Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place and James Ryan, according to the ship’s 1901 registry.

How Etta came to meet two of the Wild West’s most infamous outlaws remains a mystery, as does her fate after fleeing to South America. Throughout my hunt for the truth, three central theories about her origin emerged.

Theory No. 1: The Calculating Courtesan

Etta might’ve first encountered Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch gang during their many (many) visits to Texan bordellos. High-class ladies of the night worked at Fannie Porter’s brothel in San Antonio, where it’s possible Etta Place took up residence as a young woman. Porter offered her girls’ hospitality to high-paying customers, including outlaws flush with ill-gotten cash. Fannie Porter’s was a rendezvous for The Hole-in-the-Wall gang after fleeing the scene of various train robberies and stick-ups. 

Etta married Sundance in 1900 and joined The Wild Bunch in their escapades, assisting them with getaway horses and posing as a distraction. Although no marriage license exists, a Pinkerton Agency memorandum from July 29, 1902 states Mrs. Place “is said to be [Sundance’s] wife and to be from Texas.” The Pinkerton Agency, a private security force paid by the railroads to protect trains from robbers and hunt outlaws, was always one step behind the outlaws. After getting ahold of Sundance and Etta’s 1901 De Young portrait in New York, agent William A. Pinkerton complained in a letter to his brother “It shows how daring these men are, and while you are looking for them in the wilderness and mountains they are in the middle of society.” 

Although it’s unclear if Etta was truly a high-priced prostitute, she almost certainly was not a schoolteacher. This piece of revisionism as depicted by the film, can be attributed to screenwriter Goldman who didn’t want to portray his ingenue as a prostitute. “To me, she had to be a schoolteacher,” Goldman recalls in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade. And so our Etta went from soiled dove to eye-batting school teacher on the silver screen. 

Theory No. 2: The Noblewoman

Accounts depict her as a woman of class and education. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that Etta might’ve come from a well-off family. Biographer Ed Kirby notes in his book Rise and Fall of the Sundance Kid that Etta was the daughter of George Capel, the son of the sixth Earl of Sussex. (The surname “Capel” just so happens to be an anagram of “Place,” coincidence?) Kirby believed Etta’s mother was actress Jane Place, who happened to be a sister to Anne G. Place Longabaugh—none other than the Sundance Kid’s mother. Was Etta actually related to Sundance? An article from a Sept. 29, 1991 issue of St. George newspaper The Daily Spectrum corroborates the theory, writing “Etta Place was in fact, Sundance’s cousin, not his lover as popularized in the movie.” 

Theory No. 3: The Rancher Turned Rustler

The most popular theory, supported by timeline comparisons, lifestyle similarities and photo analysis posits that Etta Place may have actually been Ann Bassett, another bold frontier woman who lived during the late 19th century. Members of the Outlaw Trail History Association have been chasing this theory for some time, particularly researcher Doris Karren Burton. 

In her book, Queen Ann Bassett (Alias Etta Place), Burton notes similarities between the two women. Bassett, also born in 1878, was raised by cattle ranchers in Brown’s Park (on the Northwest border of Utah and Colorado). Citing the 1962 book Where the Old West Stayed Young by John Rolfe Burroughs, Burton describes Ann as an actress, “She could play the role of a cultured young gentlewomen; or she could be a perfect little hell-cat. She was spirited and high-strung, and a tempestuous daredevil.” 

Life on the ranch was hard, and hostile competition among Cattle Barons necessitated the Bassett sisters take up shooting and horsemanship. During this lawless time, the family often turned to illicit methods in order to protect their land. The sisters became cattle rustlers (cattle thieves) who formed alliances with outlaws laying low in the area, including Butch Cassidy himself. Burton believed the sisters formed close, perhaps even romantic, relationships with the Wild Bunch members. “Ann was in love with Butch Cassidy,” she writes. Although she quickly turned her attention to Sundance, “Ann Bassett soon tired of one man,” says Burton. “And Sundance liked the women.” Eventually, Ann is chased out of Brown’s Park for rustling and travels to Texas in February of 1901. In 1902, she returned to her family home, citing her time away as traveling in South America. Hmm.

In addition to their penchant for mischief, educational background and notable event timelines, the two women also share striking physical resemblance. Burton asked Dr. Thomas G. Kyle of Los Alamos National Laboratory to compare Etta’s De Young portrait and a verified image of Ann using NASA’s facial recognition technology. 

The finding reported the two images were likely the same person, with the odds being 5,000 to one. Burton concludes “The 1-5000 chance is based only on the photo analysis, and greatly increases adding the fact Etta and Ann were in the same areas at the same time and knew the same people.” 

So, mystery solved? Nothing involving women and history is ever so simple. What seems like conclusive evidence is challenged by reports of Ann’s later life. In which she stood trial for cattle rustling during the same period Etta would’ve been in South America. Ann settled in the Southwestern Utah town of Leeds until her death in 1956, not once confirming her alleged double life as Etta Place.

What of Etta’s Fate?

What happened to Etta once she left for South America with Butch and Sundance is as much a mystery as her origin. Between March 1901 and June 1904, Etta might’ve made several visits back to the United States to visit family and receive medical treatment. The Pinkertons even traced Etta and Sundance to the World’s Fair in 1904. Researcher Doris Burton claims Etta visited Denver in 1904 for appendicitis treatment, other historians believe she faked her own death and returned to Fort Worth under the name Eunice Gray. Another theory purports that Etta left Butch and Sundance in South America and traveled to Paraguay where she married famous boxing promoter Tex Ricar. Other historians assume Etta was accompanied by Sundance from Chile to San Francisco in 1905 and remained there while he returned to South America. 

Etta Place remains the true mystery in the otherwise well-researched history of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an ethereal and elusive figure. The Wild Bunch might’ve intentionally obscured her identity, but I suspect this is just another case of history giving little attention to women. One thing is sure. She was a damn good criminal. As Robert Redford’s Sundance says, “No one expects a woman.”  

Meet Four More Outlaw Ladies of Note

Laura Bullion aka ‘Rose of the Wild Bunch’

Wanted For: Bank Robbery, Train Robbery and Forgery

Born to a Texan train robber, Laura Bullion became acquainted with outlaws William Carver and Ben Kilpatrick at the age of 13. After working on and off at Fannie Porter’s brothel, a popular hideaway for the Wild Bunch and other Western outlaws, Bullion made her way to Utah with Carver where she met Cassidy and the others. Known to sell stolen goods, disguise herself as a man during robberies, and provide the outlaws with a steady supply of horses, Bullion quickly caught the attention of detectives and national media. In 1901 Bullion was found in possession of $8,500 in unsigned stolen banknotes and was arrested for forgery and robbery. After her sentence, Bullion would go on to live a civilian life in Memphis under the alias Freda Bullion Lincoln

Fannie Porter

Wanted For: Harboring Criminals and Vagrancy

Madam Fannie Porter ran a high-end ‘boarding house’ in San Antonio in the late 1800s. The luxurious bordello became a popular hideout for Butch Cassidy and the rest of the Wild Bunch and is theorized to be the place that Sundance Kid met Etta Place, who may have been working as a prostitute for Porter. Although she was well connected and respected, Porter was arrested briefly in 1880 for vagrancy (read: prostitution). Her boarding house remained a pitstop for outlaws on the run, and its rumored she threw Sundance and Butch one last going away party before the outlaws fled the country. 

The Basset Sisters Ann and Josie

Wanted For: Cattle Rustling, Assisting Outlaws and Suspected Mariticide

Ann and Josie Bassett became respected troublemakers for defending their homestead ranch in Brown’s Park against cattle barons (think Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone). Capable frontier women, the sisters also received formal education on the East Coast and were known for their silver tongues and striking good looks. The sisters formed close relationships with famed gunslingers, including Butch Cassidy who Ann dated at 15. Josie would go on to date Wild Bunch member Elzy Lay, and the sisters were two of only five women to know the location of the gang’s hideout, Robber’s Roost. Ann and Josie both lived into their 70s, Josie married five times with one husband suspected of having died of poisoning. Josie also claimed Cassidy visited her in 1930 and lived in Utah until his death in the late 70s. None of her claims have ever been corroborated. 

Explore the Outlaw Trail

Stop #1 Robber’s Roost

A hard-to-find desert hideaway, Robber’s Roost lives up to its elusive legend. To find the hole-in-the-wall, make your way to Hanksville near Capitol Reef. Head north on S.R. 24 for 16 miles and keep an eye out for a brown sign for Hans Flat Ranger Station, then take a right. All that remains of the rugged refuge is a crumbling stone fireplace and an underlying tone of mischief.h

If You Go… Bring plenty of water and some emergency supplies, there aren’t any Wild Bunch women to offer supplies and fresh horses should your life of crime lead you astray.

Stop #2 The Cassidy Trail

Beneath courtly red rock cliffs and otherworldly hoodoos lies a trail frequented by both well-meaning hikers and wanted criminals. The Cassidy Trail winds through Red Canyon inside the Dixie National Forest and was a popular route for Butch to evade the law and pursuing Pinkertons. The trail was also a major location for the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

If You Go… Cassidy Trail starts at Red Canyon trailhead in Red Canyon, look for a discreet parking lot at the first left after passing the visitor center. 

Stop #3 Brown’s Park

An isolated valley along the Utah and Colorado border, Brown’s Park has been home to fur trappers, cattle rustlers, cowboys and outlaws since the 1800s. Its remote location and protection from harsh weather made it a frequent pitstop to Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and the Basset Sisters. Referred to as a place where “The Old West Stayed Young,” Brown’s Park has become a ritzy outdoor destination. 

If You Go… There’s lots to do inside Brown’s Park, but if you just have a day or
are passing through, take the Brown’s Park Scenic Backway. Traveling through
Diamond Mountain, into Brown’s Park and crossing the Green River, the 2-hour drive will give you a peek into what life on the trail looked like for Cassidy and
his Wild Bunch. 

Every single one of us can remember at least one Christmas when what was under the tree was exactly what we wanted. We were, of course, kids who still believed in Santa Claus and the holiday still held its magic. After the morning, we would link up with friends and ask, “What’d you get?” Compare gifts in some sort of materialistic playground one-upmanship. Mine: I got the Millennium Falcon, the Lego Beta-1 Command Base set, an Atari (of course) and a boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I still have the last item but the rest has gone to nieces and nephews, garage sales or the DI (Deseret Industries, Utah’s Goodwill, for you Beehive newbies). 

As we get older, stuff matters less and the “what we got” is as important as what we give. The delight now is creating magic for the young ones and being caring and thoughtful to those we love. Kids are pretty easy, right? They still want stuff. It’s the grown-ups, who don’t need more stuff, who are the hardest to find gifts for. 

It’s pretty customary for magazines to trot out a gift guide for the holiday issue. We’re not immune to that trope. After all, one of our jobs here at Salt Lake magazine is to offer you discerning advice on where to eat, what to do and, sometimes, what to buy—especially at a time of year when buying stuff is on everyone’s mind. But this year we resisted the temptation to foist more stuff on you. Don’t we all have enough stuff? How, we wondered, can we guide you to gifts that won’t get sent to the Goodwill one day? So we created a holiday gifting guide (“Experience. Not Stuff”). It’s all based on a response my mother gave me when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, which was: “I want time with you.” 

Give your time. Give something that won’t get put on a shelf or lost in a closet. Give experiences. Imagine your still-spry father opening a giant box and, there, inside, is a gift card good for “One Trip Down the Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon.” Or your vinophile best friend finds a note in their stocking “Good for One Personalized Wine-Tasting Course.” Or the sports nut gets a pack of tickets to the Salt Lake Bees games with a note that says, “Summer will come again.” And more. That’s what we’re talking about. Give out memories that will last and the only thing put on the shelf will be a framed picture of you and your father bucking down the rapids in the Mighty Grand Canyon. 

Happy Holidays!

The Home of the Utah Jazz is getting a new name! Well, actually an old name. In the world of sports venue corporate sponsorships, the name of a beloved sports team’s home court (or field, rink or pitch) goes to the highest bidder, and the price was right for Delta…again. What can we say, nostalgia is trending right now. 

It’s good news for people who never stopped calling it the Delta Center. With the unfortunate change to EnergySolutions Area in 2006, many stubbornly refused to update their vocabulary rather than sully their lips with the name of a nuclear waste disposal company. Then again, 10 years later, they still called it the Delta Center, rather than the mouthful “Vivint Smart Home Arena” (although the resulting renovations weren’t too bad). Even when the name was shortened to just “Vivint Arena” in 2020, many of us crossed our arms and muttered under our breaths, “You mean ‘the Delta Center.’” 

After all, EnergySolutions was long at the center of controversy, through its attempts to store increasingly radioactive waste or ship in nuclear waste from out-of-country to a Utah landfill. In 2021, the FTC fined the home security company Vivint Smart Home a record-setting $20 million for using identity theft to boost sales. And earlier this year, A federal court ordered Vivint Smart Home to pay $189 million due to accusations of “deceptive practices.”

We also dare not speak of the brief era when the International Olympic Committee tried to force us all to call it the “Salt Lake Ice Center.” It’s as if the collective energy of that mass obstinacy cast a spell, ensuring that, one day, the Delta Center would return. 

Prior to the return, by what name someone calls the Delta Center was a solid barometer for pinpointing the date range of a Jazz fan’s formative years (and determining which team roster broke their hearts the first time). If it’s EnergySolutions to you, you were cheering for Boozer and Williams. If it’s Vivint, you never shut up about Gobert and Mitchell. A Delta Center person is still cursing the name of Jordan and has posters of Stockton and Malone on their basement walls over their much-abused bean bag chair. 

If you’re up for a real trip down memory lane, talk to someone who still clings to the days when the Utah Jazz played the Salt Palace. They’ll regale you with exploits by Griffith, Eaton, Dantley or Green—an era of nicknames like “Dr. Dunkenstein” and “Pistol Pete.” They also might try to impress you with their old-school Jazz facts like, “Did you know that, before they finished building the Franklin Covey Complex in West Valley, the Jazz trained in the Payne Gymnasium at Westminster College?” 

Now, all of that is out the window. A Delta Center person could be an old fan or a new one (assuming the Utah Jazz can start to attract new fans), but we don’t think you’ll hear us Delta Center people complaining about it.