Why "Gallery 97"?
On June 28th, 1897, the Sundance Kid and his gang robbed the Butte County Bank here in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Our gallery is located in the old City Hall building, just 97 paces from the site of the robbery. And Sundance escaped with (you guessed it) a mere $97...

The Butte County Bank Job

On a hot, still Monday afternoon in late June 1897, four riders headed east on what is now State Street and rode to the corner of 6th avenue. Dust rising from the dirt street swirled gently around the horses hooves. Three of the men, hung over and moving slowly, dismounted and handed their reins to the fourth. Then the three gunmen, Walt Puteney, Harvey Logan and Harry Longabough (the Sundance Kid) walked into the sandstone corner building that housed the Butte County bank. The chief cashier, Art Marble, looked up to greet a new customer and found himself staring into the barrel of a Colt revolver. His assistant, Harry Ticknor, and four customers heard the pistol cock and immediately understood that the bank was being robbed. They raised their hands, stood quietly and awaited instructions. One of the customers, a shopkeeper named Sam Arnold, was in the process of depositing the weekend's receipts and his $97 was already on the counter. Sundance reached past Arnold and pocketed the money, which ended up being the entire proceeds of the robbery.

Across the dusty street the owner of the mercantile, Al Giles, had noticed the man holding the horses in front of the bank, and it raised his suspicions. He stared through the painted window of the bank and as soon as he realized what was happening, he began to yell for help. The gunman (thought to be Lonnie Logan) fired a single shot toward the mercantile, and immediately two more members of the gang opened fire down the street. These two, Flat Nose Currie and Tom O'Day, were charged with creating a distraction if the alarm was given. Within seconds the three outlaws inside the bank ran out and mounted up. Currie also swung onto his horse, but O'Day's mount got away from him when he released his grip on the reins to stow his pistol and Currie's gunfire spooked the animal. O'Day tried to clamber aboard the only other mount available, a farm mule tied to a hitch a few feet away outside a saloon. The mule wouldn't move, so he ran into the saloon, out the back door and hid in the outhouse. He dropped his gun into the hole, but it did him no good. He was arrested and secured for the night in the vault of the very bank that he had been trying to rob, as the nearest jail was in Deadwood and the day was getting on.

Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid

Thanks to Hollywood, Harry Alonzo Longabough (1867-1908) has become one of the most notorious characters in modern Western myth. Born just after the Civil War in Mont Clare, a small village in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, Harry was traveling around Dakota Territory and Wyoming by his late teens. he was arrested in Sundance, Wyoming in 1887 for stealing a horse, and sentenced to 18 months in jail. Moving to Belle Fourche on his release, he quickly adopted the nickname the Sundance Kid. Belle Fourche was on its way to becoming the largest depot in the world for shipping both cattle and sheep, but Harry wasn't interested in twelve-hour days and an honest living. Within a few years he had partnered up with outlaw Bob Parker (soon to be renowned as Butch Cassidy), and the two formed a gang called the Wild Bunch.