No subject on this blog has garnered more controversy than the Nov. 28, 2005 posting titled "Did Butch Cassidy Retire to Spokane?" (You can find it below). It has spawned 73 responses (and still climbing), many of them from Butch aficionados and/or scholars, and many of them contentious and argumentative.

The subject was whether William T. Phillips of Spokane was actually the famous Butch Cassidy. For a variety of reasons, I am now leaning strongly toward the opinion that he wasn't. However, I believe we will never know for sure.

This week, I received a letter from Butch & Sundance scholar Daniel Buck, which included a copy of a new article he and Anne Meadows have written which illustrates why any definitive answer to the question is so complicated. This article, titled "Butch and Sundance: Still Dead?" for the April-June 2006 issue of the Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History, Inc., gathers together the bewildering number of death reports that have surfaced for the pair over the years.

Butch died in Utah, Butch died in Nevada, Butch died in Bolivia. Butch died as early as 1898 and as late as 1944. As the Salt Lake Tribune noted sardonically in the 1890s: "The supply of Butch Cassidys seems inexhaustible."

In his letter, Buck noted that Washington ranks pretty high in the Butch death chronicles. "Utah and Nevada are now tied at seven Butch tales each. Washington is second with six."

Aren't we proud? If anyone out there has evidence of which one of these many death tales is true, feel free to offer it up right here.

Dean Bennett, a reader from Coeur d'Alene, was shocked to discover that the historic Fort Ground Tavern (on the old fort grounds, right next to present North Idaho College) had closed last spring. He and a few other CDA natives started talking about this travesty and he started collecting information about the history of bars and taverns in Coeur d'Alene. You can find his historic map of the CDA bars and taverns at http://www.frappr.com/historyofcoeurdalenebars.
He could use some help in fleshing out this project. If you have any information about the area's classic bars and taverns, their original owner's names or any other historical information, you can send them to Bennett through the website's forums, or send them to him at canyonwren@adelphia.net. You can also post them here on this blog for others to read.
I think this is a worthy cause -- the Fort Ground was a great old tavern among many in CDA's history. One consolation: the 99-year-old building has been remodeled and will soon re-open as the Fort Ground Grill.

The Inland Northwest History blog is back after a successful and productive hiatus. If all works out according to schedule, you can look for my biography of Spokane civil rights lawyer Carl Maxey to be published in 2007 by the University of Washington Press.
Meanwhile, a lot of blog-worthy material has been gathering over the last three months. In the next few days, I'll be diving in to these issues, including some new Butch Cassidy research, a new edition of Robert H. Ruby's and John A. Brown's history of the Spokane Indian tribe, and (in the very next post) the history of the bars and taverns of Coeur d'Alene.