Baxter's Curve Train Robbery

In the early hours of March 13, 1912, Ben Kilpatrick, a former sidekick of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, and Ole Hobek attempted one of the last major train robberies in west Texas. The two robbers boarded the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio railroad train when it stopped at Dryden on the way to El Paso. They ordered the engineer on to Baxter’s Curve, a sharp bend in the railway’s rail bed. The baggage cars were uncoupled from the coaches, but while the two searched for valuables, Wells Fargo express manager David A. Trousdale bludgeoned one with an ice mallet and killed the other with the first robber’s rifle. Kilpatrick and Hobek were buried in Sanderson, and Trousdale was recognized and rewarded for his bravery.