The Outlaw Trail runs from Wyoming to Southern Utah.
Along the route there were three main hideouts used by outlaws - Hole-in-the-Wall to the north, Robber's Roost to the south and Brown's Hole, now known as Brown's Park, in the center. Brown's Park is about 20 miles below the Flaming Gorge Dam and runs about 40 miles along the Green River. About half of the trail is in Utah, the other half is in Colorado. One small section reaches into Wyoming.The Green River and usually light winters made the area a favorite home for the Ute Indians, then the early explorers, trappers and traders, followed by cattlemen and outlaws. The first white man to visit Brown's Park was William Henry Ashley in 1822. He was followed by the likes of Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, John Welsey Powell, Butch Cassidy, Henry Rhudenbaugh (The Sundance Kid), Tom Horn and the beautiful Ann Bassett, known as "The Queen of the Cattle Rustlers." Some suspect she and Etta Place (Sundance Kid's girlfriend) were one and the same.
With Brown's Park bordering three states it was a convenient place for the outlaws to cross a state line to escape the law.
One the central figures to this area in the outlaw era was a Scottish immigrant by the name of John Jarvie, who was a liquor dealer in Rock Springs.
In 1880, the 36-year-old Jarvie married the 26-year-old Nellie Barr and moved to Brown's Park where they opened a general store-trading post on the north side of the Green River.
While the store and their log home were being built, they spent their first year living in a two-room dugout. Jarvie operated a ferry, was the postmaster, storekeeper, moonshine maker, livestock owner, blacksmith, prospector, musician, athlete and a scholar.
Nellie died in 1895 of tuberculosis leaving Jarvie with four boys, the youngest being 8-years-old. Although Jarvie was loved by most, he apparently was a harsh taskmaster.
All four of his boys left to work on other ranchesas soon as they could. On July 6, 1909, Jarvie was shot in the back by two thieves who ransacked his store and shipped his body down the Green River.