Harry Longabaugh statue, Sundance, Wyoming

It is said that the Sundance Kid (of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie fame) got his name in Sundance. He had stolen a horse, saddle and gun from Western Ranches Ltd., owner of the Three V's Ranch near Sundance. When he was arrested, he pled guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in the Sundance Jail. He was pardoned by the governor in February 1889, and he drifted over to Belle Fourche, South Dakota. As a result of his bravado in the Belle Fourche watering holes in regards to the time he spent in Sundance, he was given the "Sundance Kid" name and it stuck. (This was all several years before he became a regular with Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.)

Sundance itself got the name from the "Sun Dance" practiced by several Native American Nations, most of whom consider the Black Hills the town is embedded in as "sacred ground."

When Robert Redford played Harry Longabaugh in the movie, he enjoyed the name so much that he named his ski resort near Provo, Utah, Sundance Ski Resort, and the name spilled over onto the Sundance Film Festival (which actually takes place in Park City, Utah these days).

The Town of Sundance is located in eastern Crook County in the Wyoming Black Hills. In the Bear Lodge Mountains and the Black Hills National Forest near Devils Tower National Monument, Sundance sees a lot of tourist traffic. Located on Interstate 90, most travelers on that road see Sundance as the gateway to all that northeastern Wyoming offers. The area offers abundant wildlife, excellent fly fishing and historic sites like the Vore Buffalo Jump: a site where Plains Indians used to stampede herds of bison over a cliff into a sink hole so they would die in the fall, making it easier to harvest the meat and hides... Keyhole State Park and Devils Tower National Monument are also nearby.

Sundance is a retail and supply center for the surrounding cattle and sheep country that turns out energy and timber products, too.