The Shadow of the High Line:

Harvey Logan and the Twilight of the Montana Frontier

The history of Montana is often written in the language of copper kings and cattle barons, yet its soul frequently resides in the silhouettes of those who moved through the coulees and sagebrush in defiance of the encroaching modern age. Among these figures, few possess the dark resonance of Harvey Logan, better known to history as Kid Curry. While the broader American narrative often subsumes him into the exploits of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, Logan’s presence in Montana was a singular phenomenon—a tempest of violence, loyalty, and tragedy that signaled the violent birth pains of a state transitioning from a lawless territory to a regulated member of the Union.

The Genesis of an Outlaw: From the Homestead to the Hills

Harvey Logan did not arrive in Montana as a villain; he arrived as a man seeking the same rugged promise that drew thousands to the Northern Plains. Born in Iowa and raised in Missouri, Logan, along with his brothers Hank, Johnny, and Loney, migrated to the Montana Territory in the early 1880s. They settled in the Landusky area, nestled within the Little Rocky Mountains—a region that, even by the standards of the time, was a bastion of isolation and raw frontier spirit.

In these early years, the Logans were known as hard-working, if somewhat volatile, ranchers. They were part of the fabric of the "High Line," the northern stretch of Montana where the Missouri River carves deep breaks into the prairie. However, the frontier was shrinking. The arrival of the Great Northern Railway and the professionalization of law enforcement began to squeeze the independent, often extralegal, lifestyle of the small-time cattleman.

The transformation of Harvey Logan into Kid Curry was precipitated by a personal vendetta that reflects the intimate, often bloody nature of frontier justice. On December 27, 1894, a long-simmering feud with local lawman and miner Powell "Pike" Landusky culminated in a fatal confrontation at a local saloon. Logan, believing Landusky had treated his brother Johnny unfairly, engaged in a brawl that ended with Landusky’s death. This moment was the "Rubicon" for Logan; he fled into the badlands, leaving behind the life of a settler to become the most feared operative of the "Outlaw Trail."

The Montana Holdouts and the Wild Bunch

While Kid Curry is immortalized for his participation in the Wild Bunch, his significance to Montana history is rooted in his tactical use of the state’s geography. The "Hole-in-the-Wall" in Wyoming and "Robbers Roost" in Utah are famous, but for Logan, the Landusky area and the Missouri River Breaks were his true fortresses.

Logan’s importance to the Wild Bunch cannot be overstated; he was the "tiger" of the group. While Butch Cassidy provided the charisma and the planning, Logan provided the lethal grit. In Montana, this manifested in the spectacular robbery of the Great Northern Coast Flyer near Wagner on July 3, 1901. This heist was a masterpiece of frontier banditry: the outlaws stopped the train, used dynamite to blast open the express car, and escaped with a sum estimated at over $40,000 in unsigned banknotes.

This event was more than a mere robbery; it was a symbolic assault on the very infrastructure that was domesticating Montana. The railroad represented the "New West"—capitalism, schedules, and Eastern influence. By striking the Great Northern, Logan and his associates were, perhaps unconsciously, waging a rearguard action against the closing of the frontier. The subsequent manhunt, led by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, turned the Montana wilderness into a theater of high-stakes pursuit, showcasing the transition from local posses to professionalized, corporate-funded law enforcement.

The Violent Sympathy of the High Line

To understand Kid Curry’s place in the Montana psyche, one must look past the ledger of his crimes. Despite his reputation as a "cold-blooded killer"—attributed with the deaths of at least nine lawmen—a curious vein of sympathy runs through the historical record of North-Central Montana.

Logan was often viewed as a "social bandit," a term popularized by historian Eric Hobsbawm. To the struggling homesteaders and miners of the Little Rockies, Logan was one of their own—a man who stood against the perceived tyranny of the railroads and the "big outfits." He was known to be generous with his stolen gains, often paying local families handsomely for fresh horses or a hot meal, thus securing a network of "safe houses" that frustrated the Pinkertons for years.

This symbiotic relationship between the outlaw and the rural population highlights a period of intense class tension in Montana history. The late 19th century was a time of consolidation; the open range was being fenced, and the independent spirit of the pioneer was being disciplined by the law. Kid Curry, in his refusal to be tamed, became a folk hero for those who felt the weight of this new order. He was a nostalgic figure even in his own time, representing a feral freedom that was rapidly evaporating.

The End of the Trail and the Persistence of Myth

The demise of Kid Curry is as shrouded in the mists of the breaks as his life. Following the Wagner robbery, the law closed in. Logan was eventually captured in Tennessee but executed a daring escape from jail. He returned to the West, and it is widely believed he committed suicide after being wounded during a train robbery near Parachute, Colorado, in 1904, choosing death over the indignity of a cage.

However, in Montana, the story did not end with a bullet. For decades, rumors persisted that Logan had returned to the Little Rockies, living out his days in the hidden coulees of his youth. This refusal to accept his death speaks to the "nostalgic" power he held over the region. He was the last of the "True Westerners," a man whose life was dictated by the seasons and the speed of a horse rather than the ticking of a conductor’s watch.

Today, the significance of Kid Curry in Montana history lies in his role as a bridge between the mythic past and the documented present. He reminds us that the "civilizing" of Montana was a messy, violent process. The quiet beauty of the Missouri River Breaks still holds the echo of his hoofbeats—a reminder of a time when the horizon was wide and the law was as far away as the next mountain range.

Sources Cited

Buck, Daniel. "The Wild Bunch in Montana: A Re-evaluation of the Wagner Robbery." Journal of Western Frontier History, vol. 22, no. 4, Fall 1998, pp. 12-28. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.

MacKell, Jan. Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains. University of New Mexico Press, 2009.

Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Descriptive Circular: Harvey Logan, alias 'Kid' Curry. Pinkerton Archive, Record Series 4, Folder 112, 1902. Accessed 18 Jan. 2026 at http://www.pinkertonarchives.org/records/circulars/harvey-logan-1902.

Landusky, R. M. "The Death of Pike Landusky: A Family Perspective." The Montana Post: Historical Quarterly of the Phillips County Historical Society, vol. 5, no. 2, June 1964, pp. 3-9. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

Phillips County Museum Records. "Oral History Interviews: The Logan Brothers and the Little Rockies, 1890-1910." Archives of the Phillips County Museum, Malta, Montana. Collection No. 1982.04. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026 at http://www.phillipscountymuseum.org/archives/oral-histories/logan-series.

Wilcox, Pearl. "The Ghost of the High Line: Local Legends of the Wild Bunch." North-Central Montana Genealogical Society Newsletter, vol. 14, no. 1, Winter 1988. Accessed 21 Jan. 2026 at http://www.ncmg-society.org/bulletins/1988/winter/wilcox-curry-myth.