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As a child during the 30s I walked home from school
for noon lunch. Nearly all my classmates did the same. All of
the family was home for a hot meal; and we ate at the table
together. The radio, however, was sometimes the focus of our
attention. One bulletin that we waited for anxiously was the
latest news about Earl Durand. Some folks called him the Tarzan of
the Tetons; and others, the Robin Hood of the Rockies. He was
a true woodsman and mountain man, on that everyone agreed. To most
of these people ( and that included nearly every one in the
neighborhood and those folk that I personally knew) he was somewhat
of a folk hero whom they had compassion and sympathy for, if
not admiration. To other folk, he was something of a joke and
a criminal. Who was Earl Durand?
The book pictured on the left, THE LAST DAYS
OF EARL DURAND, published in 2005 presents actual accounts of
people who knew Earl Durand or who were involved in the tragic
events that took place in his last days. The author, Jerred Metz,
interviewed and taped fourteen people in Cody, Powell and Billings
Montana who played a role in the ordeal. He present their accounts;
and then leaves it up to the reader to make a determination: folk
hero or joke and criminal? (The quotes in italics are all
taken from this book.)
He was a remarkable athlete about
6 foot 2 inches, weighing close to 200 pounds (none of which was
fat). He ran miles every day; and it was said that he could
cover 40 miles at night at a lope. He lived in the mountains
from April through October, keeping himself alive with his gun, his
knife and his wits. Durand wasn't completely opposed to eating
meat cooked, but he preferred it raw. During the winter months, he
lived in a wall tent
behind his parent's home. Durand had difficulty
remaining in closed in rooms for any length of time. He kept a
kerosene stove burning when it got cold; but he became used to a
chill that would be intolerable to most people. Durand had
difficulty remaining in closed in rooms for any length of time. One
young teen age neighbor who used to hunt antelope with Durand, Dick
Smith, said, "He felt trapped, stifled when he was inside buildings
for more than a few minutes. He hadn't slept inside his parent's
home since he was sixteen." (The photo of Earl Durand that
appears on this web page belonged to Smith and was later given
to Sheriff Blackburn.)
His marksmanship was legendary. On
hunting parties, he always killed the most game. During the
Depression, game made up a large part of the diet in that region. In
those days, people in that area of the country, weren't overly
concerned with game wardens or licenses for hunting or fishing. Earl
killed game for the poor and hungry, dressed it for them, and was
invited to many a dinner in the homes of the people he fed.
In
March of 1939, Durand, two teen age companions and the father of one
of the boys killed four elk out of
season. A resident of the area notified the authorities. Two game wardens began an
investigation that ended with their waiting at the Shoshone Forest
boundary for the hunters to return with the evidence. To quote the
Cody Enterprise: "Finally in pitch darkness, a car came roaring
down the highway. The two wardens tried to halt it by standing in
its way. Slowing down only slightly, it barely missed one of the
wardens. The other warden sprang onto the running board, whereupon
the occupants tried to throw him off until he poked his pistol into
the driver's ribs, saying, 'Stop, or I'll stop you!'" Durand,
carrying his rifle, jumped from the car on the passenger side and
disappeared into the darkness. The game wardens
brought Durand's companions to Cody where they were taken before a
judge. The older man was sentenced to two months in jail and a $100
fine for having two elk in his possession. The two teen age boys
were released after what was described as a blistering lecture by
the judge.
Durand spent the night on rattlesnake Mountain,
just west of Cody. The next morning a
rancher found two of his cattle shot. A calf was dead and missing a
single hunk of meat from its flank. While poaching was illegal, it
was fairly widespread...but killing cattle was an act that no
Wyomingite condoned. The rancher telephoned Deputy Sheriff
Noah Riley
who, supposing Durand to be responsible, joined the two game wardens
in the search. Another rancher and a former game warden added
themselves to the party as they tracked Durand to rattlesnake
Mountain. The party was able to get the drop on him,
disarming him and bringing him into Cody. Durand pleaded guilty to killing two elk and was sentenced to
six months in jail and a $100 fine.
During his incarceration, Deputy Riley taunted Durand,
telling him that he'd get twenty years in the state pen; and that
he'd forget what the mountains looked like by the time he got out.
Cody lawyer, Milward R. Simpson ( later governor and Wyoming
Senator), said that Durand used to stand close to the cell door
glowering, holding the bars tight while Riley taunted him. Late in
the afternoon on that Thursday, March 16, about 5:30 pm, Riley, brought
the prisoners their evening meal. Although jail regulations
prohibited guards from going into cells with their revolvers on,
Riley entered Durand's cell with his revolver in a holster. When he opened Durand's cell,
Durand grabbed the milk bottle, hit him over the head, took his
revolver and an additional rifle, and prepared to escape. Durand
took Riley hostage and told him, "I couldn't stand it in that hole
anymore. The air's bad".
Durand forced Riley to drive to the home of
Durand's parents, presumably to get provisions and gear. By
now word of his escape complete with the description of the
commandeered car had reached Powell. A car fitting that description
was reported to have been seen approaching the Durand home.
Shortly afterwards, a neighbor, Virginia Taylor arrived at the
Durand farm. She told Durand to go back to Cody and give himself up.
Durand told her, "I can't stand it there. The air's dead. I'd die
there." A deputy
sheriff and the Cody town marshal went to the Durand farmhouse to take him into custody.
Durand shot them both; and both died.
He told his mother, "It was them or me! I'm going
to the mountain where they won't find me. This is the last time
you'll see me." After that, Durand appeared at several
farmhouses gathering supplies. One such neighbor was Art Glascow.
Durand told Glascow that he had killed two men. Glascow said that
Durand told him, "I warned them to stay away. They were gonna slip
up behind the trees and close in on me. They thought they'd get the
drop on me. I'm not going back to jail." Durand stopped at the Herf
Graham place; and here he left a letter with an envelope addressed
to Sheriff Blackburn. In the corner he had written a
return address: "Earl Durand, Undertaker's Office, Powell,
Wyoming." The penciled letter said this, in part:
My Dear Mr. Blackburn,
. . . .
Of course I know that I'm done for and when you kill me I
suggest you have my head mounted and hang it up in the
courthouse for the sake of law and order. Y our beloved
enemy,
Earl Durand |
A conference of sheriffs,
deputy sheriffs and under sheriffs took place; and eventually four
groups were deployed to patrol the nearby
hills and the area around the Durand home. One of the men who
aspired to join the posse was a man who had himself been recently
been convicted of poaching, Orville Linabary. Sheriff Blackstone,
who was in charge of the posse, told him that he wasn't interested
in a poacher hunting another poacher. The sheriff told
Linabary that neither he nor his side kick, a man named Argento had
any business on the mountain. Linabray replied that they had
business on the mountain with Earl Durand. Linabray had previously
bragged, "We'll get that bugger's scalp. It'll be just like
hunting a big dumb bear out in the open." Blackstone eventually
ended up with about 72 men in the posse; and because Durand was
likely to head for the area of the Beartooths that extended across
the border to Montana, The Montana National Guard was called out.
The Denver Post on March 25, 1939 reported this:
| One man against the
world is the situation up in the Beartooth
mountain country of northern Wyoming. Earl Durand,
killer and mountaineer of prodigious skill, is holed up
in a natural fortress....trapped on the mountains. |
Durand was able to elude
the posse - he was actually in hiding along Bitter Creek not far
from his parents' home.
Durand was eventually sighted in an inaccessible rocky fortress up the side of
a cliff between Little Rocky Creek and the mouth of the canyon. To
reach him from above was virtually impossible. To storm his location
was suicide. Despite warnings not to try it from both the Sheriff
and Durand himself, Linabary and his sidekick, Argento, rushed the
hideout. Durand's bullets stopped them. Durand then took a
stolen deputy sheriff badge that was on the chest of the dead
Linabray. At this point, afraid even to retrieve the bodies,
the posse withdrew from the canyon. In reply to an inquiry by
a newspaperman as to whether they had Durand cornered, a spokesman
for the posse stated: "We haven't got him cornered by any means.
He's got us cornered." The posse returned to to their
base camp, where they were met by the Montana National Guard
Knowing the survival skills of this man of the mountains, the posse
never dreamed he would head in any direction other than deeper into
the mountains. That was their mistake. On about the seventh
day of their search, vehicle occupants noticed a man sitting on a
boulder by the road. He had a rifle and wore a deputy's badge. He
flagged down the car. Identifying himself as a posse member, he
requested a ride to the base camp, asking that they stop down the
road where he had left his bedroll. After placing his bedroll in the
trunk of the car, Durand identified himself and requested that
the car be turned around and headed toward Powell. This was done.
The car skirted the business district of Powell, driving through
the south outskirts on to Deaver, 16 miles away, to the railroad
depot where Durand reportedly picked up 300 rounds of ammunition he
had previously ordered. At Deaver, Durand noticed the car was low on
gas and filled it up - paying for it..... which he was only right
under the circumstances. They then returned to Powell where Durand
stopped at his parents' home, to
pick up some belongings from the tent he lived in. He told his parents good-bye.
Durand next directed
the driver to drive north of Powell toward the Pine Bluffs coal mine. When they arrived, Durand told the three vehicle occupants he was
taking the car and that they could walk the three miles to the
nearest ranch. He asked if the car was insured and seemed
pleased to find that it was covered by theft insurance. As Durand
drove away with the car, he called out, "Come to my funeral, boys,"
and honked the horn as he disappeared over the hill. The three men
men walked to the nearest ranch. From there they were driven to the
closest telephone. By the time they called Powell, Durand was dead.
Just what Durand did during the hour after he left, no
one knows; but about an hour later he parked the car about just
east of the First National Bank in Powell, and made his way hurriedly to the
bank. He approached the bank president and announced he was robbing
the bank. There were nine people in the bank at the time - five of
them were customers. Armed with the Winchester and with a revolver
in a holster on his belt, Durand ordered the employees and customers
to line up facing the wall. Convinced by a cashier that the
safe could not be opened because of a time lock, Durand emptied out
the cash drawers, taking between $2000 and $3000.
Then the
unexplainable happened. Durand had ample funds to finance his
getaway, a car waiting outside the bank, nearly all the law
enforcement officers were still convinced he was deep in the
mountains; and no one aware that he was even in town. For some reason,
Durand suddenly opened fire inside the bank. An estimated 40-60
rounds hit walls, windows, ceiling for ten minutes or so. Then
all of a sudden, four men stepped into the doorway of the bank with their
hands tied together with a leather thong. Durand was behind this
human shield. Directly in front of the bank was a gas station. Among
the men inside was a 17-year-old Powell high school junior who was
skipping school that afternoon. He had wandered
into the gas station as the robbery was in progress and hit the
floor along with the others when the shooting began. For some
reason, the gas station owner gave him a rifle. Guns were
fired at the men from all directions in the panic that ensued.
Unfortunately, one of the hostages was mortally wounded. (The
bullet that killed him was not Durand's.)
The high school student fired on Duran from the doorway of the gas
station. The bullet felled Durand but did not kill him. Durand crawled
back into the bank where he took his own life.
Opinions vary as to the character of Durand - folk hero or villain. The
foregoing poem does not purport to set out all of actual facts but
only to try to capture the character of Earl Durand as I
perceived it to be, at the time. (I was then about nine years old.)
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