“‘Tarzan of Tetons’ Appears to Have Escaped Trap” shouted the headline on the cover of the Havre Daily News from March 24th, 1939. The story is nearing its 86th anniversary, which is perhaps why Doug Giebel sent the edition to me with a note about the unusual story. ‘Tarzan of the Tetons’ sounds like something that would have appeared on the cover of a tabloid rather than Havre’s city paper. I couldn’t help but dive into the story and research the background. While it’s not a Bigfoot style narrative, the real tale is no less interesting.
The “Tarzan of the Tetons” was the name bestowed upon Earl Durand, a Wyoming man whose Bonnie-and-Clyde type story caught the attention of depression era Americans.
Durand was a physically imposing, 6’2 and 250 pound mountain man type figure, whose familiarity with the Northern Wyoming wilderness led to his trouble with the law and later enabled him to eventually evade them.
The story begins with Durand and 3 friends being arrested for poaching four elk on the Shoshone River. Poaching was a major issue during the depression due to the lack of resources available to the average person, a fact that likely earned him some sympathy with the average person. The 26-year old man was fined $100 (around $2,000 today) and ordered to appear in Cody for sentencing. Instead, Durand fled into the wilderness after knocking out the undersheriff with one punch. This triggered the first manhunt for the fugitive.
Armed with a rifle and years of experience in the Wyoming and Southern Montana wilderness, he eluded search parties, who combed the area around East Yellowstone.
On March 18th, Durand was cornered near Meeteetse, but managed to escape again. This time he fatally shot 2 deputies who had tracked him to a cabin where he was holding up. The event is noteworthy because the fugitive demonstrated deadly accuracy in the gunfight, managing to hit both deputies in the head from a distance of over 100 yards. It’s important to note that these were prominent and well loved local lawmen, whose deaths rocked the rural Wyoming area.
The search party quickly grew to over 100 men. Two days later, Durand was cornered near a ranger station by a search party, which he subsequently ambushed a search party, killing two more posse members, thoroughly cementing his status as an outlaw. Again, Durand displayed stunning accuracy in his shooting, hitting both men in the head from a long distance. Witnesses said he laughed as he shot at the search party.
Wyoming officials were unaccustomed to this level of violent resistance to law enforcement and reacted decisively. This was in no small part due to a national press feeding frenzy, which depicted a wild man marauding through the mountains. The Chicago Tribune ran a story so exaggerated that it actually described Durand swinging through the trees on vines like Tarzan from the movies. Governor Nels Smith called on volunteers and mobilized the national guard to stop what he called a “Reign of Terror.” Montana answered the call for aid along its southern border by calling up 100 guardsmen and sending them to help with the search.
Durand’s story came to an end on March 24th, the same day the Havre Daily ran their headline about Tarzan of the Teton’s escape. Sources describe the fugitive as “hungry and desperate” when he attempted to rob a bank in Powell, WY. He collected $2,200 and 2 hostages, a teller and a customer. A local teenager alerted the local police of the robbery in progress.
A crowd quickly gathered at the bank. Durand exchanged gunfire with a deputy as he tried to make his escape, receiving a bullet wound in the leg. He retreated inside, released the hostages, and ultimately shot himself as law enforcement closed in to arrest him. He died instantly.
The story of Tarzan of the Tetons lasted 11 days, but garnered enough attention that a substantial crowd gathered to view his body, which was placed on display at a mortuary in Cody. In the aftermath, he was called both a villain and a folk hero by the public.
Many admired the defiance of the man and rumors began circulating that he actually poached to feed the poor. Others vilified him for the violence and bloodshed. His wife and child struggled in the wake of the loss of Durand and faced ongoing stigma for their association with the outlaw.
Time magazine and the New York Times painted him as a modern day Tarzan, ultimately creating the moniker that stuck, even though the events took place nearly 100 miles from the Teton mountains.
In 1974, a film of the events was released, lionizing the man and depicting him as a folk hero of sorts. Locals, whose family and friends were counted among the murdered we’re incensed.
The story itself caught the imagination of the time and has endured largely because of the desperation of the populace during the depression and the rugged frontier type character that Durand embodied for many.
