Legends 2014

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Legends

SUMMER 2014

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Earl Durand

75 years after killing spree, murderer’s legend lives on

Kid Nichols

‘Not mad at anybody’ on the South Fork

Jakie Schwoob Drove many years with plate WYO-1

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Earl Durand

‘Tarzan of the Tetons’ remembered 75 years later

Cody Enterprise special publication May 22, 2014 Special sections editor: Amber Peabody

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Buffalo Bill’s Wild West captivates public attention

Poster with aerial view of New York City from the harbor showing the location of the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show at Ambrose Park in 1894. (1.69.20)

W

By PAUL FEES illiam F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody opened Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show on May 19, 1883 at Omaha, Neb. His partner that first season was a dentist and exhibition shooter, Dr. W.F. Carver. Cody and Carver took the show, subtitled “Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition,” across the country to popular acclaim and favorable reviews, launching a genre of outdoor entertainment that thrived for three decades and survived, in fits and starts, for almost three more.

The idea had been around for a long time. The earliest antecedent

6 • Legends • Summer 2014

to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West may have actually been staged in France in the middle of the 16th century when 50 Brazilian Indians were brought to Rouen to populate a replica of their village.

Elevated walkways enabled royal visitors to watch the Indians play at real life.

Exotic elements of Native American life later became staples of European and American circuses.

Horse shows and menageries with exotic animals had been popular in America since the 18th century. The “Indian Gallery” of artist George Catlin featured American Indians with native dress and accouterments to complement his paintings. Medicine Shows employed

frontiersmen and Indian people to help sell tonics and other “natural” cures.

In 1872 legendary plainsman Wild Bill Hickok joined several cowboys and Indians in a “Grand Buffalo Hunt” staged at Niagara Falls. Buffalo Bill Cody had already been in show business for a decade, staging plays known as “border dramas,” which actually were smallscale Wild West shows featuring genuine frontier characters, real Indians, fancy shooting, and sometimes horses.

The birth of the Wild West as a successful genre was largely a product of personality, dramatic acumen and good timing. The golden age of outdoor shows began in the 1880s, and with his

theatre experience Buffalo Bill already was skilled in the use of press agentry and poster advertising. His fame and credibility as a westerner lent star appeal and an aura of authenticity.

Most important, Cody gave the show a dramatic narrative structure.

Features such as the Pony Express, the wagon train or the attack on the stagecoach recreated specific and well-known events. Spectacles such as “cowboy fun” or the “tableau” of American Indian life usually served as a prelude to a dramatic event, such as a battle scene.

Skill acts such as sharp shooting (with pistol and rifle), wing shooting (with shotgun), roping and riding not only showcased star performers, the show’s narration linked those skills to survival in the frontier West.

An orator boomed the script to the audience from an elevated platform in the arena. The circus band became the “Cowboy Band” and backed the arena action with appropriate mood-setting music. The same skits and music later were easily adapted to film and television “Westerns.”

Buffalo Bill once said his favorite literary passage was Bishop George Berkeley’s “Westward the course of empire takes its way.” In New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1886, Cody and his partners re-staged Buffalo Bill’s Wild West as “The Drama of Civilization.” Theater and arena now were merged, and America’s westward progress thus became an explicit theme in the show even when it returned to its more familiar Wild West format.

One of the biggest names in American circus, Adam Forepaugh, jumped

Buffalo Bill and Wild West in Vienna, Austria in 1906. (P.69.1122)

into the Wild West business in 1887.

Forepaugh may have been first to stage a re-enactment of “Custer’s Last Fight” as a regular act. The Battle of the Little Big Horn had been featured in many stage melodramas and was an obvious event for the Wild West both for its audience appeal and its narrative power.

Buffalo Bill did not re-enact Custer’s Last Stand until a year later, apparently in deference to the feelings of General Custer’s widow, Elizabeth. She saw it performed in Cody’s show in 1888 and wrote him appreciatively, describing her emotional reaction to its “terrible” realism. The Last Stand became a regular feature in Cody’s and other shows, sometimes even employing actual battle participants from both sides.

The next 20 years saw the rise and fall of dozens of smaller-scale Wild Wests. Some, such as Buck Taylor’s Wild West, were started by Buffalo Bill alumni. Others, such as the Cole Younger and Frank James Wild West, attempted to capitalize on famous names or events. “Indian Congresses,” usually in conjunction with major fairs or expositions, brought representatives of various tribes together with famous frontier characters.

The most successful was Col. Fred Cummins whose congress at the PanAmerican Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1901 included both Calamity Jane and the great Sioux leader Red Cloud.

The role of Indian people was both essential and anomalous in the Wild West. At least in the big shows, they generally were treated and paid the same as other performers. They were able

continued on page 8

Cossack Wild West trick rider. (PN.47.22)

Summer 2014 • Legends • 7

The Wild West arena and grounds in Germany in 1891. (P.69.1512) to travel with their families, and they earned a living not possible to them on their reservations. They were encouraged

by Buffalo Bill and others to retain their language and rituals. They gained access to political and economic leaders, and their causes were sometimes argued in the published show programs.

Yet they were stereotyped as mounted, war-bonneted warriors, the last impediment to civilization. Thus they had to re-fight a losing war nightly; and their hollow victory in the Little Big Horn enactments demonstrated over and over to their audiences the justification for American conquest.

Women also played several roles in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Annie Oakley broke ground when she and her husband/manager Frank Butler joined Buffalo Bill early in 1885. Not only could she outshoot most men, she did it while remaining entirely feminine, even girlish.

Shooter Lillian Smith toured as a teenager with Buffalo Bill, disappeared for a while from public view, then resurfaced in Mexican Joe’s and other Wild Wests as “Princess Wenona, the Indian Girl Shot.” Pawnee Bill’s wife May Lillie was a Smith College graduate from Philadelphia who earned fame as a sharpshooter in her husband’s show.

Women riders at first used sidesaddles, but by the 1890s they were appearing as regular “rancheras,” or cowgirls. Lucille Mulhall gained fame in her father’s show as a roper and Rough Rider. By the turn of the century, it was not uncommon for women like Tad Lucas to ride bucking broncos in the arena. Women also played traditional dramatic roles as “prairie Madonnas” or as Indian captives. Although there were fewer places for women in the shows, surviving records indicate Buffalo Bill, at least, paid women equally with the men.

8 • Legends • Summer 2014

Roles for persons of color changed subtly during the first decade of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. At first they were well represented among the cowboys.

Some attained minor fame; for example, Voter Hall was facetiously billed in 1885 as “a Feejee Indian from Africa.”

As the popular image of the cowboy crystallized, black cowboys virtually disappeared from the arena, and others with dark skins were assigned to different roles. The famous Esquivel brothers of San Antonio, for instance, were presented as vaqueros. But contingents representing the all-black 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry regiments appeared with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and other Wild Wests, and the concert bands seem to have remained integrated. The most famous black cowboy, and perhaps the most famous of all Wild West show cowboys, was the 101 Ranch’s bulldogger, Bill Pickett.

During the tour in Europe in 1892, Buffalo Bill’s partner Nate Salsbury created “the Congress of Rough Riders of the World.” Mounted military troupes from many nations drilled in the arena alongside the American cowboys and Indians. Public interest in American military adventures abroad led to the addition of Hawaiian cowboys and Cuban, Philippine and Japanese cavalry units.

The logistics of the show were formidable. The biggest of them all, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, in the late 1890s carried as many as 500 cast and staff members, including 25 cowboys, a dozen cowgirls, and 100 Indian men, women and children. They all were fed three hot meals a day, cooked on 20-foot-long ranges. The show generated its own electricity and staffed its own fire department. Performers lived in wall tents during long stands or slept

in railroad sleeping cars when the show moved daily. Business on the back lot was carried on in what one reporter called “a Babel of languages.” Expenses were as high as $4,000 per day.

Circus great James A. Bailey, of Barnum & Bailey, joined Cody and Salsbury in 1895 and revolutionized their travel arrangements. The show was loaded onto two trains totaling 50 or more cars. Strings of flat cars could be linked together with ramps for loading wagons from the back forward.

Besides performers and staff, the trains transported hundreds of show and draft horses and as many as 30 buffalo.

The show carried grandstand seating for 20,000 spectators along with the acres of canvas necessary to cover them.

The arena itself remained open to the elements. Advance staff traveled ahead of the show to procure licenses and arrange for the 10-15 acres required for the show lot, preferably close to the railroad; to buy the tons of flour, meat, coffee and other necessities; and to publicize and advertise it.

In 1899, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West covered more than 11,000 miles in 200 days giving 341 performances in 132 cities and towns across the U.S. In most places, there would be a parade and two two-hour performances. Then the whole show would be struck, loaded and moved overnight to the next town.

Europeans (and their armies) often were as fascinated by the ingenuity and efficiency behind the scenes as they were by the show itself. Not many shows could match Buffalo Bill’s in scale, but all subscribed to similar regimens.

In the 1890s, Wild Wests began to add sideshows and other circus elements. If the West seemed too familiar, “Far East” acts such as Arabian acrobats or dancing elephants and thrill acts such as bicyclists and

high divers might inject sufficient novelty to draw new spectators.

For several reasons, the decade just before America’s entry into World War I saw audiences decline. Motion pictures captivated public attention and the West could seem more real on the screen than in the arena.

Shooting declined as a spectator sport while the popularity of baseball and football soared. Riding and roping could be better showcased in rodeos, which were considerably less expensive to produce than Wild West shows.

The old Western stars were fading as well – even Buffalo Bill seemed a relic – and Indian people appeared to be quietly confined to reservations. The Old West was no longer so exotic nor, at the same time, so relevant to a world of heavy industry and mechanized warfare.

Cody’s show went bankrupt in July 1913. In a sign of the times, he immediately obtained backing to make a five-reel film, “The Indian Wars.” The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West had the bad luck to be in Great Britain in August 1914, losing the show’s horses to the war effort. The 101 continued intermittently to tour the U.S. through the 1920s.

Western film stars such as Tom Mix started short-lived Wild Wests, and in 1938 Col. Tim McCoy produced probably the last great traditional Wild West show. It folded after less than one month on the road.

Although occasional revivals and adaptations are staged in the U.S. and abroad, the era of the Wild West can conveniently be said to have died in 1917 along with its greatest proponent, Buffalo Bill Cody.

The most pervasive legacy of the Wild West shows has been the narrative vision of romance and conquest, based on real people and events they created and disseminated so successfully across boundaries of race, class and geography.

(Paul Fees is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Buffalo Bill Cody and is a former curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody.)

Wild West show cowboys in 1905. (P.69.1497)

Buffalo Bill Cody: Western Legend

W

illiam Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman.

He was born Feb. 26, 1846, near LeClaire, Iowa. At age 15 he rode for the Pony Express.

In 1864 he enlisted in the Union Army’s Seventh Kansas Cavalry during the last years of the Civil War and served as a scout.

In 1867, Cody hunted buffalo for the Kansas Pacific Railroad work crews, earning his moniker “Buffalo Bill” and his reputation as an expert shot.

In late 1872, Cody went to Chicago to make his stage debut in “The Scouts of the Prairie,” one of Ned Buntline’s original Wild West shows. The next year, “Wild Bill” Hickok joined the show.

On May 19, 1883, Cody’s first Wild West show opened in Omaha, Neb., a grand performance that propelled him to worldwide fortune and fame. The Wild West show played to enthusiastic crowds throughout the U.S. and Europe for 30 years. Besides Buffalo Bill himself, the Wild West show starred sharpshooter Annie Oakley and, for one run, Chief Sitting Bull.

The Wild West show ended in 1913 after going bankrupt in Denver.

As a businessman, Cody helped found the town of Cody in 1895 and, with his earnings, invested in an Arizona mine, hotels in Sheridan and Cody, stock breeding, ranching, coal and oil development, film making, town building, tourism and publishing. In 1899 he established the Cody Enterprise newspaper.

He died in Denver on Jan. 10, 1917, at age 70.

Cody’s larger-than-life persona, at times real and at times fictitious, is what lives on in the hearts and minds of fans of the frontier West.

For more information visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s centerofthewest.org.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 9

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Jakie Schwoob Father of Wyoming’s Highway System

Schwoob and his wife Mabel pose with his WYO-1 license plates.

Jakie Schwoob leads a line of cars into the Yellowstone on Aug. 1, 1915.

C

ody businessman Jacob “Jakie” Schwoob worked hard to make Wyoming a “good roads state.”

He sponsored legislation that produced Wyoming’s first highway system. In 1912 he wrote a motor vehicle licensing law to obtain revenue for road construction. The new law passed and Wyoming began issuing the first automobile license plates in 1913. Passenger plate WYO 1 was issued to Schwoob. He received a total of 17 license plates bearing number 1 until a new law went into effect in 1929.

The state changed its numbering system, making the first number or numbers of each license plate represent a county. But license plate 1-1 still was granted to Schwoob for his previous efforts.

14 • Legends • Summer 2014

Schwoob came to Cody to manage the Cody Trading Co. (Park County Archives photos)

Schwoob was the first person to have a car in Cody. The vehicle was an International two-cylinder high-wheel car with solid rubber tires and a box seat.

He drove the first car into Sunlight Basin, crossing the dreaded Dead Indian Hill. Under a special permit, he also drove the first car over the Cody road up Sylvan Pass through Yellowstone Park.

Schwoob was born July 8, 1874, in Wellandport, Ontario, Canada. After working his way through school he came to Buffalo, N.Y., in 1892 to become an American citizen.

He worked at a lumber mill, later was a bell boy and then assistant manager of the Iroquois Hotel owned by H.M. Gerrans. Gerrans helped found the town of Cody and it was through him that Schwoob came to Cody in 1898 to manage Cody Trading Co. In 1920 he became the owner of the store.

Schwoob was an ardent sports fan and a leading bicyclist in the East. As a member of the Buffalo Press Cycling Club he was defeated in a race by the late great Frank Kramer by a distance of only four inches. Previously, in Canada when Harley Davidson was amateur champion in Canada, Schwoob came close to winning the title.

Schwoob was active in Republican politics, and was elected treasurer of Cody in 1900. He served as mayor of Cody 1903-05 and as a Wyoming state senator 1905-13.

In 1925 he was appointed a trustee of the University of Wyoming.

When Cody Club was organized in 1899, Schwoob was a charter member.

He married Louise Preas of Buffalo in 1901 and they then returned to Cody. She was 16 at the time and the raw new town was not to her liking. She moved to San Francisco in 1906. The couple had one son, Thorton. In 1926 he married Mabel Laird of Pine, Ore. Schwoob remained a leading citizen of Cody until his death in 1932.

Cody TRADING COMPANY

C

ody Trading Co. was established in 1898 through the financial backing of Henry Montgomery Gerrans, Bronson Rumsey II, and George Bleistein, all businessmen from Buffalo, N.Y., according to the William F. Cody Archive.

Jacob Schwoob, also from Buffalo, was hired to manage the general mercantile store. The building was leveled by fire in 1913 and was rebuilt in a different location the following year.

Schwoob’s successful management of the business made Cody Trading Co. popular throughout the Big Horn Basin with those needing supplies. By 1920 Schwoob was sole owner of the business and advertised, “We Sell Everything.”

At the time it closed in 1963, Cody Trading Co. was the oldest business in Cody.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 15

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Websters

Bud Webster, who started Webster Motors in 1937 with brother Owen, is pictured with a 1953 Chevy.

Auto dealership cements family’s legacy

18 • Legends • Summer 2014

By COREY MORRIS Staff writer bout a year ago a 75-year legacy ended in Cody, but the legendary family remains.

Webster Motors celebrated its 75th anniversary Oct. 6, 2012, and then was sold March 20, 2013, to Denny Menholt Chevrolet of Billings.

“There were many, many vehicles that were sold in the community,” former owner Ed Webster said. “We were blessed with many repeat customers.”

Menholt took ownership of the facility and vehicles, but what couldn’t be bought was the legendary status of the Webster name.

While vehicle sales were synonymous with “Webster,” the family did much more for Cody than supply the town with American-made, Detroit muscle.

The Websters were dedicated to the Cody community.

A

Beginnings

The Webster family shares its ties with both Cody and Meeteetse.

Charles Webster moved from Montpelier, Idaho, to Meeteetse in 1900. His father Constant Webster gave him $2,500 (the 2014 equivalent of about $67,000) to get settled.

Charles purchased 160 acres on the Greybull River six miles downstream of Meeteetse.

Mae Bennion moved to Meeteetse with her family in 1899. She and Charles were married in 1902. To Charles and Mae was born the lineage of the Webster family in the Big Horn Basin.

Charles and Mae had four children: Constant Edward “Bud,” Clyde, Owen and Margaret.

Charles and Mae eventually moved to Cody, leaving the ranch to Owen and Clyde.

In 1935, Bud graduated from the University of Wyoming where he’d met wife Lucille in 1932.

He spent time in Nevada and California before returning to work for the State of Wyoming’s Sales Tax Department in Basin.

At about that time Owen Webster sold his share of the family ranch to brother Clyde for about $20,000.

In auditing car dealerships for sales tax, Bud learned Charlie Stump wanted to sell Yellowstone Garage, a Chevrolet dealership in Cody.

In his book “Memoirs of Constant E. ‘Bud’ Webster and some other tall tales,” Bud wrote that he traded his 1936 Ford for $400 and kicked in $600 cash, while Owen put up $12,500, to buy the garage.

Bud and Owen took ownership Nov. 1, 1937, renamed it Webster Chevrolet Co. Bud and Lucille married in 1938 and later had children Margaret, Ed and Bill.

Webster Motors

Owen sold his share of Webster Chevrolet to Bud the week before the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.

“He was not as optimistic as I was and had lost interest in the garage and spent most of his time at the Elks Club,” Bud wrote in his memoir.

Before Owen left, they purchased as many new Chevrolets as possible.

The Sloan Plan (devised by General Motors board chairman Alfred Sloan) allocated new vehicles after the war based on what was purchased before the halt of the production.

Bud got through the war selling tractors and Studebaker trucks.

Because the Webster dealership had purchased as many Chevrolets as possible, the Sloan Plan

continued on page 20

The Webster Motors dealership with the spotlight shining in the night sky.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 19

benefited them when production resumed after World War II. In 1948, Bud bought property from Cassie Waters which would become the final location of Webster Motors.

In the late 1940s the high school students had no place for prom, Ed recalled in a 2012 interview, so Bud opened the shop as a venue.

The entire block eventually was purchased by Webster and the final building was erected in 1976.

The showroom was remodeled in 2012.

Coca-Cola

On Aug. 1, 1943, Bud Webster bought the CocaCola bottling plant in Thermopolis for $100,000.

The price included everything from real estate and inventory to equipment and trucks.

The deal made Bud the exclusive Coca-Cola bottler for the Big Horn Basin, and included a year-to-year lease in Fremont County.

In 1963, Bud moved the plant to Cody.

Though the business was doing well, Bud was overworked (he said he would begin his day at 4 a.m. when the first trucks left) and ready to sell when he was approached by Si Cathcart, owner of Mojo Ranch and chairman/CEO of Illinois Tool Works. The bottling operation was sold in 1979.

Passing the torch

Bud told his children “they could go to any university, as long as it was in Wyoming,” according to Bud’s memoir.

So all three attended the University of Wyoming.

Lucille was active in the community and volunteered with both the Girl Scouts and hospital for more than 50 years. She also served as a school board member for nine years during the time the current gym and auditorium were built.

Lucille also served two terms on the State Youth Council.

Bud was chair of the hospital board for 12 years when it was privately owned by the Coe family, and

Bud Webster points to the World War II spotlight used during an October sale in the late 1940s.

also served as a Wyoming Highway Commissioner in the mid-1960’s.

“As many people of that era did, my parents did a great, great job of shaping what our community is,” Ed says today.

That sense of public duty continues with their children. Margaret, for example, is a trustee of the Buffalo Bill enter of the West and also is active in Jackson where she lives.

Following Bud’s death in 2005, Ed, Bill and Margaret took over ownership of the car dealership.

Ed, who already owned 28 percent of the company, was CEO. Eight years later, Webster Motors was sold.

In an interview for the company’s 75th anniversary, Ed said the company relied on both its customer service and experience.

“We have 15 employees with 254 years of experience,” he said at the time. “That’s an average of 17 years.”

Ed, also a lawyer and judge with an office downtown, and the only Webster child still living in Cody, worked with Bill, a retired emergency room doctor, and Margaret to finalize the sale of Webster Motors.

“There was no one in the family, other than myself, who wanted to take over the dealership,” Ed said.

“It was a difficult decision – I’m busy, and there came a time when I needed to sell the dealership and my brother and sister supported me.”

Though Webster Motors is gone, it remains a household name as many vehicles with Park County license plates still have a Webster Motors decal on the back.

The original garage was located on the 1400 block of Sheridan Avenue (the current location of Wells Fargo).

Summer 2014 • Legends • 21

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Nichols (left) standing outside the Buffalo Bill Barn’s blacksmith shop.

James Nichols ‘Candy Kid’ has colorful history

B

By BUZZY HASSRICK edbugs greeted James Calvin Nichols when he first came to Cody in 1903 and stayed at the Hart Mountain Inn. Luckily for him, his accommodations improved thanks to a letter of introduction and his initiative.

The young man who arrived in Cody as wrestler “Kid” Nichols ended up as a guest in the home of Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

24 • Legends • Summer 2014

Several years later, Nichols’ stay in Cody ended abruptly after a hunting incident that precipitated pursuit by Yellowstone Park soldiers. He evaded the law, made his fortune elsewhere and eventually returned with his family, first for summers and then full time. “‘I’m Kid Nichols, and I’m not mad at anybody,’” Nic Patrick of Cody recalls his grandfather’s method of introduction during speaking engagements.

Patrick has fond recollections of his decade or so with his grandfather. For the details, Patrick refers to “The Candy Kid,” a biography written by his mother, Lucille Nichols Patrick, Nichols’ daughter.

The high points of the Kid’s Cody life, along with bedbug and park incidents, include his purchase of a South Fork ranch, his campaign to bring electricity to rural areas and an episode on a pack trip when daughter Barbara became gravely ill.

Nichols, born in 1883, grew up in a rural area, on an Iowa farm where he learned the blacksmithing trade from his father, who had a hot temper. A final beating, in which he gained the upper hand for a while, sent him from home. The two men later reconciled.

Working as a ferrier in Brooklyn, Iowa, Nichols became interested in wrestling and started training. He competed under the name J.C. “Kid” Nichols and ended up in Alden, Iowa, where he received a letter from Jim Wilcox.

Wilcox, co-owner of the Buffalo Hump Saloon and gambling house in Cody, offered Nichols a train ticket and the promise of a wrestling career.

He arrived in 1904, driven from the station across the Shoshone River by the owner of the Hart Mountain Inn where he got a room.

“The damn bedbugs had a prior claim to my room so I concluded after a sleepless and itchy night to move,” Nichols recalled.

He found a new room and then wandered to the Irma Hotel, where he worked his way through a crowd around Buffalo Bill. Nichols handed him an envelope with a letter of introduction as the nephew of the Kibbee boys, former classmates of Cody.

Col. Cody shook hands with Nichols and invited him to stay at his home.

Nichols declined. When he returned to his new room, it was bare. Nichols thought he’d been robbed and confronted the owner.

“Hell, son, you’ve just moved up in the world is all,” the owner said. “The Colonel sent someone to get your gear and moved it to his house.”

After a brief visit, Nichols left to collect his gear and returned in 1905 to begin wrestling.

“These wrestling matches were unbelievable, lasting one and a half hours,” Patrick noted. “There must have been a lot of posturing.”

Along with wrestling, Nichols worked at the Buffalo Bill Barns and then found a job as a foreman at the Buffalo Bill Dam project.

Some of his experiences beyond his employment included accompanying a group exploring Frost Cave after its discovery and becoming a blood brother of the Crow after helping Chief Plenty Coups’ nephew.

Then came the ill-fated hunt from Pahaska Tepee in 1909. Finding no elk, Nichols went into Yellowstone, spooked a group to leave the park and killed three of them. When he returned with pack horses,

I’m Kid Nichols, and I’m not mad at anybody.

James Calvin Nichols, South Fork rancher

a sergeant with eight privates confronted him.

When Nichols denied killing elk in the park, the sergeant disarmed and punched him. Nichols hit back, retrieved his gun and took the sergeant’s, fired a gun to stop the privates from action, removed the bolts from their rifles and escaped to his camp.

With provisions, he took off upriver, injured an ankle and returned to Pahaska, then slowly made his way downriver. Friends abetted his flight and arranged for a doctor to bandage his injury.

From Cody he went to a coal mine east of town where he hid for 20 days, before friends arranged his escape to Montana and Canada.

“That hiatus (from Cody) was not entirely voluntary,” Patrick commented.

After a railroad accident that cost him some fingers, Nichols decided to start using his head,

Patrick said. He found success in the lumber industry through several innovations.

“He was a good business man,” Patrick said of his grandfather, adding that Nichols operated by the following philosophy.

“Don’t do anything standing that you can do sitting down,” Patrick explained. “And don’t do anything sitting that you can do lying down.”

Nichols reconnected to Cody in 1932 with the purchase of the Diamond Bar Ranch on the lower South Fork. It came with a cow camp accessed by a steep, dirt road that Nichols used to drive in his Cadillac, embellished with steer horns on the front, with his grandson Nic. One time Nichols drove off the road, through the sagebrush and got stuck.

“We had a great time together,” Patrick recalled.

They’d go duck hunting and return to the ranch house with their

continued on page 26

James Nichols and daughter Lucille get ready for the Fourth of July in 1927.

haul. “Big Lucille,” Patrick’s ratherproper grandmother, would get upset when they marched through the house with dead ducks during a tea party.

“It was a beautiful ranch,” Patrick said, with a Wisconsin-type barn, bunkhouse, greenhouse and various houses for family members. Leather covered the walls of the central area of the main house.

A working ranch of 25,000 acres, the Diamond Bar included 600 acres of hay, 600 cow-calf pairs and about 75 head of horses. At first the Nichols family spent summers at the ranch.

In summer 1938, Nichols took his daughters Lucille, 14, and Barbara, 12, on a pack trip to the Thorofare.

Barbara went although her arm still hurt from a tetanus shot she’d had after a puncture from a pitchfork.

Mrs. Nichols “Big Lucille” preferred to stay home.

From the camp near Butte Creek, 20 miles from the South Fork trailhead, Nichols and Barbara left on a hunt. He noticed her swollen lips and rushed her back to camp where they rubbed her with the camphor the doctor had prescribed. Barbara got hives, became hot and then stiffened.

Fearing fatal lockjaw, Nichols sent a rider, Fred Garlow (Buffalo Bill’s grandson), for help. He returned with a doctor who recommended immediate evacuation. Garlow rode off again, this time with a note for pilot Bill Monday, while the rest made a stretcher and marked a landing area.

Monday flew over and landed on a downhill slope.

“The plane bounced along and banged into the brush and stopped, none the worse for wear,” Nichols recalled.

Lucille and others on horseback helped haul the plane to the top of the landing, while the rest carried Barbara to the plane.

“Bill spun the prop and jumped into the cockpit and the horses pulled like hell against the ropes to hold the plane in place,” Nichols said.

“When Bill thought he was ready to cut her loose he let out a yell and they dropped the ropes from the saddle horses and the plane began bouncing along down that hill – it was a place no self respecting buzzard would land, grass two to eight inches high and rocks and brush sticking up all over it.

“Just when it looked like he was going to crash into the willows at the end, he lifted and cleared them by bare inches.”

Barbara recovered, and Nichols related the story and his gratitude in a long letter to the Cody Enterprise.

(Pictures of that famous episode

are in the terminal at Yellowstone Regional Airport.)

Nichols repaid the country in his next project.

In the 1940s, rural residents relied on coal, generators or windmills for power, Patrick said. When his grandfather started a campaign to electrify the countryside, “he was meetin’ and greetin’ and twisting arms,” Patrick said. “He was the driving force” behind creation of the Rural Electrification Administration.

Patrick recalled visiting his grandfather every day, usually at work in the shop.

“He always had time for you and always had something interesting going on.”

At the age of 79, Nichols died in La Jolla, Calif. Services were held there and in Cody, “the home of his heart,” his daughter Lucille wrote.

J.C. “Kid” Nichols stands at his camp where he killed “one elk too many”.

The sign, carved onto the tree, is covered with the names of friends with him in 1926.

The Hart Mountain Inn was the first place Nichols stayed after arriving in Cody.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 27

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Summer 2014 • Legends • 29

Nelsons

First National Bank: 102 years of family history

By CHRIS FROST Staff writer family dedicated to service and family values laid the cornerstone for success in Cody and Powell.

Severt Ambrose (S.A.) Nelson made his mark in both communities

A

and inspired generations to work together and make an outstanding community.

His adventure began in 1907 when he purchased the Cody Enterprise.

“S.A. was an entrepreneurial, Western-thinking guy who liked

challenges,” grandson Dick Nelson says. “He couldn’t pass on the opportunity.”

He decided Powell needed a newspaper, too, so he would take the train from Cody each week, pick up the local news, publish the Powell page of the Enterprise and make sure it was delivered.

S.A. married Sedona Fesenbeck and moved from Cody to Powell in 1909.

The first edition of the Powell Tribune was published March 13, 1909.

“He was more intrigued with Powell than Cody,” Nelson said. “It had agriculture, which interested him.”

The newspaper filled a gap and kept the conversation going.

Dick Nelson (center), along with sons Ty (left) and Andy (right), holds pre-federal reserve currency signed by S.A. Nelson, who founded First National Bank.

30 • Legends • Summer 2014

“People of that era were good communicators because that’s all they had,” he said. “Many of the people who settled here were business people and teachers who were well educated.”

To S.A., the farmer was the cream of the crop, and opportunity was abundant because the area was unsettled.

Growing the economy

He realized farmers needed a bank, so he sold the Tribune and opened First National Bank of Powell on Sept. 18, 1912.

“Many farmers didn’t have the capital to finance what they needed to stay in business throughout the year,” Nelson said. “He also was interested in commercial growth in the area and the coordination between agricultural and commercial interests.”

The synergy between the two groups pushed S.A. forward.

He was a patriot, and placed the bank in trust to serve during World War I. “He wasn’t going to sit in the bank and watch everyone else go to war,” Nelson said. “He took the entire family to Texas and served in the quartermaster corps.”

Leading the way in the Depression

After World War I, the price of crops dropped to practically nothing, causing Powell National Bank to close.

But the next day two leading citizens of Powell made significant deposits at First National, Nelson said, which gave the bank credibility.

S.A. took the money out of the vault that day, placed it on a table and showed everyone the bank had money.

“The town had a community meeting and it was decided First National would succeed,” he said.

“Everyone was satisfied there was enough capital to keep the bank going.”

The bank bucked the trend and made loans during hard times.

“Customers would come in and S.A. would loan them some of his own money because they weren’t bankable,” his grandson recalled.

“He would do anything to make

S.A. Nelson opened the First National Bank on Sept. 18, 1912. a loan to a farmer or business person.”

He believed in the people and had every confidence in them.

“S.A. would go out before opening the bank and help in the fields,” great-grandson Andy Nelson said.

It was about more than just being a banker in those days, Dick Nelson said. They were good friends, too.

“If you believe the stories farmers told, that killed him,” great-grandson Ty Nelson said. “He worked himself to death.”

Robert Ambrose (R.A.) Nelson

R.A. was the first person born in the city after incorporation.

In 1937 he became the youngest man to lead a bank.

“The operation didn’t change when my dad took over,” Dick Nelson says. “To this day, the whole family still has an appreciation of agriculture and the dynamics of rural living.”

As the economy got back on track, R.A. and the bank invested in Powell.

“We were involved in almost every worthwhile business and agriculture project in the area,” he said.

R.A. saw a need for additional college funding and started the

Northwest Community College Foundation with $500 in Polaroid stock.

“He put his own personal money where it was needed,” Andy Nelson said.

World War II

Many men were called into service during World War II, leaving women behind to fill the void.

“Women took positions at the bank held by their husbands,” Dick Nelson said.

Agriculture was an important part of the effort.

“There was some commercial growth during that period, but everything was focused on the troops,” he said.

The area had one thing others didn’t, the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, one of 10 relocation camps incarcerating Japanese Americans during the war.

“R.A. would travel there once a week and offer banking services for everyone,” Andy Nelson said.

Meeting growing demand

“After the war the bank was a big advocate for workers,” Dick Nelson said. “People were returning from the war and didn’t have housing. That’s where our big push was.”

The bank used every program

continued on page 32

Summer 2014 • Legends • 31

Severt Ambrose ‘S.A.’ Nelson started First National Bank.

available to help build homes.

“That brought in contractors, electricians and plumbers,” he said.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal before that because there wasn’t much construction in the area.”

R.A. made sure there was plenty of education for first-time home buyers through classes and one-on one education.

“People who were getting a house built knew what to expect and the pitfalls they could encounter,” Dick Nelson said.

In the 1950’s there was no FICO credit score, so the bank took risks tempered with family values, reminiscent of the 1920’s.

“You would get the feeling they were good, solid people who wanted to be here,” Dick Nelson said. The Federal Housing Administration would guarantee a certain portion of the loan and I never heard about a foreclosure in those days.”

Ty Nelson said it’s a sad state of affairs today that character is no longer a major part of the lending process.

“The trust we had during those times is destroyed by government regulations,” he said.

Going digital

“We could see that technology was going to be a big part of the future and invested in everything that made sense,” Dick Nelson said. “In 1977 we were one of the first banks in the area to purchase a computer.”

First National led the transition into the future.

“Employees and customers needed education,” Dick Nelson said.

The first computer occupied half the bank’s basement.

“We had to bring people into the community because we didn’t know how to operate the main-frame,” Ty Nelson said. “Our competitors didn’t have the technology yet so we ran their numbers each night.”

The bank installed its first automated teller machine in 1982, an advancement Ty called “earth shattering.”

Kids explore, then come home

Robert Ambrose ‘R.A.’ Nelson took over after his father.

32 • Legends • Summer 2014

Ty Nelson said he always enjoyed working at the bank as a kid. “I wanted to get out of town when I left for college,” he said. “My major was finance at the University of Wyoming.”

After graduating, he set his sights on New York City.

“I took a job at Fitch Ratings, but CEO Russ Frazier also owned a ranch in Cody,” he said. “He started another company and I worked with him for seven years.”

Following his stint in NYC, he moved on to the Investment Bank of Chicago for a time, but never got over wanting to come home.

“My wife and I were living in Chicago when she was pregnant,” he said. “We decided I wasn’t going to take the train to work one hour each way.”

Andy Nelson said he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life while he attended UW. “While I was gone, I worked with my friends at WyoTech on the maintenance crew,” he said.

He learned a variety of skills, but realized none were his calling.

“I had several conversations with my dad and he wanted us to continue with the family business,” he added.

“It was my best decision to come home.”

Dick Nelson said many conversations at home centered on banking.

“I was supportive of whatever they wanted to do,” he said. “It was always their decision, not mine.”

Glacier Bancorp

The decision to merge began after R.A. died.

“Regulations at that time said you needed to diversify,” Ty Nelson said.

“It happened to many small banks.”

First National got into some real estate deals outside Wyoming and experienced too much exposure.

“It blew up in 2008,” he said.

The bank experienced financial difficulty, but could have worked through the problem.

“We had family discussions, spoke with the board of directors and realized everything was going to be different moving forward,” Ty Nelson said. “So we teamed with Glacier in 2009 and got back to the business of working in the community.”

Dick Nelson says government regulations were causing him great angst.

“I was concerned about where the employees were going to end up,” he said. “We had to keep our

I have a standing rule that I must see my grandchildren twice a week. Those conversations are not about the bank – we talk about what’s going on and stay involved through communication and transparency.

Dick Nelson

customers viable and operating with the resources they needed.”

“This conversation started with us talking about character,” Andy Nelson adds. “The loans that got us into trouble were made to people we didn’t know anything about.”

Family is cornerstone of life

Dick Nelson said he’s blessed because both his sons live close by.

“I have a standing rule that I must see my grandchildren twice a week,” he says. “Those conversations are not about the bank – we talk about what’s going on and stay involved through communication and transparency.”

S.A. Nelson opened the Powell Tribune in 1909.

The family stays involved with the community.

NWC is building a new facility and I bought bricks with the names of all my grandkids,” he said. “When they are placed we will spend some time there.

But it’s not about seeing your name, it’s about the responsibility you have to the community.”

Ty Nelson stays active as a church elder and serves on the boards of the Boys & Girls Club of Park County and West Park Hospital.

“These are values that came from R.A.,” he said.

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Summer 2014 • Legends • 35

Earl Durand ‘Tarzan of the Tetons’ remembered 75 years later

By AMBER PEABODY Special sections editor t’s been 75 years since Earl Durand, dubbed the “Tarzan of the Tetons,” went on a murderous crime spree that shocked the small communities of Cody and Powell and caught the attention of the nation.

I

Simple beginnings

Walter Earl Durand was something of a mountain man who lived off the land during the years following the Depression.

He was sickly as a child and those health problems caused him to overcompensate in his desire to become a “real man.” Said to be bright but somewhat troubled, the 26-year-old was a crack shot and, with a variety of weapons, could hit almost any target.

He lived in a tent on his parents’ farm near Powell, but disdained authority and farm work. During the summers Durand headed for the mountains and lived off the land.

He hated game laws and often broke them, many times to provide meat for needy families.

Elk poaching – The story begins

On March 13, 1939, Durand, neighbor Emil Knopp, Knopp’s son Ronnie and Ronnie’s friend Tom Spint went elk hunting.

Durand shot two elk near an occupied cabin on the North Fork, but left them for fear of being discovered. He later shot two more. As the group was headed back to Cody at nightfall they were stopped by game wardens investigating the earlier incident.

When the vehicle came to a stop at a road block, Durand fled into the night. Knopp and the two teens were brought to the Cody jail, where Emil was entenced to 60 days in jail.

Ronnie and Spint were sent home.

36 • Legends • Summer 2014

This photo of Earl Durand was circulated by law officers.

Durand, meanwhile, killed a local rancher’s calf and cut out the tenderloin. He stayed near the scene of the crime and was captured on the morning of March 14 near Rattlesnake Mountain with the tenderloin around his neck.

(He had a habit of eating raw meat.)

He was sentenced to 60 days in jail for elk poaching, but awaited a much more serious sentence for killing livestock, a felony. After earlier spending a month in a Colorado jail, Durand had a fear of captivity. He was said to become desperate about the years he might spend in prison.

Escape from jail

On March 16, deputy sheriff Noah Riley brought in a meal tray for Durand, who took the milk bottle and smashed Riley over the head. Durand then stole his gun and forced Riley to drive him to his parents’ farm northwest of Powell.

Powell Police Chief Chuck Lewis and sheriff’s deputy D.M. Baker heard of the jailbreak and went out to the farmhouse. Durand shot and killed both men as they walked up the driveway. Lewis was unarmed. He was shot in the spinal cord and died at the Powell hospital. Baker died instantly after being shot in the heart.

Members of the posse bring out the bodies of Arthur Argento and Orville Linabary after they were gunned down by Durand. (Park County Archives photos) Riley went to the neighboring Smith farm while Durand fled the scene. He visited area farms to gather supplies and guns.

Back in Cody, lawyer Milward Simpson learned of the jail break and, in the absence of Sheriff Frank Blackburn who was in California, organized a posse to track Durand.

For four days the posse searched farms around Powell, catching glimpses of Durand. Sheriff Blackburn returned to Cody to lead the posse and at one farm Durand left a letter for the sheriff that said, “Of course I know I’m done for and when you kill me I sugest you have my head mounted and hang it up in the courthouse for the sake of law and order.” The return address was care of, “Undertaker, Powell, Wyoming.”

On March 21, Durand appeared at the Smith farm, where young Dick Smith gave him a haircut and watched him shave his beard to be more unrecognizable.

Standoff in the mountains

Before sunrise March 22, Durand forced an elderly couple to drive him to near the Clarks Fork Canyon, west of present-day Clark. Arch Thornburg then reported the

incident and the posse headed to the foot of the mountain, establishing headquarters at a ranch cabin.

Durand was thought to be in an inaccessible spot on the mountain and, while a small group tried to make their way up to him from the side, undeputized posse members Orville Linabary and Arthur Argento rushed his high ground hideout and were killed by Durand.

The search ended at nightfall and overnight Durand snuck down and stole a sheriff’s badge from one of his victims and shoelaces from a boot.

Both came in handy later.

The following day preparations to flush out the killer continued. Durand was believed to have moved to another spot on the mountain so the posse retrieved the bodies of the fallen men. While bringing them down the mountain Ken Whitton was shot in the leg when a tear-gas gun he was packing rubbed against his .38 six-shooter in his holster. His leg had to be amputated and he later died from his injury.

The posse and Montana National Guard continued to make plans to flush out Durand.

But he was gone.

continued on page 38

Summer 2014 • Legends • 37

Evading the posse

About a mile from the posse headquarters radio operator Harry Moore, along with John Simpson and Simpson’s father Peter, spotted a man sitting on the side of the road. He flagged down the car and pointed to his deputy’s badge. Thinking the man was part of the posse, Moore decided to give him a ride.

Once in the car the man revealed himself to be Durand and forced Moore to drive around for more than four hours. When they reached Deaver, Durand gave Moore money to buy gas and then the two went to the train depot where Durand signed for a package under the name Raymond Rayburn.

Inside the package was 300 rounds of .30-.30 shells.

They then drove to Durand’s parents’ home and finally to an abandoned coal mine where Durand forced Moore and the Simpsons out the car. As he drove away Durand said, “Well, goodbye boys. Don’t forget to come to my funeral.”

38 • Legends • Summer 2014

Letter from Earl Durand to Sheriff Frank Blackburn.

Bank robbery and final showdown

Durand headed for Powell and then ran into First National Bank, forcing everyone inside against the wall. He began shooting out the windows. He

then ordered bank employees to open the vault. The main vault was set to a timer and would not open, but he took money from a smaller safe.

By that time the bank was surrounded so Durand used the

shoelace to tie up tellers Maurice Knutson and Johnny Gawthrop and bank president R.A. Nelson.

He forced the three to go out the door ahead of him. Gawthrop was first and was shot twice by eager gunmen outside. He is said to have uttered the words, “Thank God it was me and not one of you two married fellows.” He later died on the way to the hospital.

Durand began firing wildly in every direction. Across the street, taking cover in a gas station, was 17-yearold Tip Cox of Cody who was skipping school. Cox was given the station owner’s .348 Winchester level action with hammer.

Durand saw Cox and prepared to shoot but Cox shot first, hitting Durand in the chest. Durand then managed to crawl back into the bank and shot himself in the neck. The bank president

Of course I know 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.

Earl Durand then shot him in the head to make sure he was dead.

“I didn’t know if he was dead. I wanted to be dead sure.”

More than 3,000 people were said to have viewed Durand’s body where it lay at the funeral home, some spitting in his face and others going through the

Pilot Bill Monday (left) and Harold Evans hold a tear gas gun during the search for Durand.

line multiple times. He was buried in the Powell cemetery.

Of the story’s ending, it was written at the time, “The Tarzan of the Tetons, who belonged, if the world ever had a place for such a man, in another age, has passed into legend.”

Summer 2014 • Legends • 39

11 days of infamy Monday, March 13, 1939 Thursday, March 16 A hunting party is caught through poaching elk on the North Fork Monday, March 20 west of Cody.

Instigator Earl Durand slips away but farmer Emil Knopp, his son Ronnie and Ronnie’s friend Tom Spint are caught. Durand spends the night on Rattlesnake Mountain. Emil is sentenced to 60 days in the Cody jail and the boys are released.

Tuesday, March 14

Before sunrise Durand kills a rancher’s calf, then makes his way back to Rattlesnake Mountain. He is arrested and the judge sentences him to 60 days in the Cody jail for elk poaching.

He awaits trial for killing the calf.

Thursday, March 16

Durand breaks out of jail, injuring deputy sheriff Noah Riley and forcing the deputy to drive him to his parents’ farmstead near Powell. When law officers Chuck Lewis and D.M. Baker arrive to arrest him, Durand shoots and kills them both. Durand then flees, stopping at area farms to gather supplies.

Meanwhile, Cody lawyer Milward Simpson learns of the jailbreak and in the sheriff’s absence (Sheriff Frank Blackburn was in California), organizes a posse to track the killer.

Durand’s whereabouts are unknown. Blackburn returns to Cody and leads the posse, without success. Ed McNeely, Vern Spencer, Mel Stonehouse and Bill Garlow are among the possemen.

Tuesday, March 21

Durand appears at the farmhouses of several neighbors, gathering supplies.

At the Smith farm, young Dick gives the outlaw a haircut and watches him shave off his beard. The posse pursues Durand from farm to farm, glimpsing him fleetingly, but he eludes him.

Posse members during the Durand manhunt. (Park County Archives photos)

Wednesday, March 22

Before sunrise Durand forces an elderly farm couple to drive him to the Beartooth Mountains.

The man reports the incident and Sheriff Blackburn gathers the posse near the mouth of the Clarks Fork Canyon, establishing headquarters at a ranch cabin.

Possemen locate the renegade in an inaccessible spot.

Two men rush the hideout, but are killed by Durand. At nightfall the sheriff calls in the posse. During that time Durand steals a sheriff’s badge from one of his victims and a shoelace.

D.M. Baker was killed by Durand.

At nightfall the sheriff calls in the posse and arranges for Montana National Guardsmen to join them the next morning.

He also directs noted pilot Bill Monday to equip his plane with tear gas and dynamite bombs.

Durand has left the mountain and, impersonating a deputy, catches a ride with radio operator Harry Moore and two passengers.

Hijacking the car, Durand visits his parents and makes a stop in Deaver. He later drops off his hostages and drives to Powell.

There he robs First National Bank. Durand pushes hostages Maurice Knutson, bank president R.A. Nelson and John Gawthrop out the door, where Gawthrop is shot by an onlooker.

He later dies.

Across the street Tip Cox shoots Durand, who then falls back into the bank and shoots himself in the neck. Nelson shoots him in the head to be sure he’s dead.

Thursday, March 23

Preparations to flush out the killer continue. The sheriff and a dozen posse members retrieve the bodies of the two dead men from the mountain.

The body of Earl Durand after he was shot.

40 • Legends • Summer 2014

Friday, March 24

Monday’s morning flight reveals Durand has disappeared from his hideout. Meanwhile,

Deputy sheriff Noah Riley.

Ronnie Knopp Illegal hunt helped seal Durand’s fate

By AMBER PEABODY Special sections editor

Before Earl Durand’s murderous rampage in March 1939, he was known as a friendly neighbor.

Ronnie Knopp, 90, became good friends with Durand, then 26, when he was 15.

“Companionship was what I was after,” the Cody man recalls. “He was a nice person, but I was scared of him in some ways. The whole thing that happened was such a waste of human life, including himself. It bothered me for years.”

Knopp also reveals earlier crimes that presaged Durand’s later, much more serious deeds.

Finding friendship

Knopp spent that entire winter 75 years ago with Durand, walking the one mile between their two farms to visit.

“I didn’t get along too well with my dad and Earl was like a father figure,” Knopp said.

Durand lived in a double-sided tent Knopp says was “comfortable all winter long.

“He read Western books. He had a stack of books and I think that’s part of why he lived like he lived.”

Durand left each spring to stay in the mountains. He lived off the land, eating what he hunted. He was said to have an affinity for raw meat.

“I looked up to him,” Knopp said. “Someone who had those guns and lived the life he led.”

Durand was in great shape, running several miles each night.

“He walked the legs right off of us and ran every night,” he said. “When he was younger he got shot (in the lung) with a .22 rifle when he was crawling through a wire fence and they almost lost him.”

Sharp shooter

Durand’s reputation as an amazing shot was witnessed by Knopp.

To earn some money, Durand occasionally spent time herding sheep. As Knopp and his brother Ed were walking toward the sheepwagon they heard two consecutive shots.

“Two clumps of dirt kicked up right between us,” he said.

“And we stopped flat in our tracks.”

Ronnie Knopp was a friend of Earl Durand and was with him when he poached two elk in March 1939.

They were unsure what to do until Durand let out a deep laugh. A short time later when they went “plinking” they learned Durand had used a single shot rifle when he scared them – not an automatic like they had assumed because of the short time between shots.

Later, during a different shooting trip, they found some condensed milk cans and Durand told Knopp to hold them out at arm’s length.

“He used a .22 rifle and hit the center every time,” he said.

“After a couple of times, though, that was it for me.”

During winters area teens used to ice skate at the gravel pit about one mile east of Powell. One night Durand skated by and smacked Knopp on the top of the head with a cattail.

Knopp decided to get even and grabbed a cattail himself.

“That was a mistake,” he said. “Earl shot it right out of my hand.”

During a fishing trip to Deep Lake, Durand, Knopp and Knopp’s school friend Tom Spint used dynamite.

continued on page 42

Summer 2014 • Legends • 41

“He handed it to us and said, ‘Do you want to talk or fish?’ after the fuse was already lit,” he said. “We threw it as far as we could throw it.”

The fateful hunt

Durand was a notorious poacher, although it was said by many that he gave the meat to needy families. Knopp says Earl’s generosity is exaggerated.

“He wasn’t quite as concerned about poor people as himself,” he said.

In mid-March 1939, Durand convinced Knopp’s father Emil they should go get some elk meat.

“My dad was religious and never did anything that was not within the law,” Knopp said. “I don’t know how he got talked into it, but Earl made it sound like an up and back trip. The elk was to feed my family and himself.”

On March 13, Durand, Knopp and his father, and young Spint headed up the North Fork. Not far from Suet Creek, Durand set out and a short time later two shots rang out. He had killed two elk.

“I hung back and saw a cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney,” Knopp said. “The cabins weren’t usually used in the winter, but this one was occupied. When I told Earl someone was living up there, we left the elk.”

They didn’t turn back, though. Another eight miles up the road Emil dropped off Durand and the boys and went back toward Cody to get gas.

It didn’t take Durand long to shoot two more elk.

“After the first two elk there wasn’t a question about turning back, but there probably should have been,” Knopp said. “But that’s the way it goes and I have to live with that.”

When Knopp reached Durand and his kills, the elk had been quartered and field dressed.

“I just helped carry it up to the road and waited for my dad to come back,” he said. “We waited until dark and then started for home.”

Meanwhile, the people in the cabin had heard the earlier shots and called the game warden, who then was on the lookout for the poachers.

He eventually set up a roadblock to check vehicles heading to Cody.

“We came to the roadblock and knew we’d gotten caught,” Knopp said. “Earl was sitting right next to my dad and told him not to stop.

My dad said, ‘I have to, they have the road blocked.’ So Earl jumped out. The game warden had a light on him as he ran into the woods and disappeared.”

The game warden followed the Knopp vehicle back to town. Knopp and Spint were released right away, but Emil was sentenced to 60 days in jail for poaching.

“I drove the car home in a blizzard and couldn’t see to drive,” Knopp said. “There was only one light from the Cody river all the way to the Garland Canal, but we made it.”

Knopp still has Durand’s hunting knife and pistol, along with a handful of bear claws given to him by his friend.

42 • Legends • Summer 2014

Knopp and his stepmother visited Emil in jail the followed day.

“He was upset at me, but I didn’t talk him into doing it,” he said. “It was Earl who did that.”

While there Knopp discovered Durand also had been arrested. When he heard Durand also had killed a calf he thought it was a stupid thing to do.

“Even at that age, I was well aware that Wyoming had a law that if you killed a cow the whole state would come down on you,” he said.

Knopp talked to Durand briefly and he told him to move his guns.

“He told me to take his guns, wrap them up and hide them so they couldn’t come to his tent and take them,” Knopp said.

So when Ronnie got home, he and Spint moved the guns to a stack of straw.

The pair then took Spint’s Model A and went to his house for dinner.

That’s where they heard about the jail break.

Jail break

Earlier in the evening sheriff’s deputy Noah Riley had gone to take Durand his food tray and as he opened the door, Durand jumped out and used a pint milk bottle from the tray to strike Riley on the head. Durand then took Riley’s gun and forced the jailer to drive him to Powell.

“When they left the jail he told Noah to go to our place because he knew I had the guns,” Knopp said. “But I wasn’t home. I was at Tom’s place eating dinner.

He told Noah to honk the horn and when I didn’t come out he told him to honk it louder because he needed those guns.”

When they heard the announcement about Durand, Knopp and Spint went in to talk to law officers D.M. Baker and Chuck Lewis.

“They wouldn’t talk to us so we decided to follow them,” Knopp said.

“We were about a quarter-mile behind them.”

The officers suspected Durand to be at his parents’ home and headed that way.

It was there the killing began, as Durand shot the both men. Baker died instantly and unarmed Lewis a while later at the hospital.

“We saw the flashes of the gun shots,” Knopp said. “As we turned into their place we came within a foot of running over D.M. Baker’s head with the Model A. We could see he was laying there dead as a mackerel and we got the hell out of there.”

Locked up

Spint drove Knopp home and the following morning went out to do chores.

“These three characters came up and said my dad wanted to talk to me,” he said. “The minute I got in the car they threw the handcuffs on me and had full fire power on me.”

Worried Knopp would try to assist Durand, he was held in the Basin jail for three weeks.

“There were no charges and then they just released me,” he said.

Once he was out he went to check on Durand’s guns in the straw stack. All of them were missing.

“While I was in jail Tom and his dad stole those guns,” he said. “I came home and dug through the whole stack. He and his dad said they had nothing to do with it, but eventually his dad said the guns were too dangerous so they took them down to Willwood and threw them off the bridge into the river.

“But to this day no one has ever found a gun.”

Knopp still has Durand’s .32 caliber pistol and hunting knife, which he hid in a separate place.

“He had such a big hand he couldn’t put his finger in the pistol grip so he removed the guard from the grip so it was easy to get to,” he said.

He also has several bear claws given to him by Durand.

Not long after the Durand incident Knopp left home and headed for the West Coast. He was there when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

“I worked in shipyards on the West Coast and wanted to sign up for the Navy, but I was color blind and they wouldn’t accept me.”

He became a staff sergeant in the Army engineer corps. Later Knopp returned to the Powell area to farm.

Early warning signs

Knopp says he knew Durand was capable of evil after some previous serious incidents.

“I knew he’d done a couple of things around Powell that were unlawful,” he said. “But I wouldn’t dare mention it and haven’t until the last few years.”

The first was the robbery of the feed store on main street, where everyone bought their guns and ammunition. One night the store was broken into and 100 pounds of shells disappeared.

This painting was given to Knopp by artist Ridge Durand, who claimed to be Earl’s son.

“We were running short of shells and I went over one morning and all the buckets he had were full of ammunition,” Knopp said. “The next day news came out that Smith Feed Store had been robbed and all the shells had disappeared.

“I knew good and well who was responsible.”

And when Durand wrecked his father’s car he owed more than $200 in repairs.

“That was a lot of money,” Knopp said. “When I asked him where he’d get that kind of money he said he had his ways and that was the end of the conversation.”

Not long after, Sawyer’s Grocery was robbed. A .30-30 caliber was used and all the windows had been shot out in front of the grocery store, similar to what happened when Durand later robbed First National Bank.

“That was his pattern,” Knopp said.

Durand’s son?

A few years before his murderous rampage, Durand traveled to New Mexico with a string of pack horses. He told Knopp the story of what happened during the trip.

“On his way he crossed an Indian reservation and they took everything but the $7.50 he had hidden in his sock,” Knopp said. “He went to the next town and bought a pistol and

went and got back all that was taken from him. I knew he was capable of revenge.”

Years after his death a man came to the area claiming to be Durand’s son. He went by the name Ridge Earl Durand and was a painter from Laramie.

Knopp says during Durand’s trip to New Mexico he and a Native American woman had a son.

“Ridge showed up with a letter his dad had written to his mom,” he said. “The American Legion had a meeting and invited everyone involved with Earl Durand to come. I was busy but my brother went. At meeting Ridge said he was Earl’s son and the proof was the letter.

“I saw the letter and it had a stamp on it so I think it was real. It said he (Earl) couldn’t wait to get back to see his son and missed him so much.”

Ridge had two children. Knopp saw him multiple times after that initial visit and even has one of his paintings. Ridge died in 2002.

Even with many of those who were involved in any way with Earl Durand’s poaching-jail breakmurder spree-bank robbery saga now gone, his story resists fading into legend.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 43

Remembering Durand’s murderous last days In the book ‘The Last Eleven Days of Earl Durand’ by Jerred Metz, 15 people involved recounted their experiences. Following are a few excerpts from the book: Milward Simpson

Cody lawyer who helped deputize a posse in the absence of Sheriff Frank Blackburn when Durand broke out of jail: “At 5 p.m. the evening of the sixteenth Noah Riley brought dinner to the prisoners. Riley put the tray down on a table near Earl’s cell door and put the key in the lock.

Ordinarily he unlocked the door, gave it a slight push, then stepped back to survey the cell’s interior before going in. But this time, as soon as he turned the key in the lock, the door flew open and Durand leaped out.

Startled Riley quickly stepped back and tried to pull his gun from his holster. He should have taken it off and left it in the office. You don’t carry a pistol into a jail cell.

Durand grabbed the thick pint milk bottle from the tray and brought it down with a crashing blow on the deputy’s head, opening a gash in Riley’s scalp.

Dazed and suffering from scalding pain, Riley could make only a feeble effort to hold Durand off. Sprawled on the broken glass and milk and food mixed with his own blood, Riley stared up at Durand who was pointing the gun at him.”

Virginia Turner

Neighbor and friend of Durand’s parents: “When I heard the news of Earl’s jailbreak, I drove to the Durands’ farm to warn them, in case they hadn’t heard. I was worried that Earl might show up without warning. It was snowing.

I didn’t notice the car in the driveway.

I was thinking about what my neighbors would soon be going through. Earl was a big disappointment to them, unwilling to work on the farm and leaving his father with everything to do. Since his escape from the game wardens and his arrest two days before Earl had become their tribulation in this world.”

44 • Legends • Summer 2014

The First National Bank after the attempted robbery by Earl Durand. (Park County Archives photos)

Dick Smith

Ed McNeely

“I was home alone, lying on the floor reading a magazine story. I heard a rifle butt knocking on the door. That was a sign Earl always used when he’d drop by to visit neighbors.

Then Earl walked in. He was anxious, jumpy. ‘I need help,’ he said. ‘You’ll help me won’t you?’

I asked, ‘What do you need?’

‘I need a razor. I’m gonna shave so they won’t be able to recognize me so easy. I need scissors. Get me something to eat and food to take along.’

Earl went to the bathroom, stripped to the waist and cut his beard with the scissors. Then he stropped a straight-edged razor sharp, lathered his face with my father’s shaving mug and talked while he shaved. ‘I’m going to the mountains. They’ll come and get me, but I’m going where I can defend myself.’

When he finished shaving he tossed the scissors to me and said ‘Cut my hair.’

I had never given a hair cut before. It’s a good thing Earl wasn’t too particular.”

“When we arrived at the Croft farm there were two dogs tied at the gate, barking like all get-out, straining at their ropes. Nobody wanted to go past them.

So I jumped over the tall wire fence to get into the yard. I saw a man scoot out the back door and cut around the corner of the house. I shouted ‘He’s back here.’

We had him in the headlights for a second. I couldn’t get a shot at him before he was out of sight. The sheriff had made his way into the house to talk with the Crofts, see what Earl had done while he was with them.

‘Come out quick Frank. I just saw him.’

He didn’t hear me at first. So I ran into the front room. I happened to glance out the side window and caught a glimpse of Durand in the yard. He was aiming a six-shooter at Frank. I grabbed Frank and jerked him behind the heating stove. He was surprise, caught off guard.

‘Frank you don’t know how close you came to being shot. Durand was drawing a bead on you.’”

Young neighbor who encountered Durand after he escaped from jail:

Hunting guide and posseman:

William Garlow

Posseman during the hunt for Durand: “Then Durand shot those two ... What Argento and Linabary had in mind I’ll never know. They were the proof in the pudding that going onto the talus slope was suicide.

When the sheriff reached Benion he took him aside and they had a conversation. ‘What happened here Boyd? I put you in charge. How come they went up?’

‘Sheriff, I never saw them till they were out on the talus slope. They were determined.

There was no stopping them. They’re as crazy as Earl himself.’

They snuck off up in the trees then broke out running. First one of them, I think it was Argento threw his arms up and fell backwards.

The next second Linabary fell backwards too.”

Harry Moore

Radio operator and Durand hostage: “Earl had me drive up to an abandoned coal mine three miles north of the family place. He said ‘Get out. This is as far as you go.’

I thought he meant that this was where he was going to finish us off. Instead, we got out and he smashed out the windows of my brandnew car with the butt end of a pistol.

‘If I have to shoot I don’t want to get cut with glass from my own bullets.’

Earl stalled the car, then started it again.

He shouted out the broken ventilator window to us ‘Be sure and come to my funeral’ and honked the horn.

With that crack I knew the end of this story hadn’t been wrote yet. There was more to come.”

Vastalee Dutton

Bank customer during the robbery of First National Bank: “It all happened very quickly. I hear rattle, rattle, rattle. I looked up and toward the door.

A man was running into the bank. I recognized the man as Earl.

He spun around and shouted, ‘This is a hold up put your hands in the air.’

And he fired. It was so loud I thought a bomb had exploded. After that I couldn’t hear anything. Earl shot over our heads. The bullet went through a feathered decoration shaped like a bird’s wing on my hat. The hat took a dive off my head.”

bank. When I heard his gun go off I though he was shooting the people inside. Later Maury Knutson told me that I said ‘I want to make sure he is dead.’

The first thing I know I was standing over Durand with his rifle in my hand and there were two bullet holes in his head. I don’t dispute the fact that I shot him; I just have no recollection of it.”

Maurice Knutson

Cody boy skipping school who shot Durand:

Bank cashier and Durand hostage: “Just as we stepped out the door, two shots came from atop the bank, the bullets hitting between Durand and me. We were two feet apart. Concrete shards flew from the sidewalk.

Had I stepped down onto the sidewalk I would have been dead.

When Johnny Gawthrop stepped onto it, shots came from down the street and he fell.

Then Nelson fell, pulled down by Gawthrop, pulling me down too. I crawled behind the front door to get what cover I could.

Just as I got behind the door, someone fired a shotgun and hit Johnny again. The poor boy was hit twice. Johnny said ‘Thank God it was me and not one of you two married fellows.’

Then he lost consciousness.”

R.A. Nelson

Bank president and Durand hostage: “Right next to the dying Johnny Gawthrop stood Durand, firing away, intent on making good his getaway. Then Durand fell to the pavement and ended up in a sitting position.

He let out a loud grunt. I was right beside him when he was shot.

He crawled back into the bank on his hands and knees. Tugged at the revolver and shot himself. After Durand dropped the rope, I was able to work a hand loose. I don’t remember exactly what I did after he went into the

Tip Cox

“It looked pretty much like I would be the one to kill the killer. I had a premonition of it the second I saw Earl Durand. I’m kneeling and trying to draw a bead on Durand.

I felt nervous, like I did when I shot my first deer. It was hard to take calm and steady aim.

Earl spied me and he’s coming down with his rifle. Its barrel was still smoking and looked big around as a stovepipe.

That was the first time I looked down the barrel of a loaded gun. Then I squeezed the trigger. The rifle cracked. Earl clutched at his chest and spun to the ground.”

Ray Easton

Undertaker and county coroner: “Four officers were sent over to keep things peaceable. Even so, a lot of men refused to remove their hats, a couple of them spat on Durand’s face, a few came through the line three or four times and I grabbed one guy just as he was about to mutilate Durand’s face with a piece of broken glass.

The officers did a good job. Without them I’m afraid the crowd would have turned ugly and done things they would have regretted later. As it was some of the behavior was enough to make you disgusted.”

The funeral for Durand was held at Easton’s Funeral Home.

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Summer 2014 • Legends • 49

Charles DeMaris Early settler operates mineral springs at ‘Stinking Waters’

Nellie DeMaris (front from left), English visitors, Charles DeMaris (back, left), Nellie’s sister and William F. Cody.

A postcard of DeMaris Hot Springs. (Park County Archives photos)

D

eMaris Hot Springs, named for early settler Charles DeMaris, is across the Shoshone River northwest of Cody.

DeMaris was a successful cattleman in Montana until 1886 when a disastrous winter caused cattle losses of 85 percent.

That April, DeMaris ventured south to Cody Country.

He brought with him a cook and doctor.

He had already heard of the medicinal properties of the Stinking Water Springs and, because his health was not good, he camped there with two covered wagons, according to the Cody Heritage Museum website.

The Crow Indians had, for many years, been frequent visitors to the Stinking Waters (so called because of the strong sulphur fumes), later named the Shoshone River.

In 1860 the tribe had established a permanent camp for the sick and welcomed members of other tribes.

After a few weeks of “taking the waters,” DeMaris’ health improved so much he decided to settle there. In 1895 he bought 160 acres of land which included three hot springs.

He patented the springs and called it DeMaris Needlebath Plunge. He operated a hotel and bath house for many years.

About 1895 the future town of Cody was platted around the springs area, but various problems caused the town in 1896 to be moved east to its present location.

That same year a contractor named Jerry Ryan traveled from Sheridan to the area. In his party was his niece, Nellie Fitzgerald.

When a dance was given in Cody to celebrate the visit of Gov. W.A. Richards, Col. William F. Cody introduced Nellie to DeMaris, according to the museum website.

She was the only single girl living in town, but not for long. The first wedding in Cody was that of Charles and Nellie in 1898.

After a few weeks of ‘taking the waters,’ DeMaris’ health improved so much he decided to settle there.

In 1895 he bought 160 acres of land which included three hot springs.

In 1900 a son was born and though he was named for his father, when Charles started school he was saddled with the nickname, “Stinking Water Bill.”

In January 1906 DeMaris bought lots on Sheridan Avenue. Their home was the first building in the 1000 block and is under renovation there today.

The family continued to operate the mineral springs for bathing and also bottled the water and sold it. In 1938 DeMaris built a substantial pool surrounded by cement. Changing rooms also were constructed.

DeMaris died June 26, 1914, at his home at the springs. He was 87.

After being open to the public for many years, today the springs are privately owned.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 51

John Goff O

By Jeremy Johnston

nly a few men have held an American president’s life in their hands.

John B. Goff is one of these.

During a hunting trip with one president, Goff’s pack of dogs chased a cougar into an incline on a 60-foot cliff.

The prey could not be seen from the top of the cliff, unless one wanted to risk his life.

The president decided to take a chance and asked Goff to lower him down over the cliff’s edge to shoot the lion. Goff braced his feet against a large rock, lowered the hunter face down, by his ankles, toward the edge until his shoulders went out past the cliff. One shot rang out and landed in the middle of the cougar’s ears, ending its life. The lion fell down the cliff and nearly landed on the pack of dogs.

Goff later wrote in Outdoor Life magazine, “For once in my life my heart stood still for a while, so completely thunderstruck was I at the nerve of the man.”

The president that caused Goff’s heart to stop was the most important person he had ever guided, Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt at that time was vice president-elect. Later that year, after Williams McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt became President of the United States.

John Goff, know as Johnny to friends, was born in Montgomery County, Ind., in 1866. When Johnny was about 2 the family moved to Kansas where he was raised.

In 1883, Johnny moved to Meeker, Colo., where he began a career in ranching. Two years later he moved back to Kansas where he married Mattie Myrick and began a family of his own.

In 1888, Goff moved back to Meeker and began work as a freighter for Hughes and Co. It was that year Johnny became interested in trapping, hunting and guiding. This interest caused Goff to build up a pack of dogs to be used in trailing cougars, bobcat and bear.

Goff’s guide business became a great success and later led to his hunt with President Roosevelt. The first hunt in which Goff guided Roosevelt was during January and February 1901 in the Meeker area. During this hunt the party killed 17 mountain lions.

Twelve of the 17 were shot by Roosevelt, including the one hiding on the cliff.

Roosevelt was amazed at Goff’s dogs, who made up the backbone of his business, and later wrote of their skills for Scribner’s Magazine. The pack of dogs was comprised of two groups, the hounds and the fighters. The hounds would track the game until they “treed” their prey and would continue barking until the hunters arrived.

Sometimes the fighters would take over the scene by attacking the prey, holding it down until one of the hunters could step in and kill the animal. Roosevelt killed many cougars using this method, and surprisingly remained unscathed.

After the lion hunt, Roosevelt kept in touch with Goff planning future hunts. In 1903, Roosevelt wanted Goff and his pack to accompany him during his stay in Yellowstone National Park. After realizing that a hunt in a protected wildlife

52 • Legends • Summer 2014

GUIDING FOR A PRESIDENT

reserve could John Goff with some of tarnish his his hunting dogs. reputation, (Park County Roosevelt Archives photo) decided not to bring along Johnny.

Goff was again requested by the president for a hunt at the Palette Ranch near Cody. This hunt also was cancelled, due to the president’s busy schedule.

In 1905, Roosevelt was able to go on one more hunt with Johnny in the Newcastle, Colo., area. Goff worked with another guide, Jake Borah, for the president’s hunt. The hunt proved to be a profitable trip. Ten bears were killed, six of these shot by Roosevelt. It was during this hunt that Roosevelt grew attached to one of Goff’s dogs, named Skip. Johnny gave Skip to Roosevelt, who then presented it to his son, adding one more pet to the White House collection.

At the end of the hunt Goff prepared for a new job that was arranged by the president. Goff was hired by the government to exterminate the mountain lion population in Yellowstone Park.

With nearly 100 head of horses, the pack of dogs and his family belongings, Johnny moved his family to Gardiner, Mont. Goff then began his new job in Yellowstone by hunting cougars in the Lamar Valley.Unfortunately for Goff, Roosevelt had overestimated the lion population, forcing Goff to resign after one year of service.

The Goff family moved to Wyoming where they set up a hunting camp on a tributary of the Shoshone River. This creek was later named Goff Creek in his honor. Johnny again moved his headquarters farther downstream when he became manager of William F. Cody’s Wapiti Inn. Shortly after he became manager, the State of Wyoming prohibited the use of dogs in hunting large game animals. The new law forced Goff to sell off his dogs, temporarily ending his career as a guide.

After Goff sold his dogs, he bought a small farm around Monument Hill north of Cody. The call of the hunt proved too strong for Johnny and he finally left the farm to work as a guide for Bob Rumsey.

Goff’s later years were spent working for many ranch resorts in the Cody area. Goff later retired on a small piece of land east of Cody where he remained until his death.

On March 28, 1937, John B. Goff died from a heart attack and was laid to rest at Riverside Cemetery near the mountains he dearly loved.

(This article is reprinted from the Cody Enterprise in 1992.)

Tex Holm

GUIDE TAKES TOURISTS TO YELLOWSTONE

P

ioneer big game hunter and guide Aron “Tex” Holm came to the Cody area in 1898.

The early history of Yellowstone National Park and its development as a tourist attraction is clearly tied to Holm. He became the first from Cody to operate moveable camp concessions in the park.

Holm began taking small parties to Yellowstone via Cooke City in 1902.

According to his obituary in the Cody Enterprise, stories of the difficulties Tex underwent in outfitting the first trip through the park are legendary.

It’s known that he used all available saddles, bedding, tents and stoves from Cody, Burlington and Thermopolis.

In 1903 he formed Holm Transportation Co. which provided transportation to Yellowstone by stagecoach and, later, by motorbus. He became one of the best known outfitters in the West, offering camping and hunting trips.

The company was one of the first to take Burlington Railroad tourists into the park via Sylvan Pass. After the East Entrance road was opened, six-horse outfits were used to get across the pass.

He headquartered his trips at Holm Lodge about eight miles east of the park. It featured a log lodge, kitchen, dining room, 12 tent houses and four log cabins.

In November 1913 disaster struck when the main building burned to the ground. He sold the remnants of the facility to J.W. Howell who reconstructed the lodge and ran the business with Mary Shawver for several years.

Holm Transportation Co.’s last season was 1915. The Cody-Sylvan

Tex Holm at Sylvan Lake in Yellowstone Park. He took tourists on guided trips of Yellowstone.

(Park County Archives photos) Pass Motor Co. was formed to take tourists into the park for the 1916 season, but then the National Park Service consolidated all concessionaire services and the Yellowstone Park Transportation Co. became the sole transportation operation.

Holm was born in Sweden on Sept.

5, 1860. After high school he went

to sea and “jumped ship” in New York. He traveled through Texas and Nebraska.

He was in on the gold rush in Alaska and the Black Hills. During a trip to Chicago he took a veterinarian course, a trade he utilized through the years.

“Tex” Holm died at age 71 on July 1, 1942.

Holm on one of the last stage coach trips through Yellowstone.

Summer 2014 • Legends • 53

Bob Moore Fallen firefighter remembered 40 years later

By COREY MORRIS Staff writer

T

hough relatively young, the historical record of Cody is filled with legendary figures.

Reminders of their accomplishments are found throughout the community.

The city is named after founder William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and streets are named after founders Alger, Beck, Sheridan, Rumsey and Bleistein and others.

It’s easy for recent legends to be forgotten with a stacked town history like that of Cody.

But if you look, there are mementos of recent legends throughout town: Former principal Glenn Livingston has an elementary school and theater instructor Wynona Thompson has a theater. Milward Simpson’s name is on a baseball field and Paul Stock’s name is on the chamber complex and aquatic center.

And on the corner of Beck and 13th, a bench sits in a parking lot, waiting for anybody to sit and remember the namesake of “Bob Moore Memorial Parking Lot.” On May 20, 1974, firefighter Robert Moore stepped into the burning Enterprise building, then located at Beck and 13th.

Bob Moore

Bob’s father, Jesse Moore, was born in South Dakota and eventually moved to Wyoming. He met Jenny Snyder of Worland and they were married in Billings on Jan. 31, 1932. Jesse and Jenny had four children: Robert, Kenny, Kay and Karen.

Jesse worked for Taggart Construction and was directly involved in, among other notable projects, the highway project connecting Casper and Shoshoni.

When Bob graduated from high school (having received the Buchanan Award for athletics), he attended the University of Wyoming on a basketball scholarship and played on the team with now former Senator Al Simpson.

54 • Legends • Summer 2014

Bob Moore (left) and his sons the night before he died in a fire.

In college Bob married Beverly Schuster whom he’d known since first grade.

After college graduation he was hired as a coach in Pinedale but eventually returned to Cody and became a real estate agent.

His way of doing business was not so much selling the house, but finding a home for someone who needed one.

“If they didn’t have the money for the commission, he’d eat the commission on their promise that they’d pay him later,” said son Scott Moore, a veterinarian in Cody.

He was a Lion, Rotarian, Elk, Cub Scout leader. And a firefighter.

Fire

When the Enterprise fire broke out, Bob had returned home for Scott’s graduation, and Bob II’s 21st birthday.

Bob had been in Denver with his wife who was recovering from heart surgery.

“Scott’s graduation was coming and Bob didn’t want to have him up here by himself,” Bob’s sister Kay Frost recalled.

“He came home and was planning on going back in the next day or two.”

The night of Scott’s graduation, May 19, the Enterprise building initially was lit on fire in the alley by Charles Gentner Jr. who threw a book of matches into a pile of trash and walked away.

Bob was up all night putting out the fire.

The following day, on Bob II’s birthday, the fire reignited about mid-day and Bob was one of the responders.

In the basement dark room, trapped by the flames and smoke, was reporter Eric Olson who did not survive the fire.

Bob went into the building.

“He would have wanted someone to go in and try to save anyone,” Scott said.

Bob didn’t make it out of the building alive – his oxygen tube disconnected and he suffocated in the smoke. Though his heart was re-started after he was recovered, Bob already had suffered brain damage. He later was pronounced dead in Salt Lake City.

Several years later, Gentner was convicted for crimes related to the fire while serving another sentence. He died in prison in 1997.

Memory

There no longer are remnants of the fire – they long ago were cleared away.

The Enterprise moved to a temporary location on Rumsey Avenue next to City Hall, and a parking lot later was constructed in Bob’s honor.

In July 1974, President Richard Nixon dedicated a bench on the lot to Bob’s memory. The bench is surrounded by a stone wall and between the stones is a plaque stating: “The President of the United States awards this commendation to Robert C. Moore in posthumous recognition of exceptional service to others, in the finest American tradition. (Nixon’s signature is engraved in the plaque.) The White House, Washington, D.C., July 1974.”

The lot recently was improved by the city and Cody Lions.

There, people can read the plaque, and know of the bravery of Bob Moore.

What they won’t get from the plaque is the background. How the town filled Cody Auditorium for Bob’s memorial service.

Bob, the man who sold a house and later returned to fix leaking pipes, and the man who was a basketball referee and worked the chains for football games.

“You never want people to forget,” Scott says. “But everyone’s going to forget some day. And that’s what bothers you.”

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Summer 2014 • Legends • 55

The feed store in Marquette. (Park County Archives photos)

Marquette Man behind forgotten town

O

ne of the first men to ranch on the South Fork was George Marquette.

He was born in Germany, coming to America with his parents as a boy and settling in Ohio. He left home when he was 15, going to Minnesota and enlisting in the Army during the Civil War. In 1884 Marquette established a ranch up the South Fork west of Cody which became a meeting place for neighbors and travelers. He homesteaded on the creek that came to bear his name.

He also was a hunter, trapper and prospector. Nicknamed “Uncle George,” he was known for his fiddle playing and played for many county get-togethers.

He was appointed postmaster when the first post office on the South Fork was established in 1890.

The meeting place on his ranch near the lower end of Marquette Creek (later known as Carter Creek) became

56 • Legends • Summer 2014

George Marquette was a talented musician and played at social events. a bustling settlement consisting of a general store, saloon, several small log

homes, schoolhouse and post office.

Sheriff’s deputy Felix Alston named the town, located at the confluence of the North Fork and South Fork tributaries of the Shoshone River, “Marquette.”

According to the William F. Cody Archive, the town served as headquarters for Cody’s ditch company prior to the establishment of the town of Cody. Things looked good for little Marquette until fall 1903 when the first surveys were completed for Shoshone Reservoir.

When residents of the area learned of the building of the dam they sold their property to the federal government.

In 1906 the town’s namesake died in the general store at age 64. Funeral services were held in Cody and then his remains were sent to his former home in Ohio.

The town of Marquette was flooded in spring 1910 when the Shoshone Dam (now, Buffalo Bill Dam) was completed.

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Summer 2014 • Legends • 57

“Long, Long Trail A-Winding” was taken by Charles Belden in the 1920s. (PN.67.1)

Charles Belden T

By BUZZY HASSRICK

From 1922-40 Belden ran the Pitchfork Ranch with a friend.

Photographer captures ranch life 58 • Legends • Summer 2014

he legendary Pitchfork Ranch once ranged 250,000 acres, encompassing much of the upper Greybull River Valley west of Meeteetse.

Its inhabitants included memorable men such as Richard Ashworth, an Englishman; Col. William Pickett, a Civil War veteran and politician; Otto Franc, a German count; and Louis Graham Phelps, banker and assembler of the ranches that became the Pitchfork.

The fame of the Pitchfork, however, spread mainly because of the memorable images by Charles Josiah Belden (1887-1966), a photographer who rode the ranch with camera at hand to capture the wildlife, the stock and the cowboy, the icon of the West.

“Of course the cowboy is the outstanding romantic hero of young America,” he wrote in a letter dated spring 1927. “And I think this is as it should be, for as you look around what type of man is there in this country that is as distinctly American as the so-called cowboy or cowpuncher.

To see more photos The Charles Belden Photography Museum in Meeteetse is open May 1-Oct. 31, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and noon-4 p.m. Sunday.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, May 1-Sept. 15.

“His type originated in America and his characteristics have been developed according to the needs of the country and there has been practically no foreign influence felt in his make-up. He is as distinctly American as the Indian that rode the vast open ranges before him.”

Belden had ridden horses as a youth on pack trips into the hills outside San Francisco. His grandfather Josiah made millions in California real estate. Belden’s uncle taught him photography on the pack trips.

“We invariably had two and three pack mules loaded down with cameras, plates and equipment,” Belden recalled in the 1927 letter.

His photographic forays resumed during a European trip in 1909, a year before his graduation from the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology in Boston. In Germany, Belden purchased a camera he carried into Russia on what he called a “motor jaunt” in his 1908 Packard with MIT friend Eugene Phelps.

“We were hailed as one of the first American cars that ever toured the empire of the Czar and were feted and honored in all of the larger cities,” Belden wrote. “Needless to say, our car created widespread interest and, incidentally, widespread confusion among the Russian ponies.”

Belden’s travels then took him to the Pitchfork where he met Frances Phelps, Eugene’s sister and Belden’s future bride. They married in 1913 and settled on the ranch two years later. From 1922-40, the two college friends ran the ranch.

“The great contribution of Charles Belden to the ranch was making it famous,” according to “Brand of

Most of my photographs are made from horseback.

Charles Belden, famed Pitchfork Ranch photographer a Legend” co-author Jack Turnell, husband of Belden’s granddaughter Lili.

Belden’s photographs appeared in newspapers and magazines across

continued on page 60

Bill Monday and helper getting ready to fly antelope to zoos around the country in the 1930s. (PN.67.697)

Summer 2014 • Legends • 59

the country as well as National Geographic. The cover of Life magazine featured his image of a cow and calf in a snowy landscape, titled “Winter on the Range,” in its Feb. 8, 1937, issue.

“His work was responsible for the great success of the Pitchfork Dude Ranch, which operated until 1945,” Turnell wrote. He also praised Belden’s artistry and insights.

“He lived with his subject matter and thoroughly understood every detail of it, the composition, the light, the angles, and the subject matter,” Turnell wrote. “With his camera, and experienced knowledge of the cowboy and sheepman, he was able to capture the true life and times of the Pitchfork Ranch.”

Along with stock, the ranch was populated with wildlife, particularly pronghorn antelope. Belden decided to capitalize on the prolific pronghorn by raising and marketing young ones, which earned him the nickname “Antelope Charlie.”

“We’re into the cattle and sheep business out at Pitchfork, and the antelope got to eatin’ more than their share of the grass, so we got a permit from the state to sell ’em,” Belden told a reporter from the New York Herald Tribune.

Belden had landed in Newark, N.J., with Cody pilot Bill Monday and 16 pronghorn as passengers.

“Each of the antelope, which were between two and three months old, was sewed up in a small gunny sack with only its head sticking out,” the reporter observed. “Each had a red, green or blue ribbon around its neck with a name inked on a small round tag. Some of the names were Speedy, Tippy, Zip, June, Mike and Spindle.

“A bunch of girls out at the ranch named ’em,” Monday explained.

Monday and Belden had departed from Wyoming with 23 antelope, depositing two in Chicago, three in Washington, D.C., and two in Philadelphia. In N.Y., six went to the Bronx Zoo and 10 to an animal dealer. Two of the last group were destined for Germany on the dirigible Hindenburg.

Back at the ranch, Belden described a landscape beginning at 7,000 feet and rising to majestic peaks of 12,000-13,000 feet.

60 • Legends • Summer 2014

The stock would spend summers foraging the high country, as he recounted in the 1927 letter.

“It is small wonder that I was very much impressed with the pictorial possibilities of herds of whitefaced cattle grazing on a thousand rugged hills, especially as I rode with them day and night, summer and winter and saw them in every phase of sunshine or blizzard,” he wrote.

With the transformation of the range from open to fenced and

the slow demise of large cattle operations, Belden determined to record images of that life.

“I set about to secure as complete a story as possible pictorially and photographically of the different phases and incidents of handling cattle on the range,” he wrote.

In that quest, Belden traveled 60,000 miles on horseback, according to his granddaughter Lili Turnell. He participated in running horses, roping calves, cutting out

cattle, always with a camera in his saddle bags.

“A photographer usually goes for his picture but I wait for the picture to come to me,” Belden wrote.

“Most of my photographs are made from horseback for range cattle are pretty wary of anything as strange and unusual as a man afoot.

“Many of my most striking pictures have been made during blizzards or in the winter with the thermometer anywhere

between zero and thirty below.

Possibly such pictures hold more than passing interest because they are made under trying circumstances.”

While the Pitchfork provided fodder for Belden’s cameras, the operation proved challenging for the two college friends. Belden left the ranch and his wife for Florida in 1940.

Since then, the ranch ownership has gone through several hands and

is once again not one big spread.

Yet, records of the Pitchfork’s heyday survive in the archives of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the University of Wyoming.

The photographer’s legacy also survives in the Charles Belden Photography Museum in Meeteetse through images that spin Western tales.

“If a picture does not tell a story, it is not worth taking,” Belden once said.

Cowboys at the chuckwagon on the Pitchfork Ranch. (PN.67.14)

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