*Outlaw Mountain Men, Extremists Roam The Rockies* By Laura Zuckerman****
Reuters**** March 16, 2012**** One is a loner who has eluded capture on Utah's rugged Cedar Mountain for five years. Another is hiding out in**** the mountain forests of western Montana, wanted for attempted murder.**** They are extreme versions of the self-reliant, independent-thinking frontiersmen who have long roamed the**** American West.**** >From wanted criminals to the more eccentric "Phantom Pooper" or "Dugout Dick," a wide range of outlaws and**** drifters live off the land in the rugged Rocky Mountains, folk heroes to the militia movement and a source of**** chagrin for law enforcement.**** Among the more storied is Troy James Knapp, 44, a loner wanted for burglaries of resort cabins near Zion**** National Park in Utah. In his five years in the wild, he has lived off land so rugged the average visitor stocks his**** four-wheel drive with emergency supplies.**** Legend about Knapp's uncanny outdoor skills and hardiness has grown along with the thefts he is accused of**** committing - frequently of firearms - and the threats he has made against a local sheriff in the forested high**** country of southern Utah called Cedar Mountain.**** The snowshoe-clad survivalist has out-maneuvered authorities in manhunts, one as recently as last month when**** a reported sighting of a rifle-toting figure sent police in camouflage and bullet-proof vests pouring into the woods**** on foot and by air.**** Knapp is one of a number of fugitives thought to be holed up in the vast back country of the Rocky Mountains, a**** region where self-sufficiency is almost a religion and separatist and militia movements have found fertile ground.**** The forbidding mountainscape has given rise to characters such as 19th century trapper and explorer Kit Carson,**** and has acted as a magnet for modern-day mountain men and outlaws such as Claude Dallas.**** Dallas was convicted in 1982 of manslaughter in the slayings of two Idaho game wardens investigating him for**** poaching while living off the canyon lands of southwestern Idaho.**** After the killings, Dallas fled into the wilderness and eluded police for months. During his time on the run, he**** gained cult status among anti-government militiamen and was portrayed in a popular ballad as a renegade hero.**** FOLK HERO OR CRIMINAL?**** Aided by survival skills a U.S. marshal has likened to those of American frontiersman Davy Crockett, Knapp and a**** handful of other back country drifters are folkloric figures to fiercely anti-authority loners and groups of the**** American West, and their hostility seems to center on law enforcement officials.**** In Cedar Mountain, the specter of an armed loner who may harbor extremist views has stoked fear among**** seasonal residents and vacation homeowners from Las Vegas.**** "This guy is not a folk hero, he's a dangerous criminal," said Jud Hendrickson, whose family getaway property**** straddles the area where Knapp is known to roam. "People are going to get hurt before this is over."**** Authorities say break-ins mostly occur in winter, when the frigid weather and deep snow drive Knapp indoors in**** search of food, equipment and guns.**** Those weapons have reappeared in what Iron County, Utah, Detective Sergeant Jody Edwards calls "doomsday**** stashes" in camps Knapp erects deep in the woods in mild weather.**** Knapp runs trap lines, shoots squirrels and has trekked across hundreds of miles of harsh terrain. He is**** uninterested in valuables many thieves would prize, said Michael Wingert, supervisory deputy for the U.S.**** Marshals Service in Utah.**** "If a cabin owner left a gold brooch on the table, he probably wouldn't touch it," Wingert said. "Outside of reading**** about Davy Crockett, I can't tell you the last time I've encountered a case like this."**** In Montana, authorities are following up on hundreds of tips on the whereabouts of former militia leader David**** Burgert, 48.**** Burgert is wanted on attempted murder charges for a shootout with Missoula County deputies in June, when**** authorities say he fired a handgun at officers before escaping into the tangled back country of western Montana.**** Missoula County Undersheriff Mike Dominick said Burgert, sentenced in 2004 to seven years in federal prison on**** weapons charges, is a survivalist able to fend for himself in the wilds.**** "He's in desperate circumstances and we believe him to be a particular problem for local law enforcement. His**** animosity is directed at us," Dominick said.**** OPEN SPACES**** The challenge in the wide-open spaces of the western United States is telling the difference between harmless**** hermits and recluses - and dangerous sociopaths. While the behavior of eccentrics in the western hinterlands**** may be objectionable, it isn't usually criminal, authorities said.**** Police in Idaho have grappled with the socially unacceptable behavior of individuals like the "Phantom Pooper,"**** who defecated on properties in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.**** Then there's "Dugout Dick," a squatter on public lands who irrigated his asparagus crop with urine, and rented out**** caves he carved into the rocky outcroppings above the Salmon River.**** "There are plenty of people with anti-social behavior out there who never really bother anybody," said Tony**** Latham, a retired Idaho Fish and Game investigator.**** The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report on March 8 showing a sharp rise in anti-government groups**** between 2010 and 2011. The report came after an FBI warning in February that extremists opposed to the central**** government pose a growing threat to local law enforcement.**** Such "sovereign citizens" were mostly known for filing arcane lawsuits against government officials, refusing to**** pay taxes and displaying phony license plates before May 2010, when two Arkansas police officers were gunned**** down during a traffic stop of a member of the movement.**** "That was a wake-up call for everybody," said Don Robinson, FBI supervisory special agent in Idaho.**** Police are the preferred targets, said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.**** Extremists espouse a patchwork of beliefs where one conspiracy about the government overlaps another, Potok**** said, and the worry is knowing when "today's eccentric becomes tomorrow's building bomber."**** Militias movements tend to come in waves, like that which spiked in 1995 when Oklahoma City bomber Timothy**** McVeigh killed 168 people. A second wave of separatist activism began in early 2009 after the election of an**** African-American president with a foreign-sounding name.**** The rebirth of fringe movements may also be linked to the economic downturn, fears that Democratic leaders will**** impose new restrictions on guns and ultra-right rhetoric in the media, he said.**** The FBI's Robinson said what concerns authorities most is the "lone offender," the under-the-radar extremist who**** suddenly surfaces in an act of spectacular violence.**** Police also worry about what they call the "time bomb," the sometime offender whose potential for violence**** escalates over time. That's how Edwards, the Utah detective, views Knapp, who recently pledged to put a**** neighboring sheriff "in the ground" in a note left behind at a burgled cabin.**** "We have a dangerous situation on our hands," Edwards said.**** -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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