Delia D'Ambra

The Snake River runs through a deep canyon there and steep cliffs with lots of ridges and overhangs that overlook the water create the perfect home for birds like eagles, falcons, hawks, and owls to make nests and raise their young.

It's a protected area, one of many in the state of Idaho that hunters and poachers are supposed to respect.

And the people responsible for enforcing the laws around wildlife are the state's game wardens, also known as conservation officers.

Back in the winter of 1981, a trapper with a bad reputation broke the rules.

And the events that followed played out like something from an American Western movie plot.

Except it's not fiction.

Every bit of what I'm about to tell you actually happened.

This is Park Predators.

On the afternoon of Monday, January 5th, 1981, a man named Jim Stevens was on his way to meet up with a friend of his named Claude Dallas Jr.

at Claude's remote animal trapping compound in Owyhee County, Idaho.

Jim knew that his buddy needed some supplies and food to endure the winter before spring arrived, so he hadn't thought twice about making the trek to the remote campsite some three miles north of the Nevada state line and roughly 13 miles east of Idaho's border with Oregon.

As Jim approached the compound, he fired a few gunshots into the air to alert his friend that he was almost there.

Prior to this, Claude had asked Jim to fire his gun upon approach so that he wouldn't be surprised when Jim arrived.

According to later coverage in an episode of the FBI files and a piece by the Idaho Statesman, Claude was the kind of guy who didn't like to be caught off guard at his trapping compound.

So he'd come up with this gunshot warning system to be able to differentiate between his friends and unwanted strangers.

When Jim got to the compound, Claude greeted him and took the supplies he brought.

Laying around the site were several bobcat skins that Claude said he planned to sell when spring arrived.

Jim wasn't planning on doing any trapping this trip, though.

He was more interested in collecting Native American artifacts from the landscape.

So while Claude restocked his compound with the supplies and tended to the bobcat furs, Jim wandered off with his metal detector to search for artifacts along the South Fork of the Owyhee River.