The Duttons of Yellowstone are not shy about shedding blood if the situation calls for it or when the safety of their ranch is at stake. However, the Duttons aren’t just hot heads who will dispatch someone point blank and put themselves in a situation where the law could hammer down on them. Instead, they typically take troublemakers to a place known as “the Train Station.”
The train station in Yellowstone, at least the one that the Duttons refer to, is actually a canyon that is just past the Montana border where the Duttons kill someone and throw their body into the canyon below.
First introduced in Season 1 of Yellowstone, the train station doesn’t actually have any trains at all. You know how parents tell little kids that pets are “going to live on a farm” when you put them down? That’s essentially what the Duttons mean when they send someone to the train station.
The train station in Yellowstone, at least the one that the Duttons refer to, is actually a canyon that is just past the Montana border where the Duttons kill someone and throw their body into the canyon below. The Duttons have been doing this for decades and it’s, scarily enough, actually based on a really place in Yellowstone National Park. This is known as the “Zone of Death,” and it’s a place in the United States where murder could technically be considered legal.
The Train Station Is A Lawless Zone
John Dutton (Kevin Costner) explains the “Zone of Death” in Season 5 of Yellowstone, and his explanation is fairly accurate to the real-life reason that area is technically considered a lawless area of the country. When there’s a federal criminal case, there needs to be a jury of residents of the state and district. Since the area known as the “Zone of Death” has no residents, technically there can be no jury formed to try a murder case.
Michigan State University law professor Brian C. Kalt wrote an essay about the Zone of Death in 2005, pointing out the 50 square miles of land’s legal loophole. While there have been no murders reported in that area (ignoring the fictional murders that take place in Yellowstone), it’s still an interesting piece of history. Presumably if there was a murder committed in the Zone of Death that was reported, there would definitely be a pretty wild legal battle that takes place to get things figured out. Thankfully, that problem hasn’t had to be addressed yet, and the Zone of Death has mostly just been beneficial to the fictional activities of the Duttons in Yellowstone.
With that legal loophole in mind, the Duttons have more than taken advantage of it and have killed quite a few people there, starting with the man Fred Myers who attacked a branded man in Season One. Of course, this is just the first time the audience actually saw someone take a trip to the so-called train station, not the first time that the Duttons used it. The Duttons have been doing this for decades and it’s, scarily enough, actually based on a really place in Yellowstone National Park.
Basically, if you cross the Duttons in Yellowstone, you can expect that you’ll be getting your ticket punched for a one-way trip to the train station. It’s unclear if the Duttons will ever be held accountable for any of these deaths, but it seems pretty unlikely that the final season of the show will focus on the legalities of a real-life Dead Zone. In any case, you’ll get to see Kevin Costner’s final episodes of the flagship series when Season Five Part Two hits this November.
While the main Kevin Costner-led Yellowstone series might be ending, fans will have plenty more content from Taylor Sheridan’s universe coming in the future. Matthew McConaughey is set to lead his own spin-off, and there are various other spin-offs on the way. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated on news about the final season and the upcoming series.