Not a Tasmanina devil. Goggle it, they have photos of them before they were wiped out by idiots in Tasmania.
The hardest thing to swallow about these cryptozoological stories is that in order for an unknwon species to exist, it needs a large enough breeding colony to sustain genetic diversity. The larger the critter, the larger the range it needs to occupy, and in today’s shrinking world, the less likely such a large critter could possibly go unnoticed.
Tasmanian Tiger or wolf kept coming up in my memory so I googled that and guess what?
The Thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger (due to its striped back), the Tasmanian Wolf is believed to have become extinct in the 1930s.
The pictures of it online sure looks like the description and although it would have been a long way from home, it was fairly common to have odd animals and freaks in traveling shows to amaze and delight rural Americans back in the 19th century.
It’s possible that a traveling circus or carney show might have lost one of the last of the breed somewhere in Montana.
I sent a copy of my information to the reporter in Montana. What fun! No old person should be without the internet to keep up their interest in life.