Jardine, Montana is a small mining camp in the Rocky Mountains just outside of Yellowstone Park.If you drive up the dreaded Z hill from Gardiner, you will find yourself is a small community of mostly log houses with a dirt road running through it, a creek running along one side and a hill on the other.There’s a bridge across the creek which leads to the now abandoned gold mine.

In the 1920s and 1930s the mine was operating and Jardine was occupied by a motley group of miners and their families.One family, the Ruples, had come a long way from Vernal Utah, taking several years by covered wagon.By the time they got to Jardine, two of the oldest children had married and started families of their own.A couple of World War I veterans, Bill Moore and Jack Rose, would also find Ruple girls as wives.

One young miner, Erling Daniels, (always known as Bud) was a drifter who had been on his own since adolescence, working wherever work was offered in the ranches, mines and machine shops of Western Montana.His mother and grandmother lived in Butte.His father had died when he was two and he had not received much welcome or kindly treatment from his mother’s subsequent husbands.He was befriended by the Ruples, and married their youngest daughter, Zelda.

Zelda and Bud’s first son, Tod, was born in Livingston, Montana on April 3, 1936.His early childhood was spent in Jardine.The community was small enough to resemble an extended family, and the truth was, much of it was occupied by family, his Aunt Thelma, married to Bill Moore, his Aunt Laura, married to Jack Rose, his Aunt Mary, whose husband had disappeared, and his Uncle Pat and wife, Aunt Blanche.All were part of the Jardine scene.

Tod’s grandfather worked in the mines, but also drove horse teams in Yellowstone Park.Bill Moore worked in the mines, but also worked as a trapper, and ran the pool hall.Although 20th century technology was available in 1936, a lot of it didn’t reach Jardine, and life there was very similar to that of pioneering families in the 19th.Tod’s childhood memories of Jardine include eating wild game for meat, drawing needed water from the creek lighting with kerosene lamps, using horses for regular transportation.

Tod spent most of his time between his parent’s house and that of his Aunt Thelma, and whenever possible, would run off to the exciting atmosphere of the pool hall where the men would send the toddler on errands, such as giving him a nickel to call some other man a son of a bitch.

As in many small communities where life was hard, and the weather harsh, there was a real comradeship and dependence on one another.Partly because this environment also coincided with the early days of their marriage, Bud and Zelda always thought of it as the best of times, and Jardine, was to them, the ideal life.Having a car, indoor plumbing and electrical appliances didn’t live up to that sense of community that was so important to life in those times.

Tod grew up not only observing men and women working hard with primitive tools, but hearing stories about hunting, fishing, mining, working with horses.It was the Old West.Like a child at four corners who can put a foot in two states at once. Tod experienced the life of two centuries.

When work at the mine became scarce, the Daniels family moved to Billings, and a life-long pattern in Bud’s behavior began to emerge.He was intelligent and good with his hands and could find work almost anywhere, but either decided he didn’t like his boss or got bored with the job, and would quit and move somewhere else.This had been his life up to Jardine, and he didn’t find that having a wife and a child changed it much.

Tod’s life after Jardine was a jumble of moves.They lived in Spokane for a while, Butte for a while (where he got to know his Great Grandma Biebel and various aunts), back to Jardine.But Jardine was changing too.Zelda’s brother Pat had moved to Lewiston, and sister Mary had moved to Portland. When the war began, Bud wanted to join the military, but was rejected (?).Then he had an opportunity to work in Dutch Harbor, but that fell through also.The next best chance was to work on the coast in the shipyards, so they moved to Portland, stayed with Mary and eventually moved to Salem, where Thelma and Bill wer

In 1944 the family moved to Portland and lived in defense worker housing at Guilds Lake.Tod remembered a horrible fire at the ---plant close by when they thought they were going to have to evacuate.School?While they were living there, Tod’s brother Tim was born.

After the war was over (?) Tod’s dad decided to try his hand at mining again and bought an interest in a small silver mine in Eastern Washington.They lived on a homestead – miles from Orient Washington., probably the smallest school Tod attended. There were several classes taught together in the small schoolhouse.

The silver mine was not profitable and Tod’s dad did a range of short term jobs to keep food on the table.It was isolating and difficult for Zelda and Tod, who had to go long distances on the bus to school, but Bud always spoke of wanting to go back after they left.

They tried it on two different occasions, but eventually gave up and moved to Cottage Grove? Where Bud worked as a mechanic at a car dealership.Tod was then about 11-12? And he remembers enjoying a friendship with a young man who was repairing the roof of their rental house who let him help.

Another move, this time to Toledo.Everyone but Bud loved it on the coast.He didn’t like looking at the ocean – it made him feel insignificant.They lived on a farm with Gramps Murray?

Then the family moved to Lewiston, where Zelda’s brother Pat lived.Tod felt that his cousins looked down on him, the oldest boy, Lee, because he was an arrogant college student and the youngest daughter, Helen, who was in Tod’s grade in school and was a small town snob.Tod and his Dad built a house, with great difficulty as Tod remembered.He also remembers not especially liking the school or Lewiston or his classmates.It was getting harder, as he got older to assimilate – the social order of high school where you are judged by, your clothes and your athletic ability, did not give Tod an opportunity to show off his unique background, his intelligence and his flair for the dramatic.

After Lewiston, they moved to Rowena.Bud worked in The Dalles, and Tod went to high school there.He performed on a radio show and acted in plays.It was still hard to live outside of town and try to get back and forth for after school activities, and he still wasn’t an athlete or well dressed, but he was starting to make his mark at something.He found a group of friends, all probably misfits as well and had some good times before he graduated.

After graduation, he moved to live with his Aunt Thelma and Uncle Bill in Portland so that he could go to college.He went to Portland State.This was his first experience in city life as a young man, and he took full advantage of it.He took fencing classes, drama classes, found a group of guys to hang around with, and generally wasted his time, but enjoyed it immensely.Other than performing in debates and in plays, he didn’t pay much attention to his classes and was rewarded with a failing grade.So what could be done?He joined the air force in 1955.

After boot camp In California, Tod was stationed in Reno.What a thrilling combination of events – he was starting to get along in the military (survival? When?) and was making real friends for the first time.He was with a diverse group of people who could appreciate his intelligence and his wit.And what soldier could resist one of the gambling capitals of the US?

But it was really the survival group that was the breakthrough in his life.A group of tough guys who could out-hike anybody and live at ease in the woods.Tod was accepted wholeheartedly in a society where clothes didn’t make the man, your family wasn’t there to be judged, just the force of your own personality and abilities were the basis of acceptance.It was a freeing life, even though it was a structured environment.Out in the woods or on the trail, however, it was a way to show what you were made of.

After survival school he was assigned to Okinawa.He was hoping for Europe, of course, but in the way that the military is so famous for, he went to Okinawa to be a survival instructor where there was no survival school.So he stuffed parachutes and learned his way about a truly foreign country and language.He also met a man destined to be a life-long friend, Richard Sanford.Tod and Rich were both curious and open to new experiences, and they set out to learn what they could from Okinawan society.They prowled Naha, eating out of the markets.One of their favorite excursions was to hop on a bus and go as far as they had money for, then walk back to the base.They taught themselves Japanese.

They dreamed of going to Bangkok on a leave, but couldn’t get the flight they needed, so went instead for a trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong and were not disappointed.

Once the tour of duty in Okinawa was over, both Tod and Rich were finally transferred to a real survival school at Fairchild Air force Base in Spokane.Finally, they could apply themselves to teaching what they had learned, and Tod got a first taste of the enjoyment of lecturing to a class.The time spent with crews and with friends in the Eastern Washington forests were memorable.Also, for the first time since he had joined the service, he could take occasional trips across the mountains to see his parents and brother who had settled in Anacortes.

With his four years up in 1959, Tod celebrated his discharge with an air force friend, Pete Hanson.They drove to San Francisco and back to Anacortes, stopping to see friends and relatives on the way.Tod decided to try school once again, and got a summer job at the fish cannery in Anacortes to pay his way.

In September he started at the newly built campus of Skagit Valley College and met people who would change his life.Arden Craig, the drama teacher and director was pleased to find someone who had some acting experience, and readily cast him in starring roles.Tod became friends with the Craigs.Joanne worked at the college library, and Tod had a work grant working with audio visual equipment under the direction of the Librarian, Fern Leopold.

Encouraged by his success in plays at the college, Tod decided to try his hand at breaking into the movies.Rich Sanford was also out of the service by then and Tod stayed with the Sanford family while he applied at all the studios for a job.No magic “discovery” happened, and he returned to Anacortes, discouraged.

Several things had happened in the meantime.The Craigs had decided to divorce.Joanne went to Portland to live with her parents.Tod decided he wanted to marry her, and took a job on a fishing boat for some quick money.Her divorce was final that summer and they were married when he returned from fishing in September.

Joanne and Arden had two children, Heather, 4 and Chris 1.The newly married decided to live in Seattle.Joanne had a friend, also recently divorced, who offered to let them stay with her until they could find a house.They found a rental in the University District and Tod started applying for jobs.

Tod first job was for an insurance company, checking on people who had made claims, going door to door, talking to the neighbors.Sort of a nasty job, using nothing he had learned in school or the military, but it paid the rent, barely.After that job was over, he briefly sold Kirby vacuum cleaners.They were confident something better would turn up, and it did.Not a career position, but one that made a lot of difference in their lives.He worked at the 1962 World’s Fair.They had somehow put together enough money to buy a car, and had a British Mini, in which were many adventures.

The job at the fair was supervising ticket takers at the gate, and in itself, was not much, but the handfuls of free tickets he received from people who couldn’t use them all, gave him the pleasure of being able to hand them out to family visitors, and there were many that year.He also was able to tour the exhibits thoroughly, to meet famous people and to be a part of something exciting.It was just another step taken in the Education of Tod Daniels.

-Joanne Daniels