Classroom in the Woods
Thomas J. Elpel had the rare opportunity as a child to spend hundreds of hours with his grandmother, Josie Jewett. Together they explored the hills and meadows near Virginia City, Montana, collecting herbs, looking for arrowheads, and watching wildlife. Grandma Josie mentored Tom in learning about native plants and their uses, igniting a passion for nature that has inspired him ever since. She also sparked his interest in survival skills. All I ever wanted to do as a kid was to go to Grandma s house, Tom said. When she moved from Virginia City to Pony, I followed her. My wife and I eventually bought land just a couple blocks from her place.At the age of sixteen, Tom went on a twenty-six day, 250-mile walkabout in the desert canyons of southern Utah with Boulder Outdoor Survival School. The following year he and Grandma Josie went together to Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey. Tom spent thousands of hours practicing and innovating survival skills by trial and error in his backyard in the Rocky Mountains. He is currently the director of Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School (HOPS) in Pony, Montana and Green University, LLC of Silver Star, Montana.