Donald Boone Nichols

Born free in a wild place with a strong heart, the son of a West Virginia coal miner, Pat E. Nichols and Kansas farm girl, Margerette D. Pettit, in Summers, Kansas, at the beginning of the Great Depression, 01/20/1931. They soon migrated to Montana when he was less than two years old. Being a miner, his dad took up gold mining, but left the family destitute when coming home from Ennis where he played guitar and sang at a bar. Pat’s brother rolled the car at the bottom of the Madison Hill where the Barter Ranch turn off was and the gold mine he last worked, killing them both. He was six, his brother, Ted Nichols was four, and his older sister, Betty was ten.

His mother had to work to make ends meet, leaving him alone to a beautiful wilderness there all around Norris, between the Tobacco Root Mountains and the Madison River to instill awe and a deep connection to the wild.

Stationed at Guam during his service in the Navy at the beginning of the Korean war, his love and connection with the natural world deepened, where he got to explore the beauty and grandeur of the ocean waters. After discharging from the service, he went back to West Virginia where he met Berdina King, married and started his family. They brought Barbara Nichols into this world there. After a few years, he brought his family back to Montana where he hoped to live a simple life surrounded by wilderness. On their way they discovered Jackson’s Hole, Wyoming where he would become a machinist, and bring Dan Nichols into this world. He found land in northern Montana, but after copper was discovered under his land, he went looking for better wilderness, but his wife left him and that would change him forever.

From then on, he would try to find a way to be free, living off the land in the mountains of Montana. This would come to a tragic end in 1984, when he and his son tried to kidnap a young woman to live in the mountains, killing her would be rescuer. In court he had the courage to take responsibility for his actions. From then on, he would be known as “The Mountain Man.”

Don would spend the next 33 years in prison where he eventually would become the gardener for the prison for over 20 years. He dedicated his time to making the prison a more beautiful place and was much appreciated for his abundant flower gardens.

In spite of all the tragedy in his life, he always nurtured the beauty, and sanity of the natural world. He always believed our salvation as a nation lie in going back to more simple ways of living close to the land where family comes first, and we can develop that intimate connection with the earth.

He is survived by his half-brother, his son and daughter; grandkids, great-grandkids; and nieces and nephews.