That same year, a cautious young school teacher from Iowa stepped out of character and took a risk.  Margaret Siebens, age 20, resolved to work at Mammoth Hotel for the summer, with her father’s permission and signature.  Frank Siebens depended on the income of his oldest daughter to help manage the family farm and feed his nine children. 

While my grandmother, Margaret, signed a contract to work at Mammoth,  she seemed to float from there to Old Faithful Inn and back.  We have references to her work at both places in varying capacities.  As a waitress, heaving food, she was a “heaver.”  When she cleaned rooms at Old Faithful, she was one of the “pillow pounders.”  “Savages” were workers in general. 

Margaret first met older, more worldly Rudd, a full nine years her senior.  Uncle Ralph thinks the encounter might have been at the employee mess hall at Mammoth.  My mother, more of a romantic, imagines it at an employee dance at Old Faithful.  My guess is it occurred with Margaret working at the Old Faithful driver’s mess, mostly because Grandma kept a photo  of this crew. However it happened, Grandpa seemed instantly smitten.  At the end of the season, he purchased a small guide book  for her that the “savages” used for autographs.  On the first page, he inscribed:

 While Grandma worked as “bath-maid,” one guest wrote in her book:

Once an Old Faithful guest left behind two large silver-backed  brushes.  Whether the guest gave them to Margaret, or simply forgot them, we are uncertain.  What we do know is they were extravagant treasures for a humble Iowa farm girl.  Grandma kept them on display in her china cabinet throughout her lifetime. 

 Rudd returned to Pasadena for the winter and Margaret to her job teaching school in Cresco, Iowa, but they were both back for the summer of 1924.  Their relationship blossomed, and near the end of the season, Rudd proposed.  Margaret asked for her father, Frank’s, permission, which he denied.  While Frank was progressive about getting his daughters an education, he retained certain ideas about their obligation in supporting the family. 

 Margaret broke the bad news to Rudd.  He responded to her, “Don’t you think you’re old enough to make your own decisions now?’’  That impacted her greatly, but she still returned to Iowa at her father’s order. 

 Years later, she recalled that episode to her son.  “What was I thinking!  I almost lost Dad [Rudd]!”  Taking a bold step, Margaret eloped with Rudd on October 29, 1924 in Santa Ana, California. 

They lived in Pasadena but returned one last summer to work at Yellowstone, with Grandma apparently at Mammoth.  Possibly they kept the marriage partially secret, but their many friends and relatives knew the truth.  Ralph says they were something of matchmakers for other folks, too, including Margaret’s little sister, Ann.  When Ann eloped with George Thompson, Frank Siebens lost a second daughter to Yellowstone.  For their gang, Yellowstone was the hub of activity, and they all came for a visit.  Uncle Ralph says Yellowstone was “the star of their act.”  “They were having a ball.”   

During the winter of 1925-26, Rudd and Margaret stayed in Gardiner, Montana.  After the birth of Ralph in 1927, Rudd traded his vagabonding life for something more settled.  He “bought a job” from a Pasadena employment agency, as was done at that time, and moved to Boise to work for the Packard agency as a mechanic.  After that, he worked for United Pacific Stages, which later became Greyhound.    

Ralph recalls a family trip to Yellowstone in the early 1930’s as a nostalgic revisit.  In the mid-30’s, my grandparents hosted a Yellowstone get-together of close friends and family at their home in Boise.  Ralph explains they were still pretty young and “had a high-old time.”  My mom believes they continued visiting the park for the coming years—and decades. 

As a young girl, I remember the silver brushes my mother eventually inherited.  Perhaps I used them on my Barbie Dolls.  On our family room wall, Mom hung coyote and badger skins.  These were both scary and fascinating creatures with black marble eyes and sharp teeth, ready to attack at any moment as we watched cartoons.  In second grade, I took the badger to “Show and Tell,” explaining how my grandpa got it from Yellowstone Park in the 1920’s.  On Mom’s china shelf stood a tall glass ornament with colored sands which formed rainbow designs and a bear figure.  I always thought this was pretty ugly.  Now we read the inscription at the bottom, “Colors of the Grand Can(y)on” of Yellowstone.  These are colored sands someone collected from the thermal areas in the 1920’s!  Suddenly, it is beautiful.