Couple retires from mail delivery

On April 27, staff at the Hot Springs County Post Office and members of the community celebrated Bill and Barb Daniels as they hung up their mailbags after more than 42 years of running the highway mail route. During their retirement party, they were presented certificates of appreciation and commemorative cups by Postmaster Susan Linko.

When the couple first moved out here, Bill said, they lived in Ten Sleep and Barb was working at the post office there, which was an incentive to look at working the route in Thermopolis. They bought a farm and moved to Thermopolis in 1976.

The Daniels took over the route from Jess Robinson in the fall of 1976, noting that in the 19 years Robinson had done it he wore out six window cranks. Barb explained Robinson was retiring and the route came up for bid, she bid it for them and got it.

When they began the route, they didn't intend to do it for as long as they did. They started out delivering mail in a 1970's model air-cooled Volkswagen station wagon. Reliability on the vehicle was poor, and they soon upgraded to a Toyota station wagon. With a route of about 120 miles, running it six days a week got the odometer turning fairly quickly, and the couple put 300,000 miles on several Toyotas before switching to Subarus, due to the all-wheel drive capability, and started racking up the miles on them instead.

When small post offices started closing several years ago, among them was the Hamilton Dome office, extending the route about five miles to Cottonwood Creek. Barb was the sole driver the first 40 years - with a part-time substitute - and the couple ran it as a team the past couple years.

Barb said the route went nearly all the way to Anchor Dam and back, and they had 96 customers when they started. She didn't know how many are on the route now but didn't think it was too many as most of the customers are ranches.

Bill added the big increase was when they started delivering to Sage Valley. Barb said it didn't add many miles to the route itself.

The route itself was an excellent supplemental income to the Daniels' farm where they sold eggs and milk, and they described it as a "part-time job that is a good grocery getter."

Several postmasters have come and gone in the time they've contracted the route. They still are contractors, but are no longer driving the route and have hired part-time drivers including their own son, Delbert, and Betty Tuffner. Barb further explained the contract is still in their name and they receive a postal service check, which they use to pay the drivers.

Even though they're no longer driving 120 miles a day for mail, Barb said they still have plenty to do on the farm with their own animals. Bill noted they have a "custom farming" operation in which they work for other people who don't have the necessary machinery to farm a crop, put up hay or whatever needs doing.