Jimmy Juhola

Excerpt from the February 25, 2005 Baker City Herald article: Gold regains its glimmer

…But the go-it-alone flavor of the Old West hasn't vanished entirely.

The white beard, slouch hat, and a pistol on his hip, Jimmy Juhola could be from central casting. He works alone and figures he has worked Clark Creek in Eastern Oregon's Burnt River Canyon for about 19 years.

He doesn't have a claim. He uses other people's, and Anderson, who knows the miners in the area, says they don't mind since he takes pay-dirt only by the bucket and not with machinery.

And they watch where he digs, Anderson said. Juhola can read the ground like a map.
"Now this is up here," he said through a hand-rolled cigarette, "this should pay about $7.00 per cubic yard. This here below won't pay you nothin' but this down here, this is good, this could be $40 dirt."

Juhola knocks loose with a pick. Back at the Creek outside his small trailer, water swishes in the pan, the top gravel washes off, and the residue gets finer and finer. "I got three colors," he announces, peering into the pan.

He produced a vial half full of small Nuggets coaxed from the dirt in earlier efforts.
"I needed some beer real bad, so I sold half of it for $40," he said, "the fellow was going to weigh it and give me the rest of what it's worth."

Most mining is suspended in the Canyon until spring because of the snow, but not his.

"In the old days, the smart fellows, just before the freeze up, why, they'd go into town and get as drunk as they could and throw a brick through a window, or something," he said.

"Then they'd have food and a warm jail to sleep in for 90 days or so. Around March, when their time was up, they could head back to the hills."

He considers himself a cut apart from the larger operators.

"They're always complaining because their hydraulics broke," he said. "I'm my own hydraulic. I run on beans and alcohol."

There aren't many Jimmy Juholas out there….