Walt Johnson

His name was Arne, they called him “Walt”, he lived in Oulu, his address was Brule, and his phone was listed as Waino.

“You are a hard guy to find” was a quote by one of his potential clients.

Arne Walter Johnson grew up in Oulu on the family farm built by his father Emil Johnson. Emil was a second generation son of an original settler Fred Johnson who came to Oulu from Finland in the late 1890s.

Walt Johnson was a self-taught backhoe operator who was known for digging ditches, basements, waterlines as well as maintaining roads throughout the local townships. Not only was he well known as a talented singer/entertainer, but was a friendly, hospitable, caring individual who had a jolly, outgoing personality, which made him a natural as a future entrepreneur.

Walt met his sweetheart, Ailie Koski, when they both played in a local band called the “Spanish Sparklets”. When they were first married in 1940, the couple moved to Waukegan, Illinois at the suggestion of his father and sister Tekla who lived there at the time. After a few months they moved to Superior, Wisconsin, where Walt worked at the shipyards at the end of World War II. They rented a small upstairs apartment in Billings Park where Ailie cared for their two young children, Larry and Diana. In 1945 the young couple decided to move back to Oulu on the farm where Walt grew up. His father Emil, who was widowed, needed help on the family farm, so Walt and Ailie purchased the farm, offering his father to live there with them.

It was a financial struggle for the young couple to manage simply running the farm, so in the late 40s, Walt seeked work from a local excavator and logging businessman by the name of Eino Ruska. Early in his employment, Walt worked as a clam operator in the logging industry in Northern Minnesota at the suggestion of Mr. Ruska. By this time, Walt and Ailie had another son Ronald, and not wanting to be away from his family for long periods, he decided to work closer to home for Ruska as a backhoe operator. This is where he learned many of his numerous excavating skills.

In the middle 50s when Eino Ruska decided to sell one of his backhoes, Walt jumped at the chance to buy it and to start his own excavating business. Near this time, Walt and Ailie had added yet another member to the family, son Randy. It was a bit of a risk financially for the couple, but Walt knew his trade well and knew there was much need for a skilled excavator in the area. Business went fairly well, mostly by “word of mouth” as new homes, new driveways, basements were needed. There is no real record of how many basements Walt dug, but they were numerous as he was the “go-to-guy” in the area. He was known for giving his clients a fair deal. As his wife Ailie would have said, “He dug basements for a living, but the pleasure of meeting people was his main purpose.” She always kept the books for the business, and would do the billing as well, which meant she was the cautious one who worried about the bottom line.

As his business flourished, Walt purchased a dump truck and a bulldozer to expand his business. Each time he would upgrade to another (used) truck or bulldozer, it was much to Ailie’s dismay. “How are we going to pay for this?” she asked. Always the ultimate optimist, “We’ll make it work,” he would say. Never deterred by fear of “not making it,” Walt would make his finest equipment purchase in 1960 with a brand new Shield Bantam backhoe (again at Ailie’s resistance).

Walt worked long hours and many days from dawn to dusk and on weekends, all to complete a job on time for his customers, who he put ahead of his personal needs. Often, he would awaken clients by getting to a job by sunrise. It was known that after a new home was completed where he did the preliminary ground work, Walt would go back to “the scene of the crime” to see the completed job (often with his family in tow for a Sunday drive). There was such a genuine caring side to Walt that would cause him to follow the work in which he took so much pride. Walt never dug a basement or ditch to get rich; it was always for the purpose of helping someone and being a good neighbor. He had such a good eye for his work that he could cut a basement floor to an inch of level—much to the dismay of his competitors. It was also known that if a grown tree was in his way to complete a job, his customers would need to put in a good word for the tree so he wouldn’t destroy it.

In the 1970s the Johnsons made another investment in their business by purchasing a land site in Oulu on The Boulevard road. Walt had a good sense for what was under that land and a good reason for this purchase—it was a goldmine of rock and sand. He tapped this resource many times at his job sites and the investment paid off well for his business.

Being a skilled welder, Walt developed a patent on a piece of equipment he designed for his backhoe. It was a detachable blade he created for the teeth on his bucket which would allow him to save time on the job as well as level a basement floor. Unfortunately, he never was able to make money on his patent, as other larger companies used his idea for a new design. Nonetheless, Walt was always quite proud of his invention and ensuing patent.

Not only did Walt “dig basements for a living” (his quote) the local townships of Oulu, Waino, Brule, Maple, Port Wing, Herbster, and Iron River would often hire him for his excavating abilities. He helped them with building/maintaining roads, replacing culverts, digging ditches, and assisting with bridge work. Since the townships didn’t have their own equipment at that time, they had to count on hiring independent contractors for necessary road repairs. Walt never needed to advertise for his business as his reputation for “a job well done” always preceded him. Many people enjoyed observing him do his precise work as well as listening to him sing while working. Of course, there were always breaks which included conversation, jokes, and laughter for those working with him or simply watching Walt at work.

In the late 1960s and early 70s, Walt was quite happy and proud to enlist the help of his two younger sons, Ron (Bullcook) and Randy to help in his business. In fact, he named his business, “Arne Johnson and Sons”. His dream of having all three sons involved in the business vanished when his oldest son Larry died accidentally in 1969. Eventually after Walt retired in the 1980s, his son Ron took over the excavating business, which included his equipment and gravel pit in Oulu. In the latter years, Walt would occasionally provide his skills and knowledge to “Cook’s Bulldozing and Excavating” where Walt’s legacy would continue on.

After his retirement, Walt and Ailie sold their family farm in 1990 and moved to a new trailer house “up on the hill” by his gravel pit. They enjoyed their time there overlooking the most beautiful view of Lake Superior in Oulu. Most fondly they enjoyed watching/feeding the birds, watching ships going back and forth on the big lake, and entertaining family and friends until Walt’s passing in 1997.

One sad note through all of this: Walt’s son Ron passed away in 2009, which ended the legacy of one of Oulu’s finest early entrepreneurs in Oulu.

The accompanying photo shows Walt and his nephew Richard Lentz alongside the Bantam backhoe which served him so well. The picture was taken at Johnson’s Berry Patch in the 70s where Walt had completed a job done for the Oulu berry farm. Ironically, the same backhoe sits today amongst the trees and bushes that have grown around it near the gravel pit that Walt discovered.

Note: It should be mentioned that exact years in this piece are not known; however, the time frames should be accurate. Written by Walt and Ailie’s daughter, Diana Tyykila.