Jim Elquist (right), along with his father Kimball Elquist standing in front of the Blue Gem mine in Copper Canyon, Nevada circa 1975. After the Blue Gem mine closed, Kimball, Jim and brothers Larry “Cougar” and John “Bugs, continued to mine barite and gold.
On behalf of the Elquist Family, we thank the Turquoise Museum for honoring Jim Elquist by inducting him into your Hall of Fame.
Like his father before him, Jim dug out his destiny through mining. And through mining, it sustained family. And not a small family.
Jim was one of nine children born of Kimball and Marva Elquist. During their early prospecting years, they lived in Mill Canyon, on the flank of Mt. Tenabo—a 9,000 ft peak in north central Nevada.
This existence, living in a tent, with dirt floors, with several small children could not have been easy on the young family. These were Jim’s early formative years, and it was likely full of challenges, hardships and the kind of humility that working in rain, sleet, heat and snow can bring.
The family eventually moved about an hour away into the unincorporated town of Battle Mountain: The Blue Gem turquoise mine was about 15 miles southwest of their new home. The mine site was active from 1938 – 1981, and the Elquist Family owned it from 1970 until it closed.
For a brief period after high school, Jim left Battle Mountain to serve in the military and when he returned, he continued the family’s work and started building his own family.
The Elquist Family mining company, through Jim’s commitment to his father’s legacy, began to sustain another generation with hard work, decency, caring and grit. After the Blue Gem mine closed, Jim continued to mine barite and gold with brothers Larry “Cougar” and John “Bugs”.
Today, the Blue Gem Mine is absorbed into the operation of Nevada Gold. So, it is a fact that Blue Gem turquoise is no longer being mined. Yet, to the very last year of his life, Jim still worked with his cache of raw stones, stored in old coffee cans.
He saw the treasure through the rubble processing it with intention and delicacy to preserve it’s the character of each piece, just as his father did before him. “He did what he loved. No one could set the stones like he could,” according to Jim’s most loyal customer and cherished friend Eddyann Filippini. “Because of his love of turquoise, he made me love it more. He had me hooked. He was a fun, good hearted person…A turquoise king who was a prince of a man.”
The family sincerely appreciates the museum preserving history of the Blue Gem mine and other hard-pick axe, stalwart and driven miners like Jim.