Aj Mitchell

1948 - 2018

AJ Mitchell
1948-2018
AJ was born in Blackfoot, Idaho, to AJ Mitchell Sr. and Laura Thornton. He spent a majority of his childhood camping in the Lost River Range and the Pahsimeroi Valley where his dad taught him how to make a camp comfortable by using natural materials to make outdoor furnishings and camp necessities. This was the beginning of a lifetime of innovative craftsmanship. AJ spent several summers in the Challis area bucking hay and fell in love with the valley. While attending Blackfoot High School, he worked at the Ford Garage and graduated in 1968. He attended ISU briefly, then BSU. While at BSU he worked at Alexander's Men's Clothing, becoming a store manager, and then for Ada County Highway District.
In the early 1970's, his friend Joe introduced him to the world of diamond core drilling, where they could work on top of mountains and discover more of the magic Earth has to offer. AJ began as a drill helper and in no time became a driller for several core drilling companies including Longyear in Alaska, Washington, Nevada, northern Idaho, and Minnesota. In 1977 AJ and Joe decided to try geotechnical drilling with the Idaho Department of Transportation, which offered the opportunity to explore every corner of Idaho. There he met Toni Spiker, a BSU geology intern for ITD, and fell in love.
In 1979 AJ began a drilling career with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, working all over the Pacific Northwest Region, retrieving structural integrity information for the Safety of Dams Program. He and Toni married in 1980, and on their honeymoon AJ introduced her to his favorite places near Challis.
In 1985 AJ accepted a position stationed at Arrowrock Dam to take a break from traveling and be home to enjoy their newly expanding family of Megan and Seth. Living on a dam was a very different lifestyle and Tim Woodward interviewed AJ (published in the Statesman May 28, 1989) and summed up his amazing sense of humor!
In 1989, AJ returned to the Drill Crew as the Assistant Foreman, and later Drill Foreman for both the Pacific Northwest and Mid-Pacific regions. The Challis valley continued to lure AJ and in 1996 he took a leave of absence to work for Allied Building Materials.
AJ was a true outdoorsman. He loved to hunt, fish, backpack, hike, cross country ski, golf, and raft. His cousin Steve took him on a fishing trip in Alaska and then opened the door to rafting the Main and Middle Forks of the Salmon–River experiences that expanded his world of friendships.
AJ's goal was to have his own shop to create works of art from repurposed metal, wood, and rock. While on the road he ate peanut butter and jelly to save money to buy his tools and began to collect an inventory of materials for his projects. He would get an idea and draw a sketch, sometimes on a bar napkin! He had so many projects ahead of him. He and his buddy Dorian could fix and make anything; they were quite the team of brain-stormers and loved going to auctions to collect more!
AJ and Toni purchased 20 acres north of Challis, where AJ worked his summers as a youth. They built their house with Toni's dream kitchen and his dream shop, completed in 2017. His shop was a virtual museum, where friends could spend hours enjoying displays of the most fascinating collections, while listening to AJ's jokes and stories. And, everything was perfectly organized, in typical AJ fashion.
He was an artist, a joke teller, a great friend to hundreds, mechanic, welder, woodworker, lapidary, and you- name-it kind of guy. He appreciated a good beer, fine wine and smooth scotch–Raise a glass to him!
AJ died suddenly from complications of a hiatal hernia on October 30, 2018. He is survived by his wife Toni, children Megan Mitchell Corn (Randy) and Seth Robert Mitchell, sister Susan Ayotte, and grandchildren Jayla, Gemma and Maddex. We miss him terribly.