11th Finglish trip July 2011 #13
John Haivala´s grandparents came from Finland in 1904. John´s grandfather served in the Army. His father was a mining engineer in Ishpeming, Michigan. John´s mother was an American Italian from Negaunee, Michigan. In his childhood John was called Jussi. John came to Wyoming in 1976. He has worked in the oilfield construction since 1973.
In 2002, John Haivala began building oil workers' homes in the North Dakota area of oil drilling. The North Dakota oil boom is largely due to the successful use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which have made tight oil deposits recoverable. Now John has 30-50 employees.
Initially, Haivalas lived part of the year in a camper van in the North Dakota oilfield until they purchased four houses for their workers and one for themselves. The ranch in Gillette they live on is 22,000 acres and his son now runs it. Mrs. Haivala is from the adjacent ranch and she is also busy in the oil industry, she runs their boarding houses.
Next Annette Oppedahl Custer Peak South Dakota USA