In his book, White Pines and Fires: A History of Cooperative Forestry in Idaho, by A.B. Curtis, 'Silent Joe' Cluty is described as very uncommunicative. He lived on the North Fork of the Clearwater for years.

Dwain Space, the assistant fire warden at Boehls Cabin, knew him fairly well and kept an eye out for him. Curtis says that when someone went to visit Joe that he often turned his chair around in a corner and face the wall, rather than visit with them.

Little was known of Joe. He went to town only rarely. The last time he went to town, he came back with an arm load of whiskey. Space found him in Larkins Cabin, dead, with empty whiskey bottles all over. He had evidently drunk himself to death in bed. Space had simply missed seeing him and dropped in to see if anything was wrong, Curtis concludes his account.

The Clearwater Story: A History of the Clearwater National Forest by Ralph Space, it says "Silent" Joe Klukey trapped along the river below the mouth of Isabella Creek from about 1930 to 1954. He died in his cabin opposite the mouth of Benton Creek.

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