Jane Bates:
Born in San Andreas, Ca. Jan. 4 1942, raised in Mokelumne Hill, Ca. I come from a family of miners and prospectors. My Grandfather Edward Becker left his familly and went to Alaska to seek his fame and fortune. I don't know if he found either, but I do know he had a claim there. That was in Flats, as far as I know, he took a partner and after My grandfather died, told the family that he took out a few dollars. His partner also wanted to know if any family members could come up and help with the assessments, He also said that a big mining co. was interested in the property. I think the mine sold and the money was split up between the 7 children. This is just hearsay, I was not born when this took place.
My father Otto Henry Becker, Sr, born in Amador City on Feb. 24, 1897. Was also a miner and prospector, He worked several mines around there. He was 40 when he married my mother Joyce Sifers, she was younger than he at only 20. They had 7 children me being third in line
He then was forced to get a steady job. He went to work at Toyon Lumber mill as a night watchman. It was sometime during this period that him and his brother Ed bought a hardrock mine between West Point and Mokelumne Hill. I was talking with my cousin, Thelbert Sifers Jr. and he told me that he remembered carrying in boards, sometime one at a time, for them to build a cabin. After my Uncle died dad had to keep up the assessements him self and it was too much for him and he either turned it over to a nephew or let it go.
I remember the one time that he took us two oldest girls with him, it was quite a hike, we hicked up hill and down crossed fences and finally we came to the creek, there was a rope bridge, it was real scary looking. The cabin, and a big hole in the hill with a tailing pile. I don't know if they ever got any out of it. He did the assement work with my brother until he got too old to handle it. This is just one of my child hood memories and I did not get to envolved in the mining stuff so only know what I was told.
I would love to go back to the same place but I know it would not be the same. The old rope bridge, the cabin that has since been knocked down by vandals, everything is gone.
My father got into dredging, that was a lot easier for him, by then the boys were all old enough to help, he did a lot of dredging at Mokelumne River. I do know that they got real nice nuggets, because I seen the gold that was brought up out of the crevices. My mother is 82 years old and still has some of the gold. Some of it she used to take to a local Jeweler and he would give her money, then when she saved enough money she could buy her gold back, this helped her to supplement dad's income, it was hard to feed 7 kid's back then.
Al and I went camping at PiPi valley, got to messing around in the water and found a little color, all we had was a tablespoon and a lid, well we got the bug. Al used a water pump out of a chevy, and an old gas powered washing machine motor, with dryer hose we headed to the river, well, it all worked but there was not enought power to really suck, and the hose kept plugging up, we gave that up as a lost cause and decided to join the family with my mom's dredge.My father was alot older by then and did not do to much dredging and getting in the water, but he stood back and took a look at the rocks behind us. He told us where to dredge, and told me about pulling up grass roots. There was a crack in the rock behind us that went into the river. His advice was good advice, they got gold from the dredge and I got gold from the roots. My father died Jan 10, 1974 at the age of 77. I wish he was still here so he could tell me where to look. That was many years ago and we still had a living to make.
Well Al is retired now and we both love to do all sorts of prospecting, were not expecting to get rich, only to just find gold. If we find the big one it would be a plus.