Madera County, California GenWeb - Madera Genealogies: KOONTZ

The Whitfields are descended from Thure Strombeck and Mimilette

Ancestry HERE

Erwin Thomas Whitfield was born 23 Feb 1901 in Coarsegold and died 19 Dec 1996 in Madera County. 1984 interview by Coarsegold Historical Society.

Eldridge Allen Whitfield Jr. was born 29 June 1930 in Fresno and died 31 March 2020 in Oakhurst. 1993 interview by Coarsegold Historical Society.

NAME:	WHITFIELD, ERWIN THOMAS (E.T.)
SOURCE:	Tape-recorded conversation
PLACE:	Home of Richard and Virginia Jansen, Coarsegold, California
DATE:	March 15, 1984

INTERVIEWERS: Lily Light and Virginia Jansen

My maternal grandmother, Mrs. Mary (Tom) Jones, was born here and my mother, Nellie Jones Whitfield, too; she was a midwife. I was gone from this area for about 25 to 30 years. I first worked in the "Bay Area"; I wound up in San Jose. However, I used to Come back to visit Coarsegold very often.

I was born in Coarsegold at either Hawkin's Valley or Texas Flat, I'm not sure which, on February 23, 1901. My mother's father, Tom Jones, came to Hawkins Valley in the early 180()'s. He and Grandfather Strombeck were two of the first settlers in this area. On Trabucco Road in Coarsegold was where my mother's grandfather stayed in the time of the Gold Rush. His name was William Strombeck. According to records, he was supposed to have owned all of Coarsegold at one time. The story goes that he lost it in gambling; whether it's so or not, I don't know. That was before there was anything here at all.

Tom Jones is the one who settled Hawkins Valley (north of Coarsegold). He owned all that land clear down to Highway 41 and across the highway, where the old Hawkins School used to be. He gave the property for Hawkins School in the area known as ''Pneumonia Gulch" [between Thornberry Road and Serpas Road].

Believe it or not, there once was a sawmill there near the creek [in the "Pneumonia Gulch" area]. When I was a kid, we used to watch oxen with yokes on them haul the logs. I don't think they took the yokes off of those oxen for months at a time; I guess it was too hard to put them back on.

Nearby Thornberry Mountain used to have chutes. When logs were cut, theyd go down the chute to the bottom. There were landings where they would load the logs on to old wagons with wooden wheels. They used a "peavey" which has a long handle with a big hook on it. The men hooked it over the log and pulled it to roll it. I have a "peavey''--1 don't know where it came from.

The people who first came to Mariposa and this area were Spanish. My uncle, also named Tom Jones, had a mine, the Golden Ribbon Mine. When he went to Mariposa, I used to go and stay with him. I would get extra jobs in mines where I worked with him. My uncle leased a mine at Mid-Pines called Filiciana with John Elam. An old arastra is still there. They mined with an arastra like this: they built up rocks like a tub; flat rocks were on the bottom; a post stood in the center; a short piece stuck out past the pole [like an inverted "L"]. That's what they hooked the big rock to. Then, they hooked a mule onto this tongue and the mule went around and around. He dragged the big rock around crushing the rock [freeing] the gold. They took the richest gold out but you could go over to the dump later and pick up all kinds of rock specimens with gold still in them! You can imagine what they took and what they ground up. That's how rich the ore was! When they leased the mine it was still rich, but it had too much water in it. They had to pump 24 hours a day to go into it.

There was not much gold out of Coarsegold [at that time, around the early 1920's] as Coarsegold was the end of what they called the Mother Lode, an off-shoot really. When I was a kid, my uncle, Tom Jones, used to work in the Texas Flat Mine. My father, William Whitfield, ran twenty-stamp mill. At that time, Texas Flat Mine had a "battery" of five stamps; they moved over and put in five more until they had twenty stamps. I used to go there when I was a kid and watch my father run it.

The stamp was about a foot across--a big, iron rod-big and heavy! It had a "shoe" at the bottom. The shoe was a big, round thing with a hole in it and a key. When the stamp was working all the time, it gradually wore down; then the key was taken out and a new stamp or shoe was put on. I used to watch my father do that, too. The stamp dropped over and over again, crushing the rock, separating the gold ore. The rock couldn't get out because a fine screen was used. The crushed rock would be like flour--even finer--before it would go through that screen. There was a plate, which had to be copper, with a kind of a pitch to it and water running over it all the time. They took "quicksilver" (or mercury) and rubbed it on the copper. The gold stuck to that quicksilver instead of going off down the hill. It got to the stage where it was "loaded."

There was a box down at the end, and every few hours my father would go and pan the fine stuff that was going over to see if there was gold going over the plate. If there was, he'd stop and scrape all of it up. He'd put it into what you call a "retort", which was like a still, a big iron ball. He'd build a fire under the ball; there was a tube which came out and went into water and a jug-like thing (a pot). The heat vaporized the quicksilver, which could be used again because it condensed. Then the ball would be opened and there was a big ball of gold! The retort was like a big pot, bolted down tight.

The only mine I knew that paid was the Texas Flat Mine, which was owned by a Mr. Lawrence. He was supposed to have owned an orange orchard down around Los Angeles. He ran the mine then. My father used to fire the boilers which ran by steam. The big, old fire boxes had great, long, wooden planks like posts. I saw them shoveling those posts into the fire box to make the steam, which ran the things inside the mine.

Mr. Lawrence came down here to the Fresno River and put in the generator. Then they had electricity; it was down by Dupzyk's Ranch, across there in the river rocks where the river runs almost like a natural flume-right below that. A water wheel--that's what it was-turned the generator. This was around 1908 or '09. Before they got electricity, I used to watch them fire the boilers. It was steam that ran all the drills and hoists-everything was steam. It shut down around 1907.

The Hawkeye Mine made a little money here in Coarsegold, but it didn't make much. The Langs had it in the 1930's.

Sandy McGilvrays dad, Al McGilvray, married one of the Krohns. Al talked my father into going down to the granite quarry to run the plant there. So we moved to the quarry--I think it was in 1908.

My father, William Whitfield, died at the quarry in 1914 when he was only 38 years old. He died of typhoid pneumonia. (He had typhoid fever and then he got pneumonia.) In those days there were no doctors nearby. The doctors had to come up from Madera to the quarries. You can imagine how long that took!

I went to school in Coarsegold [corner of Highway 41 and Raymond Road] until I went down to the quarry. We lived in a house up by the Texas Flat Mine. There is an old graveyard on the hill, where we used to go to play when we were kids. We lived in a house right across the creek, where a big, old live oak is now; there used to be some water oak trees there, too.

I lived at the quarry in my early years; I was working at McGilvray’s Quarry around 1917 or 1918. There were two quarries there. The McGilvray family owned the old quarry farther from Knowles, the McGilvray Quarry.

I used to go to school in Knowles.

When we first went to the quarry--I was just a kid-old John McGilvray was still alive. He used to come down from San Francisco, but Al McGilvray ran the quarry. That was his end of it. The stonecutters used to do a lot of work by hand. They’d be working on a piece of stone and if they looked around too long, John would fire them! He'd never be around but for a few days, and when he left, all those guys were put back to work again.

In between school, we used to be "tool boys." Stonecutters used all kinds of chisels, you know, and we'd take them to the blacksmith shop. There were a lot of shops for sharpening tools and when the tools were sharpened, we took them to the stone cutters. The tools all had numbers on them and the stonecutters had boxes with numbers; they used to put the [numbered] tools in the [numbered] boxes. They had two or three different kinds of chisels; they had pointers, big flat ones, and so on.

There must have been a couple of hundred workers when I worked at McGilvray’s. Not only that, they had to have quarry men to quarry what they took out; it was all hand labor. There were a lot of stonecutters working, too.

The houses for the quarry at Knowles went almost to the school, a Catholic Church now, and on the other side. Down over a bank across the creek, were houses, too; there were also houses on the lower road. There was a store, a post office, and a barber shop up at the old boarding house at Knowles.

They had a dance hall at McGilvray's and a recreation hall with pool tables. The workers used to gamble in those days, and they had movies. Dewey, my brother, used to run the movies. There was a dance hall over at Raymond as well as the one at Knowles. We used to go to dances nearly every weekend. The dance hall in Raymond was next to that old store that still stands in Raymond [on the west side of the main road].

When we lived at McGilvray^’s quarry, we lived above the quarry; then we lived at Knowles at the northeast end. All of the houses were wooden with quarry stone foundations.

One guy I remember really well was Bill Fraser; he used to help my father run the plant at McGilvray. When my father passed away, Bill took over the plant.

The town of Knowles got its name from the people who owned the quarry. They were from San Francisco, also; there was only one Knowles, that I ever knew, who came down. He was what they called a "sport": he drove big cars.

There weren't many cattle raised around Raymond for some reason. The big cattlemen were farther down, below Raymond, toward Madera--Daulton and Buchenau.

About Clay Daulton: he used to take cattle up in the mountains; a lot of times coming out, he'd need help. Dick Jones (my youngest uncle) and I were both kids, then. We'd help them for a day or two. That's how I knew the Daultons. They had a big ranch and they shipped cattle out of Daulton Station. Caesar Vignolo had a ranch joining the Daulton Ranch on the side toward the foothills, north. Vignolo used to buy and sell in the fall of the year, especially with my uncle, Tom Jones. Mr. Vignolo used to buy all of Uncle Tom's steers. I used to deliver them to Raymond for Vignolo; Johnny Krohn and Mr. Koontz had a butcher shop in Raymond.

In the early 1900's there was an old road through Coarsegold, down Coarsegold Creek, south to Bates Station. That's the only road that I went down.

There was the Raymond Road (Road 415) and there was the old River Road (Road 400). The present River Road (Road 400) was built later.

The old Grub Gulch Road (Road 600) is old. Stages used to use it years ago. (Those were the horsedrawn stages that went up to Yosemite.) The same old road goes south from Raymond to Madera. They cut out a few turns, but today it is the same road.

For a long time trains used to come into Raymond. The passengers came in and then were picked up by horse-drawn stages.

I don't remember the horse stages, but I remember old cars. One of the Elams used to drive one of those cars. I used to ride in it with Tom Elam. We'd go over and wash his old car; then us a ride. All of the other kids would get mad at us because we'd get to ride. They were mostly open cars. They went up Chowchilla Mountain and down into Wawona. (That was before the later road was built. Convicts built the road through Briceburg up to El Portal. That's the one that goes out of Mariposa right through Mid-Pines. They worked from Briceburg up to El Portal--blasted all the rock and stuff out of the mountain!)

In the early days there were no trucks to haul freight into Sugar Pine mill; they had teams and wagons. They had two big horses in the wheel and six, eight, or ten mules ahead of that to pull two wagons. The wagons weren't long; there were two short wagons.

The old well that was in the center of the street in Coarsegold is in old pictures; going up teams would go on the right-hand side of the well. I used to watch the horses on the left-hand side of the team; they had snap bridles; they could drink, but the old teamsters had buckets they would dip into and out of the trough. Then they’d walk around the outside of the team and water all of the horses on the outside. The same guys coming down would do the same thing on the other side of the well. The well was removed around 1935 or 1936 [when Highway 41 came through].

Going from Coarsegold up, the old road [prior to Highway 411 had some pretty sharp turns in it. Mules were trained so that if they were going around a sharp turn, they’d pull this wagon into the bank. The next four mules, who were ahead of the horses, were hooked with chains. The driver would speak to those old mules and they'd get over and they’d pull to keep the wagon from going into the bank. When the wagon got around the turn, the driver would speak to the mules and they'd get back over the chain and pull the wagon straight. I used to watch them all the time.

We hauled freight from Coarsegold to Sugar Pine. When you got to the top of Deadwood Mountain, you'd take the old, right-hand road [Road 425B]. I don't know how they ever got the wagons around that turn! The first four leaders had names. They had a thing over the top that had bells, and you could hear them coming. Some places they couldn't pass. There were no bridges; you had to ford all the creeks. I used to wonder how those mules would get over and pull so the wagon wouldn't go up the bank.

There were ranches everywhere. If you had a ranch, you fenced off a place where you'd raise your own grain; you didn't buy any hay for the stock; you had pastures for your saddle horses and your work horses. Otherwise, the animals were all loose.

My grandfather Jones and my uncles used to mark and brand their calves in the spring. Most of the ranchers had mountain ranches like Beasore Meadows or Soquel or Jackass. Some of the old cows that had been going up there for years would go up themselves, but you'd have to drive some of them. The drives would go clear to the other side of Raymond and the cattle would stay there all winter, believe it or not.

In the spring of the year, all the farmers and ranchers at O'Neals and everyplace else would get together. They’d take their pack horses; my uncles Tom and Freeman Jones would take two pack horses. They’d go down and gather all of the cattle in one great big bunch. They got that country "rode out," you might say. Each farmer would part out his herd of cattle and take it to his ranch. This country was all open: there weren't any fences. You had to raise your own grain as you couldn't buy any then; you might buy from your neighbor. They didn't raise any alfalfa. I used to plant grain every year but you only had pasture for your saddle horses or work horses. When I first got this ranch in the early 1930s my cattle ran all over the country.

The only persons I recall who lived in Oakhurst were people named Nichols. In the early days there were the Wrights and Murrays, also. Some people named Scanlon lived [past Oakhurst a ways].

There was a road that went up Thornberry Mountain to the Mudge place; it didn't go over the ridge; it just dead-ended at the top of the ridge. The Mudges were up there as long as I can remember. Below the Mudges, the house next to the road was the Fhys. My grandfather was over there along with the Fhys and the Mudges - they were the only ones in that area that I can remember.

Coarsegold, at one time, had more people than Oakhurst. Denver Church, who was a congressman, owned all the land at the north end of Bass Lake. We used to go up and ride after cattle before there was any Bass Lake. (There might have been a smaller dam.) I remember there were big flats. Dick Jones would take us kids and we'd gather all the cattle. If the cattle got bunched together, we'd have to herd them while the men went to look for more. We used to hold them in the flat which was almost down at "The Pines."

Claude Williams first built some of the little cabins [at present day Bass Lake]; then he built a store and dance hall at "The Falls." Claude was married to my Aunt Grace (Jones).

You can go up the old Thornberry Road which used to be a different road. When you get almost to the top of the Oakhurst hill [Deadwood], there was a little crooked road--that was called the Thornberry Road. You came out near the end of Bass Lake. We used to drive cattle through there all the time.

There were eight of us in the family. Dewey was the oldest. He passed away last year [1982 or 19831. Then there was Ella, then me: then there's Ola, Velma, Eldridge, Howard, and Leslie. Leslie has passed away, too. I had the nickname "Tuffy" in younger years. I think "Doc" Krohn gave it to me.

When I went to school, there were Indians here. Not too many used to go to school here. The Neals really had a wigwam. They had one boy and one girl, Johnnie and Sophie. I went to school with them and I used to go play with them all of the time. They had a regular wigwam, with a fire in the center. At night, they’d all sleep around the circle with their feet to that fire.

I don't know what the teepee was made of but it was a real one. It may have been made of some kind of leather hides. When one of the Indians died, whatever he had they burned. You used to see the prettiest baskets you ever saw put into the fire and burned up! They did celebrate the burial; most of the Indians here were buried over at Picayune.

There was an old mill by the bottom of French Gulch, next to the river. We used to ride after Uncle Tom's cattle and clear over to Bailey Flat. Kates had cattle, and they'd come clear over to Uncle Tom's with theirs. When we went, we had to go down to French Gulch.

There were a lot of miners at Grub Gulch. When they wanted a grubstake, they’d go down to the gulch to the Fresno River and placer mine. That's where "Grub Gulch" got the name.

My father and my uncle had the Hard Citizen Mine. It's where the Melvins are now, up there in the chamise brush [a California shrub that forms a dense chaparral].

I took up some land on the "Grazing Act." On the old Homestead Act you had to live on your land for six months out of the year. In the Grazing Act, you didn't have to live on it; all you had to do was fence it, put stock on it, and develop a spring. I didn't know that until after I got it.

There was an old building known as the blacksmith shop at the Hard Citizen Mine. My cousin and I (I couldn't have been more than 12 or 14 years old) took my uncle's old horse and double-horse wagon and we tore the old building down. We brought it up and put it over on my land. My uncle, Mac Jones, filed on the same land that I got but he didn't prove out on it. My Uncle Tom's wife, Ella, had a brother. He filed on it and he didn't get it, so in about 1928 or 1929 my uncle said to me, "Why don't you file on it before someone else does?" I filed on it and I got close to 450 or 500 acres.

There used to be Indians at Oakhurst, up the old road that goes to Bass Lake. A few of them had teepees. Most of them had little one-room cabins, but there were several teepees there when I was a kid.

The Indians called Deadwood "Bad Mountain" because it had red dirt. It's "Deadwood" now, but it used to be called "Deadman's Peak." There was a guy up there--no one knew who he was or where he came from--that several people heard hollering up on the mountain for a couple of days! Nobody went up to see about him. Later, this dead guy was found. At that time, there were wild hogs up there. (They weren't really wild hogs; they were tame hogs that had got away and gone "wild"). They claim the hogs tore the man up. He's buried up there by a big tree; I've never seen a tree like it: it's big around and it's perfect. There's a big mound of rocks where they buried him right there. It's by the lookout on Deadwood Mountain.

The first time we went into Yosemite by horse and wagon we went up through Oakhurst; that road missed Sugar Pine and went on top of the ridge to Fish Camp. It was just a little road; I think it took us two days to go from Coarsegold.

Uncle Freeman used to go to Yosemite on the Fourth of July. At that time, soldiers patrolled the park and they had a horse show on a big meadow every Fourth of July. We used to go and watch them, to see what the horses could do. I think that meadow was where the Ahwahnee Hotel is now.

I worked for five years in Yosemite National Park. There was an old Indian lady there, and the government had her make acorn patties for the tourists. She'd make them right in front of you and cook them over hot rocks. You could take them or eat them.

The Indians' hair was mostly long--braided, and hanging down. The women wore big, long dresses. Some, not all, of the men had long hair. One Indian that lived above Coarsegold was an albino--"Chicago Dick." He wore a hat (or something) all the time; had it right down over his eyes because they said he had pink eyes.

My first wife taught school at Grub Gulch in 1926 or '27; her name was Celia Shankman and she was from San Francisco. I met her at a dance at Raymond. She taught here in Coarsegold for a while.

I never drove any horse teams, but I used to drive my uncle's wagons. He had a "spring" wagon; he also had a "work" wagon; you could haul hay or things like that on it with two horses. My Uncle Tom Jones' place went clear up to Beasore Meadows. You either went horseback or you went in a wagon: you couldn't go in a car. I think you could get to Soquel in a car, but you couldn't get to Beasore Meadows [in the early 1920's or before].

My first car was a 1923 Model-T Ford, but it was about 1925 when I got it. I sold it to Ray Ruell and he still has it.

We celebrated Christmas at home. We had dances above the store in Coarsegold.

The name Strombeck on my mother's side was Swedish. Jones was Welch. My mother was Swedish, Welch, and Chukchansi Indian. My grandfather and father were ranchers.

I just can't remember the Colmores [early Coarsegold settlers] but I know where they lived. They lived near the end of present-day McAllister Road.

I remember they used to have "shivarees" [charivaries – mock serenades]. A couple got married and people would all get together and come up to the bride and groom's house. They'd start beating on dish pans and cans. Then, they'd all come in and have a party. They didn't have the "shivaree" until some time had gone by after the wedding. The couple would expect them but they wouldn't know when. There would be food and dancing at the party.

The only wedding I remember going to was in the old church at Oakhurst on the hill on Road 425B. I don't know where the couple got their license so they could get married.

NAME: Eldridge J. "Sonny" Whitfield

SOURCE : Tape recorded interview

PLACE : In the home of "Sonny" Whitfield, Oakhurst, California DATE: May 14, 1993

INTERVIEWERS : Ola Marie Faso and Marjorie Jackson

QUESTION: Could you tell us who your parents are and where they came from?

My father's name was Eldridge Whitfield and he was born in Coarsegold in 1906. My mother was Lucy Ellen Doyle, and she was born in Paducah, Kentucky in 1904.

QUESTION: Do you have any information on your grandparents?

On my father's side, my grandfather was William Benjamin Whitfield. I think he was born in Coarsegold. His father, my great—grandfather, was William Wilkinson Whitfield. He was born in 1843 and died in 1893 and he was buried in Oakhurst Cemetery. I just went up to check it today to be sure I had my dates. right. He was buried there 100 years ago this year. My father's mother was Nell Jones and she was born right on the old ranch, the old homestead, here in Hawkins Valley (NOTE: between Coarsegold and Oakhurst) , which was a large Indian village. In fact, Tom Jones, the father to Tom Jones who established Beasore Store, homesteaded that ranch and began the whole thing. Tom Jones and my grandmother were brother and sister. On my mother's side, their name was Doyle and they came from Kentucky They weren't native to California.

QUESTION: What was the the Joneses reason for coming to California?

They were just here a long, long time and I don't really know. I think old Grandpa Jones came around the Horn from Wales. The Whitfields, I don't know. The only record I have is William Wilkinson Whitfield, born in 1843, but I don't know where. He raised his family in Coarsegold and died in 1893.

QUESTION: Where were you born?

I was born in Hawkins Valley, just on the other side of the hill ( from Oakhurst) . My father was a flume walker and my mother was a teacher at Hawkins School. That's how they come to meet. They were married in 1929, in June, and I was born in June in 1930. I grew up there was a child and my first recollection of life here was when I was abaout 2 1/2 years old. I can remember some things back then — you're not supposed to be able to, but I can recall some things.

QUESTION: Like what?

Well, the first thing that hits me is the big snowstorm. My father had to walk me in from the little road to the house and it seemed to me like the snow was clear up to the window sill, We couldn't drive in.

QUESTION: Where was the old road?

That was the old road that goes off to the top of Deadwood there, and goes down when it hits four lanes. You had to make that detour around the old house that's down on that road.

QUESTION: Before the curve, before they put that Highway 41 in?

Oh yes. There was an old dirt road that, all the way from Fri ant it was just a dirt road, no pavement at all. It was a long drive from Fresno to get to Coarsegold. That was a long, dusty road, through O'Neal s down to Bates Station, up to what they now call Blackhawk Lodge, along in there. When I was five or six years old my father was working then on the highway, that's now Highway 41. He worked on that.

QUESTION: Did you go to school in Hawkins Valley?

No, 1 didn't. I went to school in Fresno. When I was older my parents moved to Fresno. That was in 1941, or before.

QUESTION: What about grammar school?

I went to grammar school in Fresno. I was six or seven years old. And then I went to my schooling down there. When I graduated from high school I entered college for a year or so and I got too ambitious; I wanted to go to work, so I went to Yosemite and I spent thirty years in Yosemite National Park.

QUESTION: Tell us about that.

It was quite an experience. My kids, who are now 38 and 29, were all born there. Their names are Rodney Whitfield, my older son, and Matthew Clyde, my younger son.

QUESTION: will you tell us more about Yosemite, and how it was.

My first trip to Yosemite, in fact, was when I was about six years old, and I remember Highway 41 was in various stages of being of being worked on. That was an all day trip. You had to take your lunch from Coarsegold to Yosemite, because that was a long, long haul up there in those days.

QUESTION: Did you do it in one day?

Yes. It was one day, but it was a long day. And those old cars in those days — the old '38 Harriot automobiles, Fords and Chevrolets, that's about all there was on the road, but still, that's what got you there and back. It took a long time.

QUESTION: Is the road now similar to what it was then?

Yes, it is. The road I was on is the road as it is now. The old road was an old stage road, which was way back before my time.

QUESTION: The stage road was 621 or thereabouts?

Yes. It goes up to Stagecoach Road, or at least part of it. It goes up by Bissetts. It wandered way on up around what they called China Wells, and way out through Central Camp, and dropped down into Wawona. It was a long ways down there.

QUESTION: You have seen Oakhurst grow quite a bit, tell us about it?

Very much so. My first recollection of Oakhurst way back when

I can first remember right here by where Highway 49 joins Highway 41 now, it was just a little old kind of white bar and a gas station. It belonged to Eddy Moran.

QUESTION: Was that right at the intersection on the Raley (grocery store) side?

No, on the other side of Highway 41. And, of course, where

Raleys is, that was always big meadows, nothing but big meadows, That was my first recollection of Oakhurst just that one little bar and gas station there. I don't remember anything else.

QUESTION: Was the gas station where the present Chevron Station is now?

No, the gas station sat right where Eddy's bar was; it was a bar and gas station. The whole thing was kind of right there together; kind of a little store, where you could come in to get food

QUESTION: Was the flume still running then?

Yes, it was. The flume shortly after that was dismantled.

QUESTION: What year, about?

I can't tell you the year. I have pictures of myself on the flume there. I was less than two years old, so that was about 1931, and the flume was still in operation. I think it worked right on up through, probably, 33, 34. I can't be certain about that, but I know when I was six years old the flume already had been dismantled. By 1936 it had been done away with.

QUESTION: The Depression hit?

Yes.

QUESTION: Will you tell us some of the experiences when you were working up in Yosemite?

Well, my first experience was getting started up there as a laborer, the years that I spent there. Then I spent some time in the Marine Corps when I was about 19 years old. I spent several years there, and I came back. I didn't have any intentions, at that time, of going back with the Curry Company (NOTE: the then managing company of Yosemite) • I was going to stay home a few days and then go out and find a job someplace. I was discharged at that time. I'd only been home one day and the personnel manager, who knew me from before, called me and said, "Son, if you 're going to be here for a little while we could use you." So I said, "Well, yes. I've got nothing to do. "

QUESTION: How old were you when you first started?

I was seventeen. Between the Marine Corps and my working career at Yosemite, I spent 29 years at Yosemite when I retired.

QUESTION: What was your job?

Well, I went all the way from greenskeeper, (Ahwahnee Hotel then had a pitch and putt golf course) when I was 17 years old, and a maintenance man, up to the management when I finally retired.

QUESTION: Tell about the snowstorms and animals?

Oh, well I know the record snowfall at Badger Pass Lodge was something just over 18 feet, right at the lodge. And, that was established, I think, in 1951 and '52. I ^tm not sure what it did this year. It might well have met that. Of course, I used to see two feet — that wasn't uncommon here in one snowstorm. But, you won't notice that any more. It was at that time. The winters were a lot more severe. And the summers were hot, too, but still the winters and rains seemed like a lot more. Seemed like it's been a steady dry spell for over a period of years. The averages keep shrinking. I can remember, as a child, that Coarsegold

Creek was a running creek all summer. Fresno River runs through Oakhurst, Willow Creek runs into Bass Lake and Coarsegold Creek runs right on out through Coarsegold. That used to run all summer. Willow Creek, they call it, but it's actually part of Chilacoot Creek . I always called it Chilacoot Creek because it comes out of Chilacoot Lake up toward Beasore Meadows There's also a dam on it. It's a small diversion.

QUESTION: Does Pacific Gas and Electric own that?

I think so. I think they have something to do with all those dams. I remember the first time going into Yosemite, bears were there quite a bit.

QUESTION: Will you tell some of your experiences with them?

Well, none that were bad experiences. They were all pleasant ones . Several times you'd get kind of a start because they surprised you in the dark. Walking at night sometimes they'd walk right up to you and you're just real close before you realize it, and that gives you a start. But, they never bothered you.

QUESTION: Has the forest changed much?

Yes, it has. It's a lot denser and so much more undergrowth, even in this area here, now. These hills never were brushy like they are now, There were always a lot more oak trees and a lot more open ground and not near the brush that you see today.

COMMENT: Yes, I understand virgin forest doesn't have the chaparral underneath.

No, there was a lot of oak trees and a few pines, low pines, but not too much chaparral, manzanita and all this other brush that's gotten started. It wasn't near like it is now. Even Yosemite had a lot less timber.

QUESTION: Do you think it's from excessive cutting down of trees?

Protection, too much protection. They've protected for so long. You know, years ago they used to get wildfires and they'd clean up a lot of that stuff and they'd burn up the little stuff

around the ground and not really kill the bigger trees. Now, there's so much underbrush that when a fire gets hot now, it takes everything. Before, it wasn't like that, because there wasn't so much on the ground!

COMMENT : I imagine you have seen quite a few fires besides the Harlow.

Yes, but that was the biggest one. It burned from Usona all the way over to here. It even jumped Highway 41. A short way up, there at the top of the hill (Deadwood) , it jumped the highway right there, in a small area, and it went to the top of that next hill on the left. But it just burned around there a little bit, and they put that right out. They didn't want it to get going on up towards Thornberry, or they would have had another mess on their hands. They wanted to stop it at Highway 41, and they did hold it there.

COMMENT ; I understand it ran down to the Broken Bit?

It did. It came in right behind Broken Bit. In fact, it went all the way down to my uncle's property, which goes in behind the Nugget in Coarsegold. You drive in there and go back over toward Buckeye ridge where his ranch is in that area, and it burned all around there. He lost some cattle in the fire.

QUESTION: Getting back to your genealogy, I failed to get the names of your brothers and sisters.

Well, my brother next to me, who is 61 now, is William Keith Whitfield. He lives in Haley, Idaho. My younger brother, who is four years younger than myself, lives in Fresno. His name is James Stanley Whitfield. (William) Keith has two boys, Bill Whitfield and Jim. Jim lives in El Portal and Bill lives here in Oakhurst. My younger brother has a son named Mark, and he lives in Fresno.

QUESTION: What is your wife's name?

My wife's maiden name was Janet Gann. She was from the Gann family from Mariposa. We met just after I was discharged out of the service and she was working in Yosemite and we met there.

QUESTION: Is she from an old—time family, also?

The old Gann family, from Mariposa. The Ganns —— there's still many of those left over there. And, I think there's several here in Oakhurst, too second cousins and things like that.

QUESTION: Will you tell us of some colorful experiences that happened either here or up in Yosemite?

Everything was fun up at Yosemite when we lived there. We never really had any bad experiences. Everything was rather calm and nice. We loved it there. I ^tm glad I was able to spend the time I did there. It's changed somewhat since then.

QUESTION: Did you ever go out on any fires?

I fought a fire one time when I was, I guess, in my mid—twenties , That was in Yosemite National Parka. it was what they called the Rancher ia Fire, which is the mountain there they called Rancher ia just the other side of Hetch Hetchy. It was started in September by a thunderstorm and they wanted it put out, so it took about two weeks to get it put out. You couldn't get any equipment in there to it; everything had to be packed in on your back. Didn't have any planes. Planes didn't drop any retardant in those days.

QUESTION: Where did your kids go to school?

My children went to school in Mariposa.

QUESTION: Did they board there in Mariposa?

My older boy did. He boarded there and was in sports, and he had to ride the bus all the time, back and forth, from Mariposa to Yosemite. So, we boarded him out during the sports. My younger boy, though, had already finished high school here in this area at Yosemite High School, here in Oakhurst.

QUESTION: How far was it from Mariposa to Yosemite Valley?

Forty-six miles. And they drove that down and back every day . It was an hour down and an hour back. The kids caught the bus at 7:00 in the morning and they didn't get back until about 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening. They had a long day to go to school.

question; Will you tell about the whit-field family now?

In addition to Irwin (nicknamed E. T. ) who you already met (NOTE: See As We Were Told, Whitfield chapter) and my father, who we've already talked about, there were quite a few brothers and sisters. I hope I got them all. There was Dewey, who was the oldest.

QUESTION: Brother and sister to whom?

These are all brothers and sisters to E.T. and my father. The older one, Dewey, was born, in believe, in Raymond. He married a girl over in O 'Neal s, one of the Topping ladies. And then he passed away over in O'Neals. Then there was Ella Mae Whitfield. She became an 01 i vas. She married a man from out of the area. And then Olla — her first husband was one of the Elams. A second husband was a man who worked in Southern California. I don't know how they got together. And then there was Velma, who is still alive and lives in Colton, down near San Bernardino (California) . Then there was Howard, who is still alive and lives in Washington State with his daughter. Leslie, the youngest of the family, lived here and passed away here.

QUESTION: Will you tell of the Jones family?

Ella Mae Jones was Tom Jones first wife. And then Hilda Jones is Tom's second wife. Hilda was married first to Mr. Black before she married Tom Jones. Ella Mae Jones was Tom's first wife. They had no children,

QUESTION: Did they live at Beasore?

Yes, that's the same one. Thomas Jones —— the original Thomas Jones. I think he was the one that came around the Horn in a schooner into San Francisco and then got into Coarsegold, some how or other, and married an Indian princess there, of the Chukchansi tribe. I don't know how many kids they had; must have been about fifteen of them, maybe more . Tom Jones, who started the tom Jones store that was the old original Tom Joneses son. Tom Jones his original ranch was the one that Hilda lives on now, in Coarsegold. The Tom Beasore, the only recollection I have of them is having heard my father talk about them. They had a ranch, which is somewhere the turkey ranch now over in Apple Valley, here at the foot of Thornsberry mountain. The old Beasore ranch was in that area, but I don't know exactly where. There was an old story that went around years ago that the last grizzly bear that had killed a person in this area, had killed one of the Tom Beasore's children, right there in the Thornberry area.

QUESTION: Was he the original owner of the Jones Store?

I don't think so. I think Thom actually built that himself.

QUESTION: His son?

Yes. And the lumber that they built that out of is an old story, too. A lot of people thought that they milled it there, but they didn't, There was an old house over here, which belonged to the Harbour family, the old Harbour Ranch. I think Tom Jones' property in Coarsegold encompassed that old Harbour Ranch, and in doing so, that old building that was there, he hauled that lumber up there and built the original Beasore Store. He hauled it up there in wagon loads and built it.

COMMENT: Now I understand Johnny Jones knew Tom Beasore, the son, quite well.

Right. Tom Jones just took Johnny Jones in. His real name was John Alberta. When I first remember Johnny, he was about seventeen years old. He came up here from Patterson (California) , and all he had was a saddle. He got to Coarsegold somehow and I guess he started helping Tom with some cattle, or something, and then went to Beasore. Johnny went up there with Tom for the summer and packed for him. He just worked that way with Tom, and Tom kind of ——it wasn't a legal adoption but Johnny did take the Jones name; he'd been associated with Tom for so long. That how that all came about.

QUESTION: Are you also related to the Herschfelts?

Yes. My second cousin, Freema, was married to Milton Herschfelt. In fact, they were the last to live on the old ranch. They just sold it here, maybe a year, year and a half ago. 1 understand somebody from Mariposa has it now. There was a big Indian village there, and I'm not sure how many people know about this, but there were some of the biggest grind holes in the rocks that you would ever find. There was a big Indian village there for years, and not only is my great—grandfather buried there, but there's a lot of Indian people buried there that there's no markers fo. I know the general area, but someday, I know, they're going to subdivide that, and when they do they're going to get into it, if somebody doesn't set an area off so they can't get into it. QUESTION: What was the name of the ranch?

It really didn't have a name. I guess it was the old Jones Ranch years way back. You don't want to confuse that with the present Tom Jones Ranch. The Tom Jones Ranch, as we know it today, was his father homesteaded that. Actually, what he owned there was almost all of Hawkins Valley, You know where the Hawkins School (used to) sets? As I understand it, he built the Hawkins Schoolhouse because he had so many children, they had no way to go to school, so he built the Hawkins School and hired teachers. My mother happened to be one of them that was hired then to teach there. And when they decided to tear the Hawkins School down, which they did instead of tearing it down and dismanteling it, the Indian Graham family were in need of something to live in, and he gave that building to them. Part of that is their houw now on top of the hill up there (Deadwood) .

QUESTION; What do you remember of the original Oakhurst, or Fresno Flats, on Road 426?

I spent most of my time in Yosemite and I wasn't here that much, so I can't really tell you when those buildings were put up. I know there's been a lot of change, a lot of buildings have come and gone, but I don ^tt know much more. In fact, all that left side, going north on Highway 41 — there wasn't much. The cemetery was there and an old Mohawk gas station where Burger King is now. There wasn't much until you got clear on up to the old Norberg's market, which is way up where the Oakhurst Market is now. The Snow Line Restaurant was built when I was just a little guy. The Snow Line Restaurant was built about 1947—'46. I believe a man named Johnny Morehouse built that. He was my track coach in junior high school and high school in Fresno.

QUESTION: Did you know anyone up here by the name of Mobley? Yes, I knew them. I don't know their first names. seems strange, years ago when I was just a kid six, seven, eight years old, ten years old perhaps - I don't know where Mobleys came from, but my Uncle Freeman, at that Freeman's father fell heir to the old homestead then. He gave the Mobleys a place to live there time. Years ago, I was over at Bass Lake, I was time (he was ranch. He owned it for quite some playing with the dogs there, and my kids were there playing in the lake, and a man came over and asked me if I 'd been here a long time. I said, "Yes, I have been." He introduced himself as one of the Mobleys and, actually, he probably was one of the kids I remember being on the old ranch, because I hadn't seen him for forty years or better. I didn't remember him, but he was about my same age. I don't know where he lived or where he came from.

COMMENT: The reason I ask is the Sierra Star, about 1960 or before, had an article about Highway 41. It was a Mobley who wrote it.

Well, they would have been there at the time they were building in '41.

COMMENT: There are no Mobleys around here listed in the phone books . It's not a very common name.

It was hard times in the mid—thirties, and the man and his wife I don't know how many children they had — my Uncle Freeman gave them an area there to put up their camp, so to speak tents and things, and he gave them an area to raise some pigs and chickens. I don't know what all they did, but they lived there for several years, as I recall. I remember staying with my grandmother and playing with the kids. Some were about my same age, some older and some younger, too.

QUESTION: What did you do for entertainment in the 30s and '40s?

Well, I just played around a lot as a kid. Of course, I went to school in Fresno. I didn't go to any local schools.

QUESTION: No rodeos, or any fun things.

Oh, there was a kid's rodeo. Well, there was a rodeo every time you marked and branded the cattle. As a kid, I 've got a lot of pictures in here of the old rodeo. Cattle and markin ^land brandin' — every time my Uncle Freeman or Tom Jones, or anybody marked and branded, they always did it together they'd mark and brand them then sort them out. We'd all run them together all the time. Then the kids had kind of a rodeo, too, because we didn't drive them too hard; we didn't want to get the calves too hot and tired before they marked and branded them. They let us have a little rodeo out there and we'd get bucked off every time, of course, but we had great fun try in' it. My recollection of horses and stock is just a lot of work. I see people today, they move to the mountains — "gotta have a horse" you know. Well then it sits in the back yard and they never ride it, just feet it, just like a big dog you might say. Expensive, and to me, a horse was made for work.

QUESTION: What was the original name of Oakhurst? I understand there was another name beside Salt Flats or Fresno Flats.

Fresno Flats. Well, Fresno Flats is all i can recall. My first recollections of the Coarsegold Store was the old well that was there. We always had to stop and get a drink of water in the summertime. It was really hot and dry, as it would be now. Doc Krohn would always come out and give us an ice cream cone. Then Mom and Dad —— I don't know what they'd have, probably an ice cream cone, too. But they'd always put water in the car and take a little rest before we came on up the rest of the way.

QUESTION: The well made things pleasant, didn't it?

Yes, a place to stop and rest and then it was a good well — good water there. I think that well actually set just about where the Chevron station is, as I recall; right across the street was the hotel.

QUESTION: You remember the hotel then?

Yes, I remember the hotel and I remember when it burned. There was nothing there for quite a while. I remember the old store; it was two stories. They used to have dances in the upper story. I remember that and, of course, that was an old general store had food and clothing had everything in it shoes, shirts, anything.

COMMENT : I understand it carried dynamite, too.

Oh yes, dynamite. Everybody needed that.

QUESTION: Can you tell anything about the old mines around here?

I never did work in them. There's several of them around, all right. There's a couple of them on my uncle's property. There's a shaft that's open there now, and still people kinda drift in and out of there. I don't remember the name of the mine. In fact, there was a big, old five—stamp mill right there, that burned when this Harlow fire went up over the top of Deadwood and burned down in towards Coarsegold. (There was the) Texas Flat Mine, on the other side of the mountain. I'm not sure who built that big mill, but there was several gold mines over there, and there's still the shafts. They're all covered; people can't get in, of course, but they're there. So, they must have taken a lot of ore out of there at one time, because they wouldn't have put a big mill like that in there. Getting back to the mine on my uncle's property, after that mill burned down, everything fell down, all of the big stamps, all of the big old iron rods, all kind of crisscrossed in there, laid there for a long time before some man came up there and I guess paid my uncle to haul it away.

QUESTION: Do you remember anything about hog drives, or cattle drives?

I can remember only cattle drives. Everybody had hogs, but they didn't drive them anywhere; they just kept them for their own use. But the cattle drives, the Toppings, who are around O'Neal s, Tom Jones with his cattle, Freeman with his cattle, the Elams — seems like everybody they'd all get together and drive their cattle into the high country. They used to go up right along the side of Thornberry, cross what they called Chepo Saddle now, and then go up into Beasore and Soquel. Then, in the fall, they'd gather them up and bring them all out together. My Uncle Dewey was the older of the Whitfield boys, and had a dairy in Raymond. He used to supply the area with milk all year. The old stone house is still there. I saw it here not too long ago. It sits right down below the present Raymond School. The old original Raymond High School sat upon the hill. The old stone house is still there. He had about 25 or 30 milk cows that he had to milk twice a day. In fact, when I was a kid, I remember going there and he would teach me how to milk cows. He thought I was a great help, but I was probably more of a hindrance. I 'd try and I'd milk a few of them, but by the time I got through, he had most of the others done. He'd come back and get the job done.

COMMENT: In the summertime those milk houses were cool.

Yes, it was always kind of rank in that old milk barn. They used to let me run the separator, put all the milk in a big separator and I ^td turn the crank, then clean up afterwards. That was a job. You had to get it really clean after every time, or you'd have sour milk.

QUESTION: Did your family work in the quarry?

Yes, my dad worked in the quarry at Raymond—Knowles quarry. In fact, my Uncle Irwin learned to run a crane. He'd done other things, but he learned to operate a crane there, and then he moved away to San Jose, where he became a crane operator for San Jose Steel. My dad worked there, too, and Billy worked there. Dewey was some sort of foreman at the quarry when the National Park Service hired them to drill the holes on the backside of Half Dome. They wanted to put a ladder up there so people could walk up to the top of Half Dome. They still use it today. It's not a real ladder; it has flat boards with cables that you hold on to.

COMMENT : I understand there used to be a hotel at the top of Glacier Point.

Yes. There was a big hotel up there, three—floor hotel that burned down, the Glacier Point Hotel. they had a food service and it was a nice piece of art. It was one of those old buildings where there was a lot of fancy woodwork around it was three floors high. A lot of those old buildings went by the way of fire, and that was one of them. Nobody put it out.

QUESTION: About what year was that?

I'm trying to think now probably in the mid—60s, like around '66, — about that time.

QUESTION: Do you have Chukchansi Indian heritage?

Yes. The original Tom Jones was married to an Indian lady at that Indian village, that I mentioned earlier. She homesteaded all that, because Indians didn't have property in those days. The village was there and he lived there with them, and gave them everything they needed. They had a whole bunch of kids. I think there was about fifteen, maybe seventeen. That ^ts how our Indian heritage came about. I have an enrollment number, so has my two brothers and my sons. We 're all enrolled in the Bureau of Indian Affairs up in Sacramento. I don't go to any of the Chukchansi doings, or anything.

COMMENT ; they're fun.

I just haven't been to them, but I keep thinking some day I should make myself known to some. I was going to make mention of the fact that the Revis family used to drive their cattle along with all the others. Their ranch was what is called Yosemite Lakes now. Of course, I remember old Bob Revis as a kid. He used to come up and see my Uncle Freeman at his place. Bobby used to come up. He was a great friend of my Uncle Freeman and they all hobnobbed together, drove and raced their horses. In fact, for years and years, the original old Tom Jones that homesteaded Hawkins Valley they used to come over here and race their horses with the Pierces and the Taylors, and whoever else was over here. They'd race their horses right where the old Middle School is right now. That's where the big flat was. I think that actually was Fresno Flats.

QUESTION: Do you remember the Mudge family?

The Mudge house sets by some apple trees, but I don 't remember them having much stock, like cattle or horses, or anything .

QUESTION: Where was it located?

If you went right up the ridge there, it's about half—way between the Fhys and the Thornberry Ranch, set up higher. In fact, when you go now, turn at the fork in the road, take Mudge Ranch Road, and it winds around. Then you fork off where it goes up toward the Thornberry Ranch, which is now a big church group camp. About where that road forked is where the Mudge Ranch was. The old buildings, I remember, were there for years and years. 1 think someone has taken it down, probably for salvage for the old weathered timbers that were in there.

QUESTION: Do you remember Mattie Fhy herself?

Vaguely. My mother and Mattie Fhy were friends. And then there was a boy named Tom Fhy. I remember Tom better than Mattie

Fhy, because he was kind of sweet on one of my aunts, Auntie Velma, I think. He was over at the old ranch a lot.

QUESTION: Do you know where he is now?

No, I don't. He's probably passed on now. He'd be way up in the late 80s, maybe more. But Tom and Mattie —- 1 don't remember any other Fhy children. I remember the old Tom Fhy He was old at the time. He had a big, white handlebar mustache and set in a big, high—back rocking chair I didn't like to go ver there, it was kind of spooky. He scared me. I used to walk over there with my grandmother.

QUESTION: Is the old Fhy house still standing?

Yes, (the house with the tin roof on Highway 41, on the Coarsegold side of Deadwood) .

QUESTION: Do you remember any logging that was done, or the flume here?

The only flume I recall, logging was done on this side. Everything went out, down this way. There was some logging done over (on the other side of Deadwood) but it was later in years when I was older, and it was all hauled out in trucks. In fact, they logged Deadwood out over here, years before the Harlow fire that was logged before it burned — and some on the other side was logged. They cut timber all over, but they kind of cut it in certain areas and didn't tear all over and didn't tear up too much. A few years later, you could go back and cut some more. But now they seem to have the idea they can clear—cut. I've flown over some areas the past few years; I've flown up to British Columbia and places over the north woods, and it's really frightening to see how they clear a place. What happens to it when they' re done with it? Just not the right thing to do. Now, they're getting back to more selective logging; cutting the mature timber out and leaving the second growth to grow another few years, ; and then dud it again, without tearing everything up. that clear—cutting was, I think, an error.

QUESTION: Have the Big Trees changed any?

Only that you can't drive any more; you have to take a shuttle bus around, through. But, when I was a kid you could drive; there was a road that went all the way around. I remember driving through that big Wawona tunnel tree. You could drive through it. My father was a bus driver there from 1936 till he retired from there I can remember the old Pierce Arrow, Cadillacs, driving through that tree. It's fallen down, now.

QUESTION: Is the forest, itself, pretty much unchanged?

It's brushier, a lot thicker. It's too thick now. The trees that you see growing now are so thick they '11 never mature to big trees because there are just too many. those cedars are just as thick as hair on a dog, you know. Nothing can grow, A tree develops stunted, except for the ones that are already big. I remember, years ago, down around Coarsegold at the old ranch in that area, they used to burn to get rid of all that brush. then, the trees next year would be a lot more plentiful.

COMMENT : That's what C. C. Clark was talking about in his story (As We Were Told) about control burns,

Well, they burned a lot. They burned their old fields at certain times of the year. If they had cattle on it, of course, they couldn't. But some had enough so they could move their cattle off the land and keep them away until the spring rain and the grass would begin to grow again and they got a good stand of grass. Then, they'd put the cattle back on it. But, it kept all that brushy stuff down. It would all be clean next year. I think it was a lot more open, I can show you some pictures that were around Coarsegold. Those hills down out of Coarsegold, that now are just covered with brush, in the older pictures it was just oak trees and grass.

QUESTION: Will you tell us about Freeman Jones and his family?

Freeman Jones is the son of the old, original Tom Jones. And there was at least four or five boys. There was tom Jones, Jr. , Freeman and Mack Jones and Dick Jones, Floyd Jones, and it goes on anjd on. But, it seems like the ones that always went to mining never really got a good hold, and made anything. The ones who went to cattle and ranching — they bought land and went on to be more prosperous than the miners. The way the old homestead went to Freeman was that way back the girls in the family it was a business they were not going to like. It was the way when girls went on and got married, they went away. The boys seemed to hang around and, when ranches and properties were split up, things went to the boys and not to the girls. And that old homestead was left to my Uncle Freeman. He had two children. he had Freeman, and a boy named Buscy who was killed in a horse accident. A horse rolled on him and killed him. And Freeman, who was a girl, grew up and married Milton Herschfelt. And that's how

they come to have the old homestead ranch. They just recently sold it.

QUESTION: Do you remember any Chinese or Black people here?

The only ones I recall were the Chinese who were living in Wawona . they had big gardens up there, but now it is a golf course and meadow. They raised a lot of vegetables and food that they fed the loggers up there. When they were logging all of Chowchilla Mountain up there and even into the park they logged a lot. Those days, they allowed some timber cutting in there. In fact, the logging roads, a lot of them, are still there. They go clear in back up there, almost to Chinquapin. So, they logged a lot of that at one time or another. The Chinese, I don't know how they come to be there but they were vegetable raisers, and I guess, they did laundry and all those kind of things. I know the Lewises had a ranch on the other side (of Deadwood), and Scanlon had some property in there. It was called Scanlon Fields or Scanlon Flats. There was an old turkey ranch in there for a while. That was there for years, but it's long since gone.

QUESTION: Where was the Melvin family ranch?

It was on the road behind the Nugget, behind the Hillerman property, and that went right up to the Melvins. The old rock wall and stuff is still there, but the buildings burned down.

A lot of the Melvins are buried just right above there. there s a big, marked—off, fenced area with markers in there. There were two Melvin brothers that lived there by themselves for years and years.

QUESTION: Were they related to the Strombecks or the Krohns?

Probably the Krohns . There weren't that many people around in those days. The only one of the Krohns I remember was the old "Doc" Krohn. I couldn't tell you why they called him "Doc" , but he always gave me an ice cream cone.

COMMENT : I want to thank you, Mr. Whitfield, for the interview.

This tape is the sole property of the Coarsegold Historical Society, P.O. Box 117, Coarsegold, CA 93614.