Southwest Sierra #90 – Al Again

If last week’s article were to be graded strictly on accuracy, it would get an “F”! The silver lining is that we get to revisit the life of Al Hope and by coincidence, this week’s paper comes out on his birthday Jan. 30th. I had some things mixed up and made some incorrect assumptions last week, but as a result I learned much more about Mr. Hope.

First off, I spelled Al’s legal name wrong having left off the second “t” in Elliott. Secondly, he wasn’t the eldest of two kids. He had one older sister named Wilda and two younger sisters, Meda and Virginia. The information that I provided regarding Al’s father working for George Gamble came directly from Don Dickey, but on closer examination of Don’s statement, he prefaces the information with the words: “I think”, so it isn’t necessarily fact. Don seemed to think that George Gamble was involved with the Eagle-Shammut Mine near Coulterville before he invested in the Kenton Mine near Alleghany. I did a little research on the Gamble family. James Gamble, one of the original founders of Proctor and Gamble, had ten kids! George must have been one of those kids as the timing is right. The limited online information that I found on the Eagle-Shamutt Mine near Coulterville did not mention George Gamble as a previous owner. That mine was covered with water when the San Pedro Dam was built, but as of 2014 the water level was so low that some of the mine buildings had surfaced. I wasn’t able to determine if that is still the case.

Greg Hope recently provided further information to clarify the timeline of Al’s life in our area. [Author’s comments in square brackets] “After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Al enlisted in the US Navy and served in the Submarine Service as an F1 Fire Controlman. The Submarine Service was called the Silent Service (aptly named because the missions during the war were carried out in silence to protect the submarine locations and designated patrol areas)…..Al was wounded in a submerged depth charge attack somewhere in the Pacific. He indicated that a torpedo was shaken loose, separating from its restraints and crushing his left knee. He ended up in the hospital (I think in Guam). After he was discharged from the hospital, he was transferred to the Battleship USS Missouri where he witnessed the signing of the Unconditional Surrender of the Japanese. This took place in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945 and ended World War II.

“Sometime after that is when Al returned to Alleghany and worked at the 16 to 1 Mine and subsequently bought his house in Forest City. The house was next door to the Vivian House [the house with the siren on the roof] which didn’t exist yet. [After his job at the 16 to 1 Al moved to Downieville as mentioned last week. Following Al and Mary’s marriage in Downieville, Al got a job working for the Vivians and the family moved to Forest City. This was after Al’s Forest City house had burned down. Greg isn’t sure when it burned down, but he never saw it.] When Al, my mom, brother Russell and I moved to Forest City in the mid-1950s Al built the Vivian House. We lived in the old Butcher Shop next door while we built the Vivian House. My little brother Russell was pretty small at this time, but we worked as a family. We helped Al salvage lumber from other old falling down houses owned by the Vivians to build the house. One of my jobs was scraping rat, mouse and racoon droppings off a portion of the lumber. My parents pulled nails and transported the lumber to the building site. When the house was finished, we lived in it for a while before moving to Alleghany.”

On Sunday January 26th, I ran into David O’Donnell at Thomas “Bud” DeGrio’s Celebration of Life. I asked him if I got it right, if that was his Uncle Hughey in the mine crew photo published last week, and he said “No, that wasn’t him.” I thought that I recognized him based on a caricature of him with a gang of miners driving a jeep that used to hang in Casey’s Place. I was wrong.

The story that I shared last week about Al’s death was based on a combination of what I had been told (the rumor mill) and conclusions that I drew based on that. June of 1982 was when I left for my year on the Big Island of Hawaii, so I wasn’t here when it happened. By the time I returned, the story had morphed a bit, as they tend to do. I had been told that he was driving his truck when it happened and upon seeing the truck with no major body damage, I assumed that he drove into the river in a spot where it was just below the highway.

According to Greg, Al was driving his Chrysler Sedan when he went over a 120-foot cliff between Downieville and Goodyears Bar! The car was totaled. What is that saying about not letting the truth get in the way of a good story? I like my version better, but in the interest of accuracy there you have it.