Welcome to United Prospectors, Inc., a family-oriented small miner's corporation dedicated to the enjoyable, relaxing, and potentially profitable activities of rock hounding, metal detecting, gold prospecting and mineral hunting.

Gerald "Jerry" M. Randall
December 2, 1927 to February 27, 2013

85 years and 85 days, The Life of Jerry Randall - The Man and The Legend

On December 2, 1927, Jerry Randall was born in Akron, OH to Leora and Edgar Randall. 85 years and 85 days later, on February 27, 2013, Jerry passed away quietly in a hospice care unit in Palm Desert, CA.

Between these notable events in Jerry's life, he had grown to manhood and enlisted into the service of his governments military where he served 23 years collectively in all branches including many months on loan to the Marines as an explosive ordnance technical specialist (he blew things up). During his time in service Jerry earned many medals for distinguished action, including a Purple Heart (ouch!) and 2 Bronze Stars for Meritorious Service. He was a real Hero.

About his 16th birthday (December 2, 1943), he tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy, but, the recruiter told him to come back when he turned 17 years old. A few doors away was a Merchant Marine Office and that recruiter said "come on in kid and let's talk". He told Jerry they could take him at 16 years old. Jerry signed on with them and got into the fight as a civilian. After a month learning how to load cargo onto ships and how to stay alive on board a ship, he was off to sea.

After several crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which included being sunk three times, he ended up spending his 17th birthday in Port at Cherbourg France and joined the Navy on just about Christmas day, 1944. He then spent the next 23 years various military branches before retiring as an NCO.

After Jerry retired, he went to college and studied the law for awhile before he went to work for the "Atomic Energy Commission" as a gauge reader and clock watcher walking around Sacramento Army Depot irritating people.

Jerry married twice to widowed women. His first wife, Beatrice Yap, was his math professor in college. Bea had a son and a daughter, but, Jerry and she had no children. Years later, after the children were grown, Bea passed away from a heart attack.

He met his second wife, Joan Green, at a single's club meeting near Sacramento, CA. They married and became prospectors and rock hounds and joined several clubs including: Mother Lode Gold Hounds, United Prospectors Incorporated, GPAA, Sacramento Metal Detectors, Valley Prospectors, and Old Timers Rock Hound Club. Jerry served as President and Claims Manager for UPI for many years and Joan, many of you might remember, was the first woman President of UPI. Jerry and Joan were also responsible for acquiring Twain as our first UPI claim.

Jerry enjoyed spending his retired years telling stories of his military adventures and was also an active member of the American Legion and VFW in Auburn, CA.

And that was Jerry Randall. GOOD BYE OLD FRIEND!

Written by: Barbara and Charlie Brown

Please look around our website and make yourself at home.

• Are you looking for a relaxing way to enjoy your leisure time?
• Do you enjoy the outdoors?
• Ever thought about trying your hand at gold, rock or mineral prospecting?
• Does creating new friendships and gathering on a weekend with others who have the same interest as you sound appealing?
• Is sitting around a campfire during an evening with others after enjoying a scrumptious potluck meal sharing your days' mining experiences sound like something you'd like?
• How about the chance to win a nice gold nugget with the raffle ticket you're holding?

You've come to the right place!

"But I've never tried prospecting before..." or "Not all my family members are interested in prospecting...". Not a problem. We have folks who have prospected for years who are more than happy to show you how. Whether you have a gold pan and want to know how "it works" or you've just bought a dredge and need some instruction on how to use it, we at UPI are there to help. For those family members not really interested in prospecting but enjoy the outdoors there other activities available during our outings such as swimming, hiking, fishing or just taking a nice snooze in the shade of a nice-smelling pine tree.   So come to one of our outings and check us out!

The photographs below shows the gold and prizes that UPI gave away as raffle prizes at the Coulterville outing last year.  (November 13 - 15, 2009)  You must be present to win, so come join us at the outing!

(Click to see full size image)

If you like what you see, click the Join UPI link to your left to find out more details on becoming a UPI member.

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Special Notice Related to the recent ban on Suction Dredging in California:

Public Lands for the People (PLP) is an organization whose purpose is to represent all types of outdoor user groups that are interested in keeping Public and Private lands open for the purpose of Mining, Timber, Grazing and all forms of recreation on a non-discriminatory basis.

As an organization, United Prospectors, Inc. believes in these same goals and would like to pass on a message from the PLP President, Gerald Hobbs, to help in their efforts. You can visit the website for PLP here: http://www.plp2.org

Here is the text he put on their forum.

If you feel you have had harm from the California Legislators passing SB 670 to prohibit suction dredge mining, this is your chance to make it known. PLP is asking those who have been financially harmed by this Bill to please take a few minutes out of your life to write a short letter addressing that harm and send it to jerhobbs2@aol.com

We will see that it gets to our attorney so that we can make the courts and the legislators aware of what SB 670 is really doing to a lot of people. It matters not whether you are an individual miner, businessman or association, if you have had loss to your self or your family because of this moratorium please describe it and let us know. Did you use the extra income for medicines, fuel, food or even suppliment your personal or family income?

I know there are some real horror stories out there because I had calls from individuals who expressed great concern and loss. I will print the letters out and see that they are looked at by the right people.

Thank You
Jerry
 

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