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Note: (Letcher is now in Sanborn Co., SD) Forrest V. Phillips attended Washington State University at Pullman for a time and was roommates with his future brother-in-law, Robin C. Sheedy . The two were "asked not to come back" after their Sophomore year because of some pranking: especially a stunt whereby they rigged an elaborate pulley system, removing all of the office furniture from the dean's third story window, and arranging it on the roof of a neighboring building. Uncle Forrest left Washington state as a young man and said he would not return until he made his fortune. He did not visit Northport again for decades, until the 1970s, for his brother, Mike's, 40th or 45th wedding anniversary.
Forrest was engaged in the real estate business, 1908-1910, purchasing land for J. White Co.
Forrest V. Phillips was well-known for becoming a millionaire more than once, and loosing it all in between.
Uncle Forrest Phillips owned real estate offices in California (notably in San Francisco, Placerville and Victorville) and considerable real estate including mines and ranches in CA, NV and AZ. At one time he owned a large tract in the Imperial Valley --before it was irrigated and became the most productive farm land in the world. He sold a 70,000+acre ranch at Moapa, Nevada (east of Las Vegas) to Howard Hughes; it contained a large hot-spring and is now a considerable resort (what part was released from the Hughes estate).
Forrest was active in mining enterprises, mainly in noerthern California, operating as the Vollo Mining Company and Vollo and Associates, among other companies. He owned a silver mine near Mineral Park and Chloride (north of Kingman), Arizona, operated by the Keystone Mining Co. of Los Angeles, and supervised by his brother-in-law, Robin C. Sheedy, at one time. The mine never realized much of a profit for him so he sold it in the late 1930s; it then opened up as a copper mine for the war effort, and produced billions of dollars of Copper! Such is the life of the prospector-speculator! Forrest made and lost his fortune several times. He was nearly bankrupted late in life (when he was in his 80's) after his son, Clayton, was killed an an automobile accident in 1966; Clayton and Forrest were completing a subdivision at Lake Tahoe and Clayton's untimely death forced Forrest to finish the work by himself and pay all creditors out of his own pocket, but the project was successful and Forrest made satisfaction for all debts. He lived in a large Victorian home in Placerville, CA and maintained his real estate office there until his death in 1979.
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In a 1993 interview, Forrest V. Phillips and one of his mines were described by William Bullock Clark:
"Clark: ... Another mine that was active down at Shingle Springs [in El Dorado Co., California] was the Shaw Mine. This was an open pit operation. It had a cyanide plant. This was operated by a man by the name of Forrest Vollo Phillips, who was a real character.
"Swent: What was special about him? "Clark: He was just a character. I can't quite describe him. " (Reporting on California's gold mines for the State Division of Mines and Geology, 1951-1979 : oral history transcript; Interviews Conducted by Eleanor Swent; Interview of William Bullock Clark, Sacramento, 1993. Copyright 1993 by The Regents of the University of California, p. 33)
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