Lost Rhoades Mine
Perhaps the most famous lost treasure not merely in Utah but in the
western United States, The Lost Rhoades Mine is legend and like most
legends engulfed in fiction and dreams as much as in fact. Depending
on which account you read the lost Rhoades Mine is either gold ore,
long lost Spanish Gold bars, sacred Ute gold, some even say it contains
Aztec artifacts and many stories claim it is all of the above achieving a
"National Treasure" kind of aura. The facts are that Caleb Rhoades
provided gold to Brigham Young from mines located in the Uinta's.
Those facts leave a lot to the imagination and that imagination has
led many a futile quest into the Unita mountains and Unita basin. I
have been on that quest and this is my on going story of the search for
what has long since been lost.
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How It Began
Our journey began by accident. My brother in-law and I bought
some land in the Uinta basin not far from Duchesne. After we
purchased the 6,700 acres we learned that there were those who
believed the lost rhoades mine was on the property. I am
embarrassed to admit I had never even heard of the mines before
so the rumor when first heard fell squarely on deaf ears. After doing
some research we, my brother in-law and I, were hooked and
have been learning and searching ever since.
Maps
It is easy to find maps to the lost rhoades mine. For as secret as the
location of the mines are you would think that maps would not
exist, but they do. You can look at three of them here. All have the
rock creek, most have the lake, most have three markings (often
crosses as on the map above) and none give you the scale that
would help anyone find the mines if they are indeed hidden. They
are there, but the maps almost seem more useful as a way of
eliminating mine sites more than finding them. Still, when we first
found the maps we spent hours trying to fit the property into the
map. A rock creek running west to east surely had to be the rock
creek on the map. Three hills had to be the three markings and the
location of the mines surely had to be there. They weren't. And we
learned our first valuable lesson. If all one had to do to find the lost
rhoades mine was go on google and find a rock creek the mines
wouldn't be lost. We were going to have to work harder and dig
deeper (both literally and figuratively as it turned out). Most spend
years searching, and we only wanted to spend a day until that day
was done and there were still itches to be scratched.
Crosses and Markers
After our first failure we began to do more research, much of
which involved talking to others who believed the mines to be
on the property. Before long we learned of two markers on top
of two separate hills, which when looked through pointed to a
cross carved into the side of some red cliffs. The markings were
old, undeniable and fascinating.
Let The Digging Begin
After triangulating positions and doing some more research we
came up with four possible dig sites and began excavating what
we thought, and frankly were told, was the most likely location.
Hiring and excavator we began to dig. The estimation was the
mines were 20 feet below the surface.
After five days of digging we had created a hole that was over
twenty feet deep, long and wide. The only discovery of note was
a rock with a small hole drilled into it that was 10 feet below the
surface. Interesting and curious to be sure, but no other signs of
digging or of gold.
Significant find
Just below the hill where we were excavating another important
discovery was uncovered. A smelting area buried by years of
erosion. No gold was found, but the framework of the location was
evident. Another find, carved into the side of one of the hills, were
grooves of wagon tracks hundreds of years old, going up and out
of the canyon in the direction of Salt Lake City.
No gold, but a continued event of discovery has embolden us to
keep pushing forward. We have three remaining sites to excavate
and a life time of discovery and learning yet to be had. Keep
checking back for more on our quest.
