The Lost Rhoads Mine

The Lost Rhoads Mine

The Lost Rhoads Mine

Caleb Baldwin Rhoads was born 4 Apr 1836 in Danwell (or Danville), Edgar Co,. Illinois. He died 2 Jun 1904 in Price, Carbon, Utah. He was a Pioneer of 1846, as he camped in this Salt Lake valley in the summer of 1846 on his way to California. This is the story of a very rich gold deposit supposed to be in the Uintah Mountains, its whereabouts was known only by Caleb B Rhoads, who was my uncle by marriage to fathers sister, Malinda Powell. Believe it or not, but here is the story as I have heard it from my father and from Uncle Calebs own mouth.

First, I will relate some of the words which my father John A. Powell, has related to me. My father and Caleb B Rhoads were great hunters and were out in the mountains together very often in their early days, where upon many occasions, Uncle Caleb told my father many things in regard to the gold he knew of, but never would show him where it was located. Although my father had seen much or the ore, and said it was very rich in gold, he could not understand why, if Caleb knew where there was so much gold, that he did not locate it or at least get more of it out than he did and not talk so much about it.

One time in the early days of Kamas, Caleb and my father, being the first 2 settlers of the Kamas Valley, then called Rhoades Valley or Rhoades prairie, went on a hunting trip away back in the mountains east of Kamas. While on this trip, they killed a large buck deer, and could not carry it to camp, so they took the entrails out and hung it in a tree, till they could come the next day with a horse and pack it to camp. Nothing was said about the gold at this time, but a number of years later when they had both moved from Kamas to Price, Caleb asked my father if he remembered the time they killed the buck deer, whereupon father said yes he did, very distinctly I do, and then Caleb told my father that not very far from that place where they killed the deer was where he got his rich gold ore, but he did not tell in which direction from there or how far he meant by saying not very far. My father was at a loss to know whether it was one mile, five miles or more. Uncle Caleb never thought, or at least never talked of locating this gold mine until a few years before the Indian Reservation was to be thrown open for settlers to file on the land, then he began to talk about locating his mine. He told my father if I can live till the reservation is thrown open, you will never need for anything so far as finances are concerned. Another time, prior to any knowledge of the owning of the reservation, Uncle Caleb had been gone from home for a month or six weeks, my father had a pretty good idea where he had gone, but soon after he returned he met my father in the town of Price and after had a conversation with him, “John, came up, I have something to show you”. Father knew what he meant, so the next day father went up to Uncle Caleb’s place and spent the greater part of the day. Caleb showed my father two pack bags of very rich gold ore that he had brought back from his trip. Now I could tell a lot of these kind of stories about what I have heard from reliable people, but I would like to tell a few things I heard from Uncle Caleb’s own lips at a party given in the Price Town Hall. It was about the year 1898 in honor of the old people of Price, and as Caleb Rhoads was one of the earliest pioneers, the time was given to him to talk as long as he desired. He started by telling of when he came to Utah, he said he came with his father, Thomas Rhoads and others. They arrived in Utah in the year 1846, the year before Brigham Young and the first Pioneers. They came as trail blazers. Caleb was 10 years of age, but as the story goes, on account of Brigham Young gaining the confidence of the Indians by feeding them instead of fighting them, the Indians told Brigham Young where there was a rich deposit of gold and permitted him to send someone to get it. So Thomas Rhoads, being able to talk the Indian language, was the man chosen and sent on that mission. He had faithfully performed his work until stricken with illness and not able to go. Brigham Young choose Caleb, son of Thomas, who was by this time 19 years of age, which would bring the date at the time Caleb was chosen to the year 1855.

By choosing Caleb to go now, it made it so he could accompany his father as soon as he was able to go, but before Caleb was permitted to go, he said he had to make a covenant to God, before Brigham Young and Indian Chief Walker, that he never would tell or show anyone where this gold was. Then Brigham Young laid his hands on the head of Caleb Rhoads and blessed him and set him apart, the same as his father had been set apart before he was sent after gold. Then the next thing was a guide to go with him to show him where the gold was. Indian Chief Walker then picked a young Indian as a guide and Chief Walker told the Indian that he was to protect Caleb from other Indians with which they came in contact on the trail. They started with a pack horse and a horse each to ride and when they met other Indians, the guide would explain their mission and they went unmolested. The guide showed Caleb the place and they got what ore they could carry and returned unmolested back to Salt Lake City.

Caleb said when his father was well, they together had made a number of trips for gold and as long as Brigham Young lived, the Indians never interfered with them getting this gold. But after Brigham Young died, the Indians, although they were great friends, forbid them taking any more gold and what he had been able to get since Brigham Young died he had slipped out and stole it un-be-known to the Indians.

Although he said many other things in his remarks, which lasted about one and one half hours, the thing that impressed me most of all, was in his finishing remarks, in which he stated, until this day I have kept my covenant that I made with God, before Brigham Young and Indian Chief Walker; he said, I have never showed any man or told any man, and I never intend to do so, as long as I live.

Now these closing words of Caleb Rhoads, to me was a testimony indeed. I never heard a person bear a testimony in any more earnestness than he did this one. While it explained also to me why he never would show any man where it was, but as soon as he thought the reservation was to be thrown open for settlement he had a very strong desire to locate it, which would have broken his covenant which he said he had made. He even went so far as to send some of the ore back to Washington, D.C., and offered to pay the national debt, which was pretty large at that time, if they would fix it in Washington so he could locate the mine, but they turned him down and tried to find it themselves by organizing the Florence and Raving mining Company and although prospecting on the reservation was prohibited, this company prospected and located all the latterite, filsonite and other minerals they could fine, before the opening for the public to file on minerals or land, but they never found the Rhoads mine and I know there have been not hundreds but thousands of men hunting for it, but no one as yet has found it; and when the Florence and Raving Mining Company was prospecting the country, Caleb was asked if he was not afraid they would find it. He said no; they will never find it because it is where they will least look for it. There has been many fine specimen=s of ore found, but where they came from nobody knows. The strange thing about it is that after Caleb claimed to have made such a covenant, he could hardly wait for the opening of the reservation so that he could locate it. He talked about it a great deal with my father. There is one thing that has made me feel that there was something in the covenant he made, because just a short time before the opening of the reservation, he took sick and only lived a few days. While he was sick my father visited him often and was there to help to wait upon him as much as possible; and father said all Caleb wanted to talk about was his mine and if he could only live to locate it. When he realized that he might die he tried to draw a map of it so that his wife, then an old woman, could find it after he was dead. She spent two summers searching, but failed to locate the mine. No I want to say before closing that I personally have met a few of the old Indians that knew Caleb Rhoads and have talked with them about him and the money rock as the Indians called it. Bridger Jim, Mountain Sheep, Happy Jack and Blackhawk are four of the old Indians that I talked with. They all said Caleb Rhoades was their Weap Winno Friend. (Weap meaning great and winno meaning good friend). Brigham Young was Weap Winno Chief, and they told me about him sending them flour out there for the Indians; and they in return let Brigham have money Rock. Blackhawk even told me the canyon Caleb went up when after the Money Rock, and said his brother was the first Indian to find Gold or Money Rock. This brother fell from a load of hay and broke his neck. He told many more very interesting stories that would take a long time to tell, so I cannot help but believe there is some truth in this Caleb Rhoads gold story even if it is never found.

This story is told by Robert A Powell, son of John Powell who came to Utah in 1852 with his Pioneer parents James Powell, and wife Jemima Wimmer. John A Powell was born 27 Nov 1844, in Illinois and married Hannah Matilda Snyder, whose parents came to Utah in 1847. Their first home was in Kamas or Rhoads Valley named after Caleb B Rhoads as he was the first to settle in the Valley. He married Malinda Powell a sister of John A Powell, which no doubt was why John A Powell settled there. They both liked the mountains and were great hunters together on many a hunting trip. They were on a hunting trip back of Mt. Nebo when Abraham Powell was killed by a large Grizzly Bear Dec 3 1878. Caleb B Rhoads and John A Powell were the first pioneers of what is now Carbon County. John A Powell took a homestead where the City of Price is, Caleb B Rhoads took a homestead just above the Price River where he lived until he died June 2, 1904.