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Show The legend of Lost Rhoades Mine I ... .v5tevYchrlstensen m,""1'-'" A legend from er'y utal1 history .,iisof a lost Sold mine, the finder of 'vhich may find himself incredibly rich. Xhestorv, at least according to the !fcount of Gale R. Rhoades and Kerry os Boren in their book, "A History of h Lost Rhoades Mine," revolves ound a pioneer named Thomas Lades and his descendants. The Le was supposed to be located near : Lna, and if it was, must still be. The : .., problem is, no one can find it. At lMst no one who is talking. Rhoades and Boren detail the early Rhoades family members, their first coming to America, their push westward, their initial commitment to the Mormon cause and Joseph Smith, and then their pioneer trek to California Califor-nia and back to Utah. The book is not entirely a history of the gold mine legend, and is more interesting because of it. The authors tell about the Thomas Rhoades party joining with the Donner party on the trip westward to California, and the splitting split-ting of the two groups in Utah. George Donner had heard of a shortcut through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and wanted to take that route. Thomas Rhoades wanted to stay on the proven trail, even though it was 600 miles longer. It turned out to be a wise 1 choice. The Donners were caught in I the Sierra Nevada winter and never ' jffived in California . When word finally final-ly came that the Donners were caught in the mountains, rescue parties were organized, including some of the ; Rhoades party. Many of the Donner ! party died during that winter, and the ones who didn't were forced to eat the bodies of their loved ones in order to i stay alive. The legend of the Rhoades gold actually ac-tually started while Thomas Rhoades was still in California. It was he who I found the first gold at Sutter's Mill. He ;; did so while working for John Sutter i in 1847. He took what gold John Sutter gave him, and in 1849, at the request ' of Brigham Young, again hooked up the wagons and moved to Utah. He supposedly took with him a substantial amount of gold. ' In the years to follow gold coins were ' minted in Salt Lake City. For years the source of the gold was unknown. The authors of The Lost Rhoades Mine claim Brigham Young had a gold mine east of the Salt Lake Valley, somewhere close to where Vernal is now located. The early Mormon ! pioneers were extremely poor, because it took all of the money they had to buy provisions to cross the plains to Utah. The authors claim it was this gold mine that kept the early pioneers from starving. Thomas Rhoades was commissioned by Brigham Young to bring the gold from the mine to Salt Lake City. At points in the book the authors seem somewhat antagonistic toward the early Mormons, and give the impression im-pression that Brigham Young used the gold for his own purposes and did not want the people to share in the wealth. It is unkown where the gold came from ; which now adorns the Salt Lake Tem-1 Tem-1 pie, but the authors seem to think it came from this lost gold mine. The feeling a reader gets of the antagonism toward the people they are writing about casts shadows on the purpose and truth of their work. While on the one hand it seems to be an interesting story about an almost unbelievable mine, a mine where a person could walk in and chip away gold, the other hand must question the motive of the first hand. Is what we are reading here history, or is it the authors' attempt to come to their own conclusions about the early Mormons and especially Brigham Young? While it is not the purpose of this article to either agree with or deny what Gale R. Rhoades and Kerry Ross Boren say, it seems necessary to question the very title of the book. Had the title been something like "A Legend of," rather than "A History of," the motives would not have been so important. But as a history, the narrative is full of holes. History is based on recreating what is known. The story, according to the authors, is that a Ute Indian showed Brigham Young where the mine was, and Thomas Rhoades took gold out of the mine for years. Now, I've heard of losing keys, kids, and even cars, but I have never heard of losing a gold mine, especially a gold mine like the one that must have existed, according to the story told by Rhoades and Boren. The story does not end with Thomas Rhoades and Brigham Young. In fact, that is only where the legend gets going go-ing real good. The legend later switches swit-ches to Caleb Rhoades, who lived in Price. The authors say Caleb Rhoades was under oath to Brigham Young and Chief Aropene that he would never disclose the location of the mine he worked, and supposedly never did. The next to final chapter in the book is called "The Endless Search," and this is what the book becomes about halfway through, what seems to be an endless search for the conclusion, which seems to never come. The authors outline several attempts to find the Lost Rhoades Mine, and the final chapter shows several maps which exist telling about the mine. The book is somewhat interesting, but has two major flaws. The first is the innuendo and hearsay that so much of the book is based on. There is nothing wrong with telling what you know, or even telling what you've heard, but one cannot call that history. The second major problem is the tediousness of the book. It is over 400 pages, much of which is nothing more than wading through irrelevency. A good editor could cut the length in half without losing a thing. As for the lost mine, don't waste your time. p. - '" , , - ; ."4 STALACTITES AND stalagmites line ceiling and floor of cavern which beckon to be ex- plored further. Formations like this make caving worthwhile. .... - '' -irw ' r ' -r- i '' . ..N e iv - ' ' ,,- J0- " " ",. t. - , ' ' jf !.' , .. J , . --.. , I . ' ' " S - " .1 i . , --. ! , 4 ' ' N ' y , t ... ' S 1 v -: ' ' y ' . I ; ; i f . v I I - xmf 1. . ? -J 'v.-' . . . ,J. .. . , I " . - ; f if . ' .,v: i ' t - ' ' A ' ' " . m. . . . .f . . f . " i. . ' . ' - In . y y - ' - v O y ,- ;' - "1 . - - . . , "I. - IT'S AMAZING what you can see in nature if you just look. This photo was taken from only 20 feet away. The photographer was hiking just above Red Fleet Reservoir. |