How the story is told….
Thomas Rhoads, one of the earlier converts to Mormonism (1834), led the first expedition of Mormon settlers to northern California in May of 1846, whereupon arrival in October of that same year he settled near Sutter’s Fort along the Consumnes River. Thomas Rhoads then went to work for, and became a close friend of, John Augustus Sutter, famous for the discovery of gold at his mill site. Much of Rhoads’ early fortune came from mining the gold-rich fields along the Sacramento valley.
The Deseret News July 2 1996
In 1852, Thomas Rhoades was commissioned by President Young to salvage hidden gold known to Ute Indians. Chief Walker (Wakara) who had been baptized a member of the church, reportedly agreed to reveal the location of the gold as long as it was used exclusively for the benefit of the church. The site of the mines was called “Carre Shin Ob,” or “There dwells the Great Spirit,” Thompson recounted. Indians had no particular interest in the gold beyond their basic needs and harbored old resentments against Spanish overlords who had mined the metal at the expense of their race, he said.
Walker’s conditions were that only one person at a time know where the mines were, that Indian surveillance be constant and that only as much gold be brought out each trip as the individual could carry. The death penalty was to be executed immediately if the secret got beyond the chosen person. President Young demanded in turn that Walker, whose loyalties were known to be chancy, take an oath upon the Book of Mormon to hold up his end of the bargain.
According to the family account of Gale R. Rhoads, a grandson, Thomas made a number of trips into the mountains with an Indian guide. The gold supposedly was from mines abandoned by Spanish entrepreneurs who were in the territory before the 1776 Dominguez/Escalante explorations.
Each of Rhoads’ trips took about two weeks, and the first load of gold, the family records say, weighed about 62 pounds. The Deseret News frequently reported his comings and goings, without details regarding gold, if any.
In the summer of 1855, Thomas had a severe illness and a son, Caleb, signed the oath and took over the job of recovering the Indian gold. When Thomas was well again, father and son took several trips together. Walker himself died in late 1855.
The Rhoads records say that the statue of the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake Temple was overlaid with the Indian gold, as were some of the trimmings inside the temple.
In December 1855, Rhoads obtained a land grant from the Territorial Legislature for a huge area known today as Kamas Valley. ”
This map is the 1858 LDS land grant map. Area #4 lists Brigham Young and Thomas Rhoades as the owners. (Area 4 colored brown for clarity)
This map is an enlargement of area 4.
This is an overlay that I did of the old land grant map with today’s satellite image of the area.
The land grant included the Kamas Valley (originally named Rhoades valley), the drainage’s between the upper Weber River and the Upper Provo River.
While the old sketch is not a perfect match to today’s topography, you can see enough features that allow us to determine a little better the actual boundaries of the grant. The northern boundary seems to follow the Weber River right up to Mirror Lake and then down the Duchesne River to where it turns up Iron Mine Creek, across soapstone and down to Woodland on the Southside.
“Rhoades first came to the valley in 1859 with about twenty other Mormons including W.O. Anderson, John Turnbow, John Simpson, Morgan Lewis, Daniel Lewis, Alma Williams, Clinton Williams, Richard Venable, Richard Pangburn, John Lambert, and their families. The group clustered together in a fort near a spring on the east side of the valley for the first several years. The log fort was sixteen feet high and the fort walls formed the backs of the houses. Before the group vacated the fort, thirty-two families had lived in it. A log building in the fort’s center was used as a schoolhouse, meetinghouse, amusement hall, and center of government.”1
After obtaining the grant and moving to Kamas Valley, Rhoades began to work whatever locations they had just obtained the right to in the grant. He soon fell ill and his son Caleb then took over the work for him.
“Family writings say, again, that Father Rhoads and Caleb worked gold mines on this land. Thomas also found “black minerals” in the area – coal that became part of the church mining properties.
Caleb reportedly became the largest tithe payer and one of the most generous members of the church in his almsgiving. Many eyewitnesses said they had seen his gold at various times.
After Walker’s death, his brother, Arapeen, took over Ute leadership and continued to allow Caleb Rhoads to harvest gold from the tribe’s secret store. But Arapeen’s successor, Chief Tabby, denied access.
Caleb made several covert trips to the site after this, family records say. He also petitioned the U.S. Congress for a land lease and agreed to pay the national debt in exchange. He was frustrated in part by a Utah representative to Congress, George Q. Cannon, who said Rhoads was “only an ignorant prospector and not capable of handling a $100 million deal.” In the end, the petition was denied, and the federal government eventually chartered other companies to mine in the Uintas. Government-paid geologists scouted the area and reportedly found many Spanish artifacts, smelter ruins and other signs of ancient mining. But they never found the fabled Rhoads Mine.
Caleb claimed the deposits were in unique formations not usually associated with gold. He said the geologists were looking in the wrong place. Thomas was called in the late 1850s to settle Minersville and help develop silver mines in that area. He died there in 1869.”2
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What really happened…
As far as the story goes above, there is no evidence of a contract between Brigham Yound, the Utes and Thomas Rhoades to work any sacred mines. There is however record from a neighbor of Thomas who tried to clarify things when stories began to get out of hand. You can read that here.