Chicken Ladder Mine

Near the head of Crow Creek, below Mosby Mountain, there are two wind-worn caves overlooking the valley below. [...] One of those caves is relatively easy to climb up to, but to gain access to the other requires a rope and some climbing skill. Inside that more difficult cave, on the north wall, there is an all-seeing eye, cut deeply into the stone wall. If you stand with your back to that eye and look out over the canyon below just as that all-seeing eye does, an interesting sight may be seen. Look to where the cedars stop growing and the sagebrush begins; look carefully and you will see an old mine shaft. If you look into it from a closer vantage point, you can see the end of a "muescas" or notched-pole chicken ladder sticking out of it.

A man who is part Indian, not a Ute but a Cherokee, was shown that shaft by a Ute he befriended. The Ute told him: "Climb down that ladder to the bottom. Take all the gold you need, but take no more than you need. If you take more than you need, or tell anyone where you got that gold, you might die!" That man, who was well over seventy years of age at the time, told me he took a long, hard look at that rickety notched-pole chicken ladder dropping down out of sight into the black pit below and decided he didn't need any of that gold. I'm not sure whether the Ute's offer applies to anyone else, but you might check it out!--Faded Footprints, pg. 149.

[...]near the head of Crow Creek, there are two wind-worn caves, not very deep, maybe fifty feet, in the sandstone cliffs. One is easy to get into, but to get into the other one requires rappelling down from above with a rope. Inside the cave, on the north wall, there is an eye carved in the rock. The eye looks to the southeast. Another Indian informant told me to look where the cedars stop growing and the sagebrush begins. Look around and you will find a shaft with a pole sticking out of it. Climb down to the bottom and take all you want and leave the rest.--Out of the Dust, pg. 198