top of page
Lost Rhoades Gold Header.jpg

Foreman Mine

40.54225, -110.76841

Wayne Murdock of Heber City is just about the last of the old-time Murdock family of pioneer ranchers. Some years ago he ran a herd of sheep in the Lake Basin country, near the head of Blind Stream. Mace Foreman, the same man who prospected the Kamas area with "Beaver Creek Charley," herded those sheep for Murdock. Murdock recalled that Foreman was a good herder, except that he spent more time prospecting than he did watching his flock. One summer Foreman discovered an old vertical shaft which had a rotted pole ladder sticking out of it. Murdock told me that shaft wasn't far from "the big hole,'' out "on the ridges." It might be the same shaft which Foster Rhoads of Hanna used to talk about. It too was near the head of Blind Stream in Lake Basin. Rhoads said that when he first saw that shaft, there were still some stone steps cut into its wall rock.

Foreman became so excited over his find that he quit his job with the sheep and spent the rest of that summer exploring that old digging and prospecting the area around it. He sometimes brought pieces of dark-colored rock to Murdock's camp, which they would break up with a camp axe. Foreman would pan the lines in an old cast iron Groswald frying pan. Louchious Miles, one of the real old-time prospectors in that country, once stopped by Murdock's sheep camp where he examined Foreman's ore samples, and it was obvious that he was quite impressed with them. When summer ended Foreman went back to herding sheep, since prospecting wasn't putting any bread and meal on the table for his family. After more than a half century, Wayne Murdock doesn't recall exactly where Foreman found that ore, other than that it was close to "the big hole," out "on the ridges." With the price of gold pushing four-hundred dollars an ounce, that old shaft might be worth looking at a little closer. You can find it at the edge of a dry lake bed, right on the 10,600 foot topo-map contour line. It's not hard to find. I did it, you can too!--FF pg 87

I had a guy show me this hole in 2005. It goes down about 8 feet then in about 20 then down about 40 feet where it ends. We didn't see any sign of gold anywhere nor did we find any black-colored rock. Maybe they got it all...

bottom of page