Foster Rhoades Mine

Near the head of Blind Stream, the late Foster Rhoades of Hanna, Utah, and two other men located a vertical shaft which had a stair-like path cut into the sides as way of descending into it on foot. "We found it years ago; he explained to me, "when we were riding horses through Lake Basin, near the cliffs on the South Fork of Rock Creek. As far as I know, no one has ever gone to the bottom of it since we found it. I will say this, though: I dropped a rock down the shaft and it took quite some time for it to hit bottom, so it must be several hundred feet deep. I know of only one man who dared venture down into the shaft and that was when we first found it, and he only went down a short distance by using a rope which was tied to his saddlehorn. He used the rope because many of the rock steps had long since fallen away. He went down about 80 or 90 feet (using two ropes) and still could not see the bottom, but did find what appeared to be human bones scattered among the steps."

I asked Foster if a jeep might be able to approach the mouth of this old shaft, so a person could be lowered to the bottom with the aid of a winch, and he replied that this could be done. "Come on out here with one (a jeep and winch) and we'll do it," he added. Unfortunately, our schedules were never such that we could both get together at the same time to attempt the task and he has since passed away.--Lost Gold of the Uintah, pg. 109