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Shipwreck Mine

Another interesting piece of information and, perhaps, even a legitimate clue as to the possible location of the A.C. Mine (or Rhoades Mine) might be that of an old record I once uncovered at the Wasatch County Recorder's office in Heber City, Utah years ago. This was a mining claim filed by C.B. Rhoades, et al, in 1901 (Book 0, Page 133) called the "Shipwreck #4." (See Map #118.)

It was what I would call a "floating claim", in more ways than one. First, not enough specifics were given by the description for anyone to determine exactly where it might be -- worthless, really, except from a legal point of view. Secondly, the name "Shipwreck" had been chosen for some odd reason, and I had always assumed probably for some strange landmark which may have reminded him of a wrecked ship. Many years later, while prospecting southeast of the old Rhoades and Hathenbruck cabin, about mid-way between Grandaddy Lake and Doc's Lake (named after Doc Hathenbruck), I happened upon another smaller lake called Red Cliff Lake. As I glanced across it, chills crawled up my spine. There, in the middle of that small lake, were large rocks protruding from the water in the image of a sunken ship; its bow and bridge pointing up above the water and its stern completely submerged. It looked like the real thing. From a helicopter the formation in the lake appears as nothing more than a series of rocks laying in the lake on an angle, one on top of the other, but viewed from the ground, it appears as a genuine "shipwreck." It has always been my opinion that the Rhoades Mine on the West Fork of Rock Creek will be found very near that spot.--Lost Gold of the Uintah, pg. 107

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