About The Author
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My talented son Travis is the initiator of this site and deserves the credit.
In the fullest sense of the definition I am not the author I have only picked
up where he left off. I hope to do him justice, and thank him for his work.
My name is Dale Rex Bascom. Being born of great parents in Riverton, Wyoming
in 1953 and having
moved around a bit, I wish to say " Life is good." Contrary to some
rumors I have never lived in Vernal, Utah.
I often chuckle when people say that, because I would probably know where
the mines are if such were the case.
After the second world war my dad homesteaded some land in the Riverton,
Wyoming area but the ground was
too acidic. The government gave my parents the option to move to another area
to homestead. We moved to the
Rupert, Idaho area where dad worked from scratch to cultivate a 130-acre farm.
We cleared the sagebrush, dug
a well, built a house, a 150-foot-long-potato-cellar and more. A farm is an
excellent way to raise a child because it
helps to teach him many things, such as the value of work. For this I will
forever be grateful. In 1965 we moved to
Springlake, Utah where my dad, Raymon, worked as a carpenter full time. From
the age of 12 most of my life has
been in Utah Valley except for two years in Southern Germany as a missionary
for the LDS Church, in which faith
I am still active.
One day, at about seven, as I walked home down the long lane from the bus
stop, I spied a rock on the freshly
graveled road which didn't look like the others. I picked it up and carefully
placed it in my pocket. As soon as I
saw my dad I asked him what it was. He said it was a dinosaur bone. From that
day on I have been a nut about
rocks.
Mysteries intrigue me. I have studied everything from bigfoot to caves to
UFOs and everything in between.
Sometimes it even got the better of me, like the time my friend built a UFO
to play a trick on me. When the truth
was uncovered everyone eventually enjoyed a laugh or two. I have always liked
to find and explore caves or
just go for a hike. My mother used to get mildly upset with me when I didn't
ride the bus home from Payson
High School because I decided to walk home by way of Dry Mountain. Boy, was
that fun! I wondered which
mysteries I would stumble upon. Because of my curiosity, there are very few
mines and caves in this area I
haven't explored.
In 1976 after graduating from the Utah Technical College at Provo, Utah I
went to work for Deseret Industries
also located in Provo. While employed there I met Alton Barzee who is a great
cousin of the late author Gale
Rhoades. Alton told me about his cousin Gale. As he told me story after story
I became more and more intrigued.
The lost Rhoades mines sounded interesting to me. I bought the books, read
them, and found I could not put them
down. I read everything I could get my hands on about this subject. It wasn't
uncommon for midnight to come and
go and I was still reading the books and studying the maps.
In the early 80's I became interested in panning and gradually obtained pieces
of equipment which assisted me in
my quest for that elusive yellow metal. Over the years I picked up a pan,
a sluice box, a small used dredge, and
then a high banker I also purchased a used metal detector designed mainly
for finding coins and my sons bought
me a good used detector to find gold with. Boy, this was exciting! As I added
more equipment to my collection
I was able to move more dirt and thereby recover more gold. However I learned
something early on. It is hard to
go all out for prospecting on a meager family budget. The most enjoyable part,
of course, are the excursions for
gold. I haven't struck it rich yet, and it is usually hard work, but it is
always fun. It is especially enjoyable to go with
someone and watch their eyes light up and listen to their hoots and howlers
when they recover that very elusive
yellow metal called gold.
In 1984 I started work at Brigham Young University. The father-in-law of the
man who helped me obtain this job
was Ed Twitchell. Ed turned out to be a fountain of knowledge about the mines
and the Spanish/Indian history of the
Uinta mountains. He had been very good friends with Richard Ridley, Cump Murrey,
Don Foote, and many others
who had been directly involved with the mines. These men knew the history
intricately. Because he was friends with
them, they told him things they would not have told anyone else. For some
unknown reason Ed took a liking to me
and so I was privileged to learn much from him.
Over the years choice opportunities have come my way to know several very
knowledgeable individuals in respect
to Utah's history. Some of these are still with us, while others have passed
on. You may refer to my tribute page to
read a few details about some of these who have impacted my life and hobby.
Let me take a minute and answer a couple of possible questions. Is this just
a hobby? Let me think. I would have to
say it is more than a hobby but most of the time less than an obsession. Is
it gold fever? I do not have a lust for gold
but I like it a lot. The best way I can describe it is that I love to put
puzzles together. Some puzzles pieces take longer
to put into place than others. I truly believe that I could spend the rest
of my life at putting the pieces to the Uinta
Mountains' puzzle together and still not see the entire puzzle crystal clear.
As I perceive it, there are three reasons for
this. 1. Because so much of the historical evidence has been purposely covered
up or altered by individuals or groups.
Whether they were Native American, Spanish and/or of other origins, it's yet
to be fully seen. 2. Because mother nature
in all her power and glory has a way of erasing many things. 3. Because sometimes
my eyesight is very poor at seeing
the pieces. This is figuratively speaking of course.
OK, now for a very simple question. Why slim? My nickname is sometimes slim
because I have always been small.
That is up until the last few years when my eating habits have increased and
my activity level has decreased. I wrestled
the 121 weight category in high school, so I was once very small.
Let me tell you about my family, both the one I came from and the one we
are raising. My parents raised a large family by
today's standards. I had one brother, who was older than I, and five sisters.
Two of my sisters and my brother were born in
Vernal. I was born, as mentioned earlier, in Wyoming and the rest of my sisters
were born in Idaho. At the age of retirement
my parents moved back to Vernal. They now live in Dry Fork Canyon. I meet
my sweetheart at the UTC in Provo. She is
from Hurricane, Utah. In 1975 I married miss right, Jeri Wright that is. It
has been our choice privilege and challenge to raise
six children, three boys and three girls. You may call us the Bradey Bunch
if you want. Most of our children are out of the
house now. As of this writing we have one granddaughter, three grandsons,
and one more granddaughter on the way.
I chose the field of electronics as my vocation and you may wonder why.
The theories and concepts of electronics fascinate me.
I took a half year electronics introductory class at Payson High School. Upon
returning from my mission in 1974 I decided to
attend the UTC. TV/Radio technology was one of the fields available to me
so I enrolled. Electronics isn't easy for me, however,
I enjoy electronic troubleshooting. I find it very challenging, satisfying,
and rewarding. I plan to retire someday in this field.
It might be valuable at this point to speak briefly about my web site As
explained in the beginning, my son Travis started this
site. He has a web site and he asked me if I wanted one. I said "yes."
He then designed it and placed a few pictures on it.
This was in the fall of 2000. Travis is very busy and didn't have time to
add to it. In the spring of 2001 we sat in front of my
computer together and he showed me how to modify my web site With this limited
information to spark my interest, and the
encouragement of friends to place photos of the symbols of Mosby Mountain
on my site, I decided to take a Dreamweaver
class at BYU. The class was a benefit because of my employment at the Y. It
was a challenging but rewarding endeavor. I
even decided to take it for credit. Then, with the class behind me, I decided
to take on my web site in earnest. I redesigned it
completely and have added many pages since then.
I acknowledge that history is not my strong point but enjoy learning about
it and sharing what I have learned about Utah's
fascinating past with you and hope you like it too.
The reason for this section on my web site is two fold. First is to give
you the opportunity to get to know the author. This is
helpful in understanding my perspective. I was grateful for the opportunity
I had to live amongst the German people for 2 years
because it gave me a new perspective and outlook on life. Second is to help
me fulfill the need to keep a journal. I haven't been
as diligent as I should have been over the years at keeping a log and this
page will help satisfy part of my desire to do so.
This story isn't finished because it is ongoing. I will be adding to it from
time to time. As to misspellings and ideas that may
not make sense please bear with me. I have many shortcomings.
Thank you. Your friend and fellow explorer, Dale.
Written November, 2001. Updated July, 2003.