As shown in figures 3, 8, and 26, the first major canyon west of the
West Entrance of the monument is called Kodels Canyon (pronounced
\‘kōd^ǝls\). It was named after an early-day stonemason turned
prospector, a hermit, who came to the Fruita area before 1900 and
prospected for gold until at least 1930 in the canyon that now bears his
name. He seemingly built a cabin or house near the mouth of the canyon,
spent most of the rest of his life in a vain quest for gold in the
canyon, barricaded his house against would-be intruders, and took
potshots at anyone approaching his home for fear they were after his
“gold.” Some thought him only half crazy, but when he took repeated
shots at an Indian named Henry Kadig, he was adjudged wholly insane and
sent to the mental hospital at Pueblo, Colorado, for several years. When
he got out he sold the grazing rights in his canyon to the late Irving
Beard of Fruita, and seemingly was not heard from again. According to
various estimates, Kodel dug an adit between 18 and 150 feet into the
dark Proterozoic rock in the side of the canyon (shown in fig. 3), then
sunk a shaft somewhere between 30 and 50 feet deep. He was always “on
the verge of a big strike,” but there is no record of any actual
production.
Later, a prospector from the midwest spent several summers digging in
Devils Canyon, the next major canyon to the west, but he was equally
unsuccessful. The unsuccessful attempts of Kodel and others is not
surprising, for the two canyons are some 100 miles north of the Colorado
mineral belt—a band extending roughly from Boulder to the western part
of the San Juan Mountains, in which ore-bearing Upper Cretaceous or
lower Tertiary rocks were intruded into all overlying rocks of whatever
age.