The Lincoln Myth (Cotton Malone 9)

“I am on the payroll, Pappy.”

The driver, a younger man, left the car and offered a set of keys.

“I thought, perhaps, Mr. Daniels could drive,” Snow said. “And you and I could sit back here, Mr. Malone.”

He knew both the name and the face, recognizing Snow as the current leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He climbed into the Navigator’s rear seat, Luke and Stephanie into the front.

“It’s important that I come with you,” Snow said. “My legs are weak, but they’ll have to work. I’ll make sure of it.”

He wanted to know, “Why is this so important?”

Snow nodded. “It is, for both my church and our country.”

“We’re going to Falta Nada?”

“That we are. Mr. Daniels, if you will engage the navigation, the route is already programmed. It’s about an hour’s drive.” Snow paused. “But in the old days it was a good two-day ride by horseback.”

Luke drove the car away, the navigation screen lit with a map, an arrow pointing the way.

“Ms. Nelle tells me you were once one of the government’s best agents,” Snow said.

“She’s been known to exaggerate.”

“President Daniels said the same thing.”

“He can tell a few whoppers himself.”

Snow chuckled. “He’s a tough man. My heart hurts for him. He may have some difficult choices to soon make.”

He thought he understood. “Salazar?”

Snow nodded. “Evil. But I’ve only learned the extent of how bad over the past two days. He killed one of your agents. I have prayed for that departed soul.”

“Not much consolation to his widow and children.”

The older man appraised him with a hard glare. “No. I imagine not.”

He understood about killing. Never a good thing. But there was a difference between the heat-of-battle self-defense, and in-cold-blood, one Josepe Salazar seemed to not care about.

“I need to know what Falta Nada is.”

He noticed that Stephanie had not turned back and joined the conversation. Instead she kept her gaze out the front windshield, her mouth closed.

“I never thought I would again travel to the high country,” Snow said. “You see, Mr. Malone, I’m dying. You can look at me and tell. But of late a new strength has found its way into me. Maybe it’s the last bit of life before death begins to take hold. I can only hope it lasts until we finish this.”

He knew enough about the situation to say, “This mess was sown a long time ago. You merely inherited it.”

“That’s true. But Thaddeus Rowan is my problem. The president and I tried to coerce his resignation, but he rejected that. I can’t challenge him publicly because of his standing and the overall sensitivity of this. Instead, we have to deal with him. Today.”

Only a few men rose to lead the world’s great religions. Catholic popes. Orthodox patriarchs. Protestant archbishops. Here was the prophet of the Saints. Malone sympathized with both the man’s health and his difficult situation, but they were headed into a perilous unknown.

And he had to prepare.

“Falta Nada,” he said. “Tell me about it.”

Utah was settled two years before the 1849 California gold rush. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposed gold prospecting in all forms, since it distracted members from concentrating their labors on building Zion. In 1847, when the pioneers first arrived, most were penniless. Yet by 1850, Saints were minting gold coins and furbishing their new temple in gold leaf. Where had the wealth come from?

The Salt Lake basin had long been occupied by Utes. Surprisingly, these Natives welcomed the religious immigrants. Wakara, their chief, developed a close relationship with the newcomers, especially a Saint named Isaac Morley. Eventually Wakara admitted to Brother Isaac that years ago he’d received a vision from Towats, the Ute word for “God.” In that vision, the chief was told to give gold to “tall hats” who would one day come to his land. The Saints fit that description perfectly, so Wakara led Brother Isaac to Carre-Shinob, a sacred place supposedly build by the ancestors. There Morley collected 58 pounds of refined gold and sent it to Brigham Young in Salt Lake City. A deal was struck for more of the cache, which Wakara agreed to provide with two conditions. Only one man would know the mine’s location, and that man had to be equally trusted by both parties. Brother Isaac was chosen for the task, but eventually he became too old to make the yearly trip.

In 1852 a new man was selected.

Thomas Rhoades.

From his first journey to the secret mine, Rhoades returned with 62 pounds of gold. More trips were made in subsequent years. Wakara died in 1855 and his son, Arapeen, succeeded him as chief. At the same time Rhoades also became sick and could no longer make the annual trip into the mountains.

So Brigham Young had a problem.

He wasn’t even sure if the new chief would honor the agreement. If he did, Young needed Arapeen’s permission to allow Caleb Rhoades, Thomas Rhoades’ son, to take over the gold extractions. This was tentatively agreed to, provided that a Native escort Caleb on his visits. Eventually Caleb became trustworthy enough in Arapeen’s eyes to go alone and made many trips. Arapeen’s successor ended the deal, but Caleb Rhoades continued to make covert journeys. He even petitioned Congress for a land lease, but the petition was denied. The federal government eventually chartered other companies to survey and mine the area. Government-paid geologists came and scouted, but never found the fabled Rhoades Mine.

Brigham Young knew that if word got out that Utah possessed such a treasure, it would cause a gold rush bigger than the one in California. That was the last thing he wanted, as Saints had fled west to escape gentiles. So he forbid all talk of the mine. Any Saint who participated in prospecting would be excommunicated.

“The Rhoades Mine is one of our legends,” Snow said. “Few facts exist about it thanks to Young’s order of silence. Just a lot of wild stories. But it’s not all a lie.”

“Interesting to hear you admit that,” Malone said.

“Until now it was just a harmless legend. Now, though, things have changed.”

To say the least.

“Brigham Young had a difficult job,” Snow said. “He was nation building and faith building. His Saints were living in one of the harshest places imaginable. Money was nonexistent. So he did what had to be done.”

He was watching their route as Luke merged onto Interstate 15 north, leaving Salt Lake, heading toward Ogden. He also noticed the younger man’s eyes watching them in the rearview mirror.

Still only silence from Stephanie.

“There was refined gold in the sacred mine Wakara showed Isaac Morley,” Snow said. “Most likely brought north by Spaniards from Mexico centuries ago and secreted away. Bars, coins, nuggets, dust. The Utes discovered this, but gold was not precious to them. So Wakara made the deal thinking he was pleasing not only the newcomers, but his own God. Contrary to the legend it was Young, not the Utes, who insisted that only one person have access. For ten years he milked that cache, allowing that gold to slowly make its way into our economy. Coins were minted, wages paid with coin, goods bought with those wages. Nobody ever questioned the source. All just appreciated its presence. Remember, we were a closed society. That gold just moved about in circles, never leaving, always benefiting each person who held it. Then, in 1857, with the coming of war with the United States, the threat existed of losing that wealth. So Young ordered everyone to repatriate their gold. Everything was melted down, loaded onto wagons, and supposedly sent to California for safekeeping until the threat was over.”

Snow reached into his pocket and removed something, handing it over.

A gold coin.

On one side were clasped hands surrounded by capital letters G S L C P G and the value amount of five dollars. On the obverse was an all-seeing eye surrounded by HOLINESS TO THE LORD.

“Those letters stand for Greater Sa

lt Lake City Pure Gold. A bit of a misnomer as the coins were fashioned from bullion metal that contained silver and copper. It’s about 80% gold. That’s one of the coins minted by Brigham Young, included in a time capsule Young created inside a record stone at the Salt Lake temple. We opened it in 1993. The coins were all the same, only differing in value from $2.50 to $20. The so-called Mormon Money.”

“That’s part of what got him in trouble with the federal government,” Malone said. “The Constitution says only Congress can mint money.”

“Brigham Young tended to ignore those laws he did not agree with. But in his defense, we were a long way from the United States and had to survive. To do that we needed an economy we could control. So he created one.”

“Except those wagons never made it to California,” Luke said from the front seat. “In fact, they were just found a few days ago, in Zion National Park, hidden in a cave with four skeletons.”

“That’s right,” Snow said. “By 1857 the Utes’ sacred mine was tapped out. So Young made the decision to replenish his supply with the gold from the wagons. The same wealth, back where it started. But this time it wasn’t hidden in the sacred mine. Instead Young arranged for a private land grant from the territorial legislature and created a new place, his own, where he was in charge. Falta Nada.”

“Missing Nothing. A touch of irony?”

“I’ve always thought so. Slowly, over the next two decades that gold filtered its way back into our community.”

“But not to its rightful owners.”

Snow paused, then shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Another one of those difficult decisions by Young. But it turned out to be brilliant. Our economy flourished. We prospered greatly after the Civil War ended, and especially so as the 19th century gave way to the 20th.”

“Four men were dead in that cave with the wagons,” Luke said from the front seat.

“I know,” Snow said. “Fjeldsted. Hyde. Woodruff. Egan. Their names have been known to us for many years.”

“What did the message in the cave mean?” Luke asked. “Damnation to the prophet. Forget us not.”