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. Recent Cave Dweller