Custer Co., SD - Description and History, 1884 This file is a complete transcription of the descriptive information about Custer County as found in A. T. Andreas' "Historical Atlas of Dakota", 1884. Custer County Though not the most important in population and development in the Black Hills, Custer county being the first settled and originally the focus of the earliest gold excitement, it is proper that it should take historical precedence of the other counties. Geographically, it is first in importance, having the largest area of any of the Hills counties, covering 3,500 square miles, or about the equivalent of ninety-seven congressional townships. It extends nearly sixty-two miles north and south, and the main body, about fifty-four miles east and west, with a triangular fraction in the north along the Cheyenne River, equal to about four townships. The county may be divided into two nearly equal portions, one comprehending the mountainous, broken and timbered lands, the other the open or grazing and agricultural lands outside the foothills. The county lies between 43º and 43º 50' north latitude, and mostly between the 103rd and 104th meridians of longitude west from Greenwich. The principal streams are the south fork of the Cheyenne River, Spring, Battle, French, Red Cañon and Beaver Creeks, and Fall River, draining the Hills on the north and west, and Horse Head and Beaver Creeks flowing into the Cheyenne from the south. The famous "Bad Lands" border the county on the southeast. These consist of a strip of country probably twenty miles wide lying between the Cheyenne and White rivers. The mountainous region includes the most of the Harney granite uplift, whose peaks are the highest points in the Hills; a considerable area of the schist and slates, a broad plateau of the Sub-carboniferous limestone, a long curvilinear sweep of the Red Beds and the characteristic foothills of the Cretaceous formation. The open country includes the principal valleys and a considerable extent of the prairie region along both banks of the Cheyenne River. The county includes very nearly one-half the area of the Hills situated in Dakota. The area of surveyed lands includes about sixteen congressional townships, or about one-seventh of the total area of the county, lying, for the most part, outside the Hills. The county was organized by a meeting of the commissioners, held at Custer City in April, 1877. Custer City was made the county-seat originally, according to the record: but it would appear that meetings were held at Hayward City, which was finally found to be a little over one mile north of the Pennington County line. The county-seat was permanently fixed at Custer City, October 10,1879. The county was named in honor of General George A. Custer, who visited the region at the head of a military expedition in 1874. The first county officers were appointed by the Governor, and, so far as can be made out from the record, were as follows: Commissioners - M.D. Thompson, Charles Hayward, E.G.Ward. Judge of Probate Court - J.W.C. White. Register of Deeds and ex-Officio County Clerk - F.J. Cross. Sheriff - D.N. Eley. Treasurer - Frank P. Smith. Assessor - A.B. Hughes. If there were others they were subsequently appointed or elected. The present officers are: Commissioners - A.Way, C.Cole, ---- vacancy Judge of Probate - B.R.Wood. Register of Deeds and County Clerk - E.H.Flynn. Clerk of District Court and Assessor - A.T.Feay. Treasurer - Samuel R.Shankland. Sheriff - John T. Code. Surveyor - C.W. Bryden. Superintendent Public Instruction - Mrs.M.L.Sanders. Coroner - J.F.Smith. The courts were held in ordinary buildings until 1881, when a fine brick court house was erected at a cost of about $12,000. The county is divided into seven voting precincts for civil and political purposes, and there have been six school districts organized with comfortable buildings at Custer and other points indicated on the map of the county accompanying this work. Considerable labor has been expended in the improvement of roads and the building of bridges over the principal streams, and the county has shown a commendable public spirit, considering the number of its permanent inhabitants, which does not exceed 2,000. The majority of the roads have been carefully surveyed and put on record. An attempt was made in 1883 to subdivide the county on the line between Townships 6 and 7 south, cutting off more than half of the old county and including a majority of the great cattle ranches and grazing lands. Minnekatta, the supposed Indian name for hot or warm water, was to be the capital of the new county, which was to be named Fall River County, from the name of the outlet of Hot Springs. The project was mostly in the interests of the proprietors of these springs, who desired to give them as much notoriety as possible and thereby build up a fine summer resort in the southern Hills. It was submitted to the legal voters of the proposed new county and declared adopted by the Board of Canvassers; but the election was contested in the courts and an adverse decision rendered in the beginning of October; breaking up the arrangement for the time. Had there been a sufficient population to justify the organization of a new county, it would have succeeded, as in the case of the subdivision of Lawrence County; but as the actual residents of the district numbered probably less than two hundred, the project was, to say the least, somewhat premature. It is quite likely that should the population ever justify the attempt, Minnekatta will one day become the capital of a new county, and a rival of the great watering places of the East and South. The area of Custer County is sufficiently large to warrant its subdivision whenever the wants of the population demand it, and whenever that period arrives there will probably be little opposition to it. The region now composing it will some day be filled with a busy and wealthy population. Nearly half the county is covered by hard pine timber, generally of a good quality. There are also extensive areas of table lands, and some of the finest valleys and parks to be found in the Hills region. The great cattle ranges are principally in or near the valley of the Cheyenne River, while the sheep ranges are among the foothills. The assessed valuation of the county in 1882 was $363,339;tax levy, 30 mills; total indebtedness, $29,407.35. The bonds of the county are worth about 97 cents on the dollar. Custer City. - The history of Custer County and in a large degree that of the southern Hills, centers at Custer City. The beautiful valley of French Creek, in which Custer City is situated, may probably have been visited by white men previous to 1874; but if such is the fact, there is no record giving any account of it. If daring prospectors for gold ever ventured into the region, they probably sacrificed their lives at the shrine of their stupidity, for the Sioux warriors jealously guarded the Hills from intruders, and persistently refused to give any account of the region from whence they obtained their gold ornaments. The first expedition to reach the Black Hills was led in by Lieutenant G.K. Warren, in September, 1857, when he crossed over from Fort Laramie via the Rawhide Buttes and down the Old Woman's Fork of the Cheyenne, and thence to the valley of Beaver Creek, where he encamped near the spot afterwards and still known as Jenney's Stockade. From thence he proceeded northward, visited the Sun Dance Hills, Inyan Kara, Warren's Peaks, and Red Water region, where he encountered a large party of Sioux warriors, who forced him to retrace his steps southward. He passed around the southern end of the Hills and visited the Bear Butte, and from there returned to Fort Randall via the White River. Dr.Hayden accompanied him on this expedition. The expedition crossed the lower valley of French Creek, but did not penetrate as far as the site of Custer City. In 1859 Lieutenant W.F.Reynolds led an expedition from Fort Pierre via Bear Butte and the Belle Fourche to the Yellowstone valley, but did not penetrate the Black Hills. No other expedition traversed the Black Hills region until the summer of 1874, when Lieutenant-Colonel G.A.Custer was directed by General Sheridan to organize an expedition at Fort Abraham Lincoln, near the site of Bismarck, for the purposes of reconnoitering a route to the Bear Butte, and exploring the country south, southeast and southwest of that mountain. This expedition was accompanied by H.N.Ross, since deputy sheriff of Custer County and William T. McKay, in the capacity of guides and miners. From Mr.Ross we have obtained an interesting account of the expedition, which was under orders to return within sixty days to the original starting point. The command consisted of ten companies of the Seventh United States Cavalry, three companies of infantry, a battery consisting of one Napoleon and three Gatling guns, sixty-five Indian scouts, 100 United States wagons, and eighteen private outfits. Professors N.H. Winchell, geologist; Donaldson, botanist; Grinnell,paleontologist, and Colonel Fred Grant, accompanied the expedition. As detailed in another part of this work, the expedition reached the site of Custer City, where it encamped about the 27th of July. Subsequently they moved down the creek about two and a half or three miles, and encamped for five days. Here the first gold was discovered by William McKay. From French Creek the command bore north and encamped on Castle and Little Rapid Creek, on the latter at the point where the hamlet of Elkhorn now stands. The miners found gold on all three of these streams and also on Box Elder Creek. Near one of their camps General Custer killed a cinnamon bear, and the photographer of the expedition took a picture of the General sitting on the bear. The expedition left the Hills on its return trip between Box Elder and Elk creeks, going by way of Bear Butte, where it camped one day, thence moving to the Little Missouri, and thence by General Stanley's trail to Fort Lincoln. At this time General Custer was expecting to be ordered upon an expedition to the Yellowstone and Big Horn country, where he subsequently lost his life, and Mr.Ross had agreed to accompany him. After waiting for some time, and the orders not arriving, he suggested to the general that the expedition had probably been abandoned, and he desired to be absolved from his obligation to accompany him, telling the general at the same time that he was going to return to the Black Hills to look for gold. The general admitted that the proposed expedition was probably off, and jocosely remarked that if Ross attempted to return to the Hills he would be obliged to capture him and bring him back. Ross, with a sly twinkle in his eye, replied: "General, I'll take good care you don't capture me." "Now, Ross,"says Custer, "if I were going to the Black Hills, I wouldn't fit out an expedition and start right from a United States military post. I would go off ten or fifteen miles, cross the Missouri River, and, instead of taking a well-known trail, strike out directly for the Bad Lands." Ross profited by this advice. A party of fourteen men with pack animals was soon organized, and going up the Missouri fifteen miles above the fort, they paddled over in canoes, swimming their animals, in June, 1875, and once on the west side, struck directly for the Bad Lands, where, notwithstanding their terrible reputation, they found plenty of grass and water. They reached the Belle Fourche, a short distance above the mouth of Crow Creek, but finding Indians in front, they bore off easterly from the Hills, and reached Rapid Creek about the time that General Crook was issuing his proclamation to the miners ordering them to vacate the country. A portion of his party now became discouraged and desired to return. Ross wished to stay in the Hills and prospect for gold. Finally, under the clamor of the company to be led back, he consented to return, but the entire party came very near being intercepted by a body of 2,000 Sioux Indians under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, on their way to the grand council at Red Cloud. They struck the great trail on the Moreau River, about an hour after the passage of the Indians, who would have left their bones to whiten on the plains had they caught a glimpse of them. In November 1875, Mr. Ross again returned to the Hills, with a party of twenty-six men and eleven wagons, and has since been a resident. In October 1874, immediately after the return of General Custer's command, and when the news brought by soldiers and citizens of his expedition was circulating rapidly over the country, and expedition was fitted out at Sioux City, Iowa by Messrs. Gordon, Witcher, McKay and Talent, who conducted it into the Hills and built a strong stockade and wintering cabins on French Creek about two miles below the site of Custer City. They also prospected during the winter. There was one woman and a little child with this party, which suffered severely for want of provisions in the latter part of the winter and early spring. Gordon and Witcher left the party and went to Chicago and several men, probably in March 1875, proceeded to Cheyenne in quest of provisions, representing at that place that the company was on the verge of starvation. The remainder of the people were finally taken out by the military. The next arrival of white men in the neighborhood was the party heretofore mentioned, with which Wade Porter of Deadwood came to French Creek. This party included fourteen men and reached the Gordon & Witcher Stockade on the 28th of April 1875. They prospected the creek and found considerable gold. They were also taken out by the military. The first permanent settlers at Custer City were Judge Thomas Hooper, Charles Caldwell, Samuel R. Shankland and Dr. F.W.Flick, in the summer, (probably June), of 1875. Among others who were there at an early day, were Melvin Dempsey, William Norrid, George Winslow, Ernest Faust, J.E. Coffee and several Mexicans, all coming in the summer or fall of 1875. Possibly the Mexicans may not have arrived until January, 1876. (Note:-Some accounts say that the first town plat of Custer City was laid out by Custer’s Soldiers in 1874,but it is hardly probable.) Samuel R. Shankland, a native of Ohio, came to Custer from Montana in 1875. He accompanied a train fitted out at Sioux City including 166 men and a large number of wagons and animals. The train left Sioux City in April. Mr Shankland and fourteen others left the train at some point on the route, but scattered in consequence of encountering the United States military. Six of them, however, reached the site of Custer City in June. A small party, consisting of about half a dozen men, had come in from Fort Pierre a few days earlier. They were living in “Bear Rock,” a cavern situated three-fourths of a mile west of town, and subsisting on wild meat “straight.” According to Mr.Shankland’s statement the town was laid out in July 1875, by what was styled a “Town Company,” one mile square, the measurement being made by tape line. It was first called “Stonewall” at the suggestion of some admirer of the Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson; but the name proved very distasteful to a majority of the miners and was subsequently changed. The Town Company sold a few lots. In July, General Crook, in command of a small cavalry force, arrived in the valley and issued a proclamation notifying the miners that they were trespassing upon Indian territory, and must all leave by the 15th of August, or they would be captured and taken out as prisoners by the troops. A general meeting of the miners was held on the 10th of August, at which time a reorganization of the town company was effected. A new company formed and the town re-christened Custer City in honor of General Custer. The name “Stonewall” was declared null and void. About 1,200 miners were present at this meeting. A new survey of the town plat was made and the place laid out substantially as before. The lots (about 1,200 in number), were all numbered, the numbers were placed in a box and each man drew one number and took the lot correspondingly numbered. These civil proceedings indicated that whatever course the United States authorities might take, they proposed to make a permanent settlement at Custer City. If taken out they calculated to return again and again, if necessary until the government should get tired of holding it for the Indians and open it by treaty for white occupation. On the 15th, according to proclamation, all the miners who could be found, with the exception of Mr. Shankland, who represented the mining district, and six others, left to guard the property, were taken out by General Crook’s command. The General evidently foresaw the inevitable result of the matter and while technically obeying the orders of his superiors, treated the miners in a manner which plainly said, “boys I must obey orders, but you will no doubt come back as soon as released by the military authorities, and eventually get possession of these Hills.” Attempts were then being made to treat for the opening of the Hills, and probably the General was aware of the fact, for there seemed to be a universal belief that they would be opened soon to settlement in some manner. About this time Captain Pollock arrived with four companies of the Ninth U.S. Infantry to guard the Hills and prevent their occupation by the whites. He had orders to pursue and capture all trespassers and seemed in exactly the mood to execute his orders to the letter, though his blustering did not scare the miners. He remained until ordered out by the Government in the following November, 1875. On the day of his departure there was a rush of miners who had been keeping a close lookout, and the town was taken possession of. Fourteen log buildings which had been erected by the military were at once occupied. One building, erected before the exodus of the miners, was known as “Miner’s Hall.” In December, 1875, a new town organization was effected and officers were appointed by a committee of the whole. This organization continued until March 1879, when a regular election was held, and all necessary officers were elected including city officers, a superior judge, three police justices, a sheriff, city marshal, city attorney treasurer, board of trustees, deputy sheriffs, etc. At the last named date, Custer City contained an estimated population of 5,000 and 1,400 log buildings, which had been erected by citizens and the military. All parties coming to the Hills took the route by way of the southern approach from Cheyenne, Sidney, the Niobrara River, etc., and consequently Custer City was the first stopping place of any considerable importance after reaching the Hills. Early in 1876, a post office was established, and T. H. Harvey appointed postmaster. He held the office for some six months, and was succeeded by J.S. Bartholomew, who, after occupying the position for a few months, was followed by F.B.Smith, and he, in 1878, by Samuel R.Shankland, who continued for about three years, when the present incumbent, H. A. Albien, was appointed. Mails were at first brought in by parties connected with incoming trains, and from twenty-five to fifty cents was charged upon the delivery of each letter. The square mile occupied by Custer City was patented in April, 1882. The city plat, being situated on unsurveyed lands, and being laid out originally without proper instruments, does not conform to the regular government survey, but lies diagonally to them at about the angle of north 21 degrees west. This may have been intentional, in order to make it conform more closely to the topography of the valley. Early in the spring of 1876, rumors of rich gold discoveries in the Deadwood gulch began to circulate, and in May the excitement became so intense that a great stampede from the southern Hills was the consequence, and as many as a thousand people left Custer in a single day. The population diminished in a few weeks from 6,000 to about thirty persons. The 1,400 log buildings were gradually torn down and used for fuel. In the fall of 1876, General Crook returned from an expedition to the Big Horn country, and stopped at Custer, with a force of about 1,200 men. This called a considerable number of people to the place, partly from Deadwood, and partly new-comers to the Hills. The population in the fall and winter of 1876 had grown to about 400, which continued with little variation until 1878, when mining excitement in various places caused it to diminish once more, so that, by an actual census taken September 5, there were only fifty-seven persons inhabiting the pioneer city of the Hills - thirty-seven men, eleven women, and eleven children. Since that time the population has slowly but steadily increased, until at this time there is a permanent community of about 400 people. The town was incorporated as a city by a vote of the people in the spring of 1880, and the U.S. patent was issued to the city authorities. A block of ground was set apart for a public park, a court house, and a public school building, when the plat was laid out. J.C. Sanders accompanied Colonel Dodge’s command to Custer City, in June 1875, as a guide. He served in the same capacity with General Crook and guided Captain Pollock’s detachment from Laramie, in September 1875. He settled permanently at Custer in 1877, bringing his family from Cheyenne. At one time his was one of the three families that made up the entire population of Custer. Mr.Sanders has had extensive experience in mining operations, and is interested in the North Pole Silver Mine, and several mica and nickel mines, some of which also carry tin and graphite. One of these mines, two miles east of Custer, shows a heavy vein of graphite. Daniel F. Sheeler, John T. Code, John and Thomas Ballard, and P. Donegan left Cheyenne in June 1875, with five teams and struck out for the Hills, coming via Laramie, where they fell in with an outfit of seventy-five wagons. They only remained with it one night, however, leaving the train at Rawhide Creek. They reached the Hills via Jenney’s Stockade, Bear Creek and Pleasant Valley, coming to Custer, where they remained a few days, and pushed on to Castle Creek, farther north. From Castle Creek they went out of the Hills under General Crook’s order, returning to Cheyenne. Messrs. Wheeler, Donegan and Code returned to Custer at different times, from December 1875 to June 1876. These three have remained in the country since. Mr. Wheeler owns a fine ranch near Custer, and is part owner in several promising gold, silver and copper mines. Mr.Code is Sheriff of Custer County and Mr. Donegan is Superintendent of Colonel Davey’s salt works in Wyoming. Religious. The earliest church services in Custer were probably conducted by Rev. Smith, afterward killed by the Indians between Crook City and Deadwood in 1876, unless there may have been a chaplain along with some one of the military expeditions who conducted camp services. The Methodists organized in 1878 and erected a comfortable church building in 1882. The Congregationalists organized a society and erected a church building in 1882. These at present are the only church organizations in the place. The earliest school was probably opened in 1879. From 1875 to 1879 the population consisted mostly of men, there being few women or children in the place. F.T. Aliabaugh taught a select school in 1879 in a frame building known as the “city hotel.” The first public school was opened in 1880. At present the school is held in a rented building, the district not having funds sufficient to erect a building. A large number of lots in the city plat belonging to the school fund will be sold, probably the present year, and it is the intention of district to erect a fine building to cost not less than $5,000, which like those of Deadwood and Rapid City shall be a credit to the place. Among those who may perhaps be classed as the early settlers of Custer were Thomas Hooper and John Allen who, though they did not remain long, were quite prominent in the laying out of the town, and Allen was among the first aldermen or trustees elected under the provisional organization. According to some authorities, Dr.Flick, now of Rapid City, built the first house in the place in August, 1875, but there were certainly others of some kind as early as June or July, though the doctor may have put up the first regular dwelling house. The first birth in the Hills, at least the first well authenticated one, was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sasse, later residents of Deadwood. In speaking of Custer City the Deadwood “Pioneer” of January, 1882, has the following paragraphs: “The first town in the Black Hills was Custer City. It was laid out August 10, 1875, by Tom Hooper and others. On July 4, 1875, Tom Hooper was there, but there was no town and only about thirty miners in the Hills; but they were coming with a rush and when Custer City was laid out there were about a thousand persons there. General Crook was there with order to remove them on the 10th of August twelve aldermen were elected, John Allen being one of them. Hooper and Allen drew up the rules by which lots were to be drawn. Numbers were put in a hat, shaken up, and over two hundred lots were thus taken that day. General Crook permitted seven men to remain at Jenney’s stockade to take care of the miners’ tools, but they were not permitted to do any prospecting or mining. They were W.H. Wood, Al Gay, - Tarsk, H.F. Huff, Bob Canyon, Alex Thompson and another whose name we could not obtain. When General Crook started out with the miners, Tom Hooper and Joe Ingoldsby slipped away and hid, sleeping with the boys at the stockade at night and hiding out during the day. They eluded the guards until September, when they were captured and taken to Fort Laramie and turned loose, but they filed out again and beat the guard back to the Hills.” The earliest adventurers into the Hills were no doubt killed by the Indians, and their history can never be known. During the great rush to Custer in 1875-76 there were occasional disturbances and quarrels among the miners, a few of which ended fatally. The best estimates places the number of violent deaths in and around the town in 1875 and 1876 , at ten, who were buried near the town. The name “Calamity Peak,” given to a high bold uplift of granite two miles below Custer, is said to have been in honor of a sporting woman, familiarly known as “Calamity Jane.” According to accounts she was rigged in a suit of buckskin and was quite a noted character. She has since married and lived for a time at or near Deadwood and Crook City. Recently she is reported to have gone to the new Coeur d’Alene gold fields. For nearly two years Custer City was the focus of the two principal lines of travel from Cheyenne and Sidney, and all the travel to the Hills passed through it. The Indians were of course on the war path the first year, and the best authority estimates that five persons were killed by them in the vicinity of Custer in 1876. Among the early settlers were S.M.Booth, now a prominent merchant, and Captain C.A. Haserodt, hotel keeper and ranchman. Custer City is finely situated in the upper valley of French Creek in about latitude 43 degrees and 45 minutes north, and longitude about 26 degrees and 35 minutes west from Washington. It lies south, a little east from Deadwood and distant about 45 miles in an air line. From Rapid City it lies about southwest, and by the wagon road 45 miles distant, but in an air line scarcely 30 miles, and is distant from the line between Dakota and Wyoming about 22 miles in a direct line. It is about 200 miles from Pierre on the Missouri River and nearly the same distance from Sidney and Cheyenne on the U.P.R.R. Its elevation above tide water is approximately 5,500 feet. Observations with barometer by various parties vary from 5,300 to 6,700. The celebrated Harney Peak lies north, 26 degrees east, 7 ½ miles distant from the Court House, and according to careful triangulation's and calculation by Mr.Bryden, county surveyor of Custer County, and a very competent gentlemen, rises 2,700 feet above the city. To this add, 5,500 as the mean elevation of the city above sea level, and we have 8,200 feet as the probable elevation of Harney Peak. The Buckhorn mountain, a spur of the Harney range, projects its most southern point to within less than two miles of the city, above which it rises 1,000 feet. The name given this portion of the granite range was probably because of its peculiar outline as represented on the map. On the south, within the city limits, the hills rise to elevations of 200 or 300 feet above the town, while to the east and west spreads out the beautiful valley of French Creek, here designated as Custer Park. The valley where the city stands is about a mile in breadth and widens both toward the east and west. The situation is romantic and beautiful in the extreme, and especially in the growing season is the valley a paradise of grass and flowers. It is said that in June and July as many as 160 varieties of wild flowers are in blossom. The climate is exceptionally fine and healthful, being very similar to that of Denver, Col., which is at an elevation of about 5,200 above sea. The climate is so distressingly healthful that the only physician the place ever had, Dr.Flick, before mentioned, was forced to remove from the town for lack of employment. According to testimony of S.R. Shankland and others there have been only five deaths from natural causes in the town since its settlement, not including three consumptive patients who came to the city to renew their health. The Hills are within the influence of the warm winds which force their way from the Pacific Ocean through the Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges, and following down the Yellowstone, debauch upon the Black Hills, and even spread their revivifying influence over the Turtle Mountains. Snow rarely falls to the depth of more than six inches at Custer, or remains more than a few days at a time. The water is excellent, and mostly soft, with the exception of what little comes from the limestone formation to the west. Custer is splendidly situated for a summer resort. Around it are the beautiful valleys and parks; within a radius of ten miles are the rugged crests of the Harney mountains, and south twenty-five or thirty miles are the Hot and Cascade springs, which must someday become as famous as the Hot Springs of Arkansas. In the west and southwest are the grand plateaus, some of them nearly or quite 7,000 feet above the sea, with numerous pleasant and picturesque drives in all directions. The publishing interest is represented by the Custer “Chronicle,” which was established by A.W.Merrick, now of the Deadwood “Pioneer,” the first number being issued December 3, 1879. At the end of about five months he sold the paper to Messrs. Clark & Kubler, the present proprietors. It is a well conducted, spicy and readable journal, filled with interesting local matter pertaining to Custer City and county, and the current news of the Black Hills region, with full reports of the doings of the outside world. The city is connected with Rapid City, and the county generally by a daily mail, and north and south with Deadwood and Hot Springs and points beyond by a tri-weekly mail. It also has telephone connections with all towns in the Hills. S.M.Booth and H.A.Albien run freight teams to Sidney on the U.P.R.R., from which nearly all heavy goods find their way to Custer, and private teams are employed to a considerable extent. The mail coaches also carry express and freight to and from Rapid City. Passengers reach Custer by stages from Sidney, Rapid City and Deadwood. There are two good hotels in the place, kept by Paul Kleemann and F.Fredericks: a banking house, seven stores, two hardware, two grocery, one drug, one clothing and one furniture: a restaurant, two resident clergymen, two attorneys, one wagon shop, two blacksmiths, two livery stables, millinery shops, a half dozen carpenters, several masons, the usual secret orders, and express office, a jeweler, harness makers, brick makers, butchers, etc. The place became permanently established after two years of curious vicissitudes, and may yet attain to the proud position it once occupied of the best town in the Hills. The people are intelligent, social and friendly to a degree beyond the average, and have evidently come to the determination of making Custer City a busy and prosperous town. HOT SPRINGS,OR MINNE-KATTA,located in Town 7, south, Range 5 east, is an important point. The springs were first seen by white men in 1876, when they were visited, among others, by Samuel R. Shankland, John Trimmer, John Dennis and Joseph Laravie, a Frenchman. In 1878 John Trimmer, John Wells and Petty brothers located three quarter-sections of land, including the springs and erected temporary cabins. In 1881-82 these parties sold their interests and located ranches below the springs, in the valley of the creek. The purchasers were Fred T. Evans, of the Northwestern transportation company. Dr.A.S.Stewart, L.R. Graves, R.D.Jennings and Irwin Dudley, the present owners. Dr. John Kohler had previously purchased a small property and erected a good two story hotel for the accommodation of visitors. This was purchased by the new company. There are ten or twelve springs in the group, and the flow of water furnished by them is estimated at 2,000 miner’s inches, or about equal to that of Rapid Creek at Rapid City. These springs are virtually the head of Fall River, which discharges into the south branch of the Cheyenne, about six miles southeast of the springs. Within a radius of one mile around the springs are two hotels, a school, two stores and ten or twelve families. There are also a post office and express office, the former bearing the name of Hot Springs. This place was to have been the capital of the proposed new county of Fall River, and may yet upon the advent of railways and cheap transportation become the county seat of a new and prosperous county. The analysis of the Hot Springs water, made by Professor Mariner, of Chicago, kindly furnished by R.D.Jennings, of Hot Springs, gives the following results: Silica 2,464 Calcium carbonate 16,352 Magnesium carbonate 4,320 Potassium and Sodium sulphate 25,620 Potassium and Sodium chloride 13,790 Per-oxyd of Iron, a trace ______ 62,546 CASCADE SPRINGS post office is located at Cascade Springs in the southwest part of Town 8, south, Range 5 east, about two miles north of the Cheyenne River. The Sidney stage line, between Deadwood and Sidney, passes through both places. In 1880 F.T.Allabaugh, now of Sturgis, Lawrence Co., D.T., located lands covering the Cascade Springs. In 1883 he sold a half interest to William W. Olds, who subsequently sold to another party. The company owns 160 acres of land. A good hotel building has recently been erected, and preparations made for visitors. There are three springs, and the flow is claimed to equal that of the Hot Springs. They are all situated within a circle of three hundred yards. The temperature is between fifty and sixty degrees. Cascade Creek has a very rapid descent to the Cheyenne. The elevation of both the Hot and Cascade Springs is about 3,000 feet above sea level. At Buffalo Gap, in Town 6, south, Range 7 east, is a post office by the same name, and a stage station. A new town, named Strater has recently been laid out in the southwest part of Town 2, south, Range 8 east, on Battle Creek near the junction of Squaw Creek. There is a school building near by. The post office is called Battle Creek. The valley of the creek in the vicinity is very will settled and extremely productive. Other hamlets and mining centers have been mentioned under the head of mines and mining statistics.