Full Text of “The Black Hills Illustrated” – Part 2

	This file contains a full text transcription of pages 28-53 of “The Black 
	Hills Illustrated” edited and published under the Auspices of The Black 
	Hills Mining Men’s Association by George P. Baldwin.

	Scanning and OCR by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm

SCRAPS OF EARLY BLACK HILLS HISTORY.

BY S. R. SHANKLAND.

	Nearly twenty-nine years have elapsed since the writer first inhaled the 
exhilarating air of the Black Hills and gazed with rapture upon their marvelous 
scenic beauty and pristine loveliness. At this early period in our history the 
surpassing magnificence of the natural scenery had not been marred by the rude 
hand of the miner, the grand picture being still in that attractive and 
fascinating state of perfection in which the deft and faultless hand of nature 
had left it, a marvel of scenic beauty and matchless grandeur.

	It was in the fall of 1874 when the report of Gen. Custer's expedition, 
which contained a mention of the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, created a 
considerable degree of excitement throughout the country, resulting in the 
formation of what was known as the Gordon party, which was formed at Sioux City, 
Iowa, with a view to determining the then mooted question as to the presence of 
gold in the Black Hills in paying quantity. This historic party succeeded in 
perfecting its arrangements for the trip late in the fall of the year named, 
arriving in the Hills in December. They established their camp on French creek, 
at a point three miles below Custer, where they at once proceeded to erect an 
elaborate stockade for protection against Indian invasion, inside of which were 
erected six cabins for the comfort and convenience of the party. In the 
meantime, pending the building of the stockade, two of their number were engaged 
in prospecting tor gold, which was found in quantity sufficient to justify 
further pursuit.

	Having fully imbibed the opinion that the region was one of exceptional 
promise, Mr. Gordon returned to Sioux City, accompanied by another member of the 
party whose name was Witcher, and spread the glad tidings of their golden 
discoveries, which largely increased the measure of public excitement. The 
result was the formation of a number of expeditions for the new Eldorado during 
the month of April, notwithstanding the knowledge of the fact that the Gordon 
party had been taken out of the Hills by government direction. 

	At this critical period in our history the portals to the region were 
doubly sealed, and in addition to the strong opposition of the Indians, the 
stronger opposition of the government had intervened, making it extremely 
difficult, and even dangerous, to make the trip. This, however, did not deter 
the more resolute and determined souls, who pursued their course, not even 
halting when they learned that a large party in advance had been taken into 
custody by order of the government, their wagons and outfits, including their 
guns, ammunition and all of their personal effects, destroyed by fire, and the 
members of the party taken as prisoners under guard to a military pest for 
trial. Notwithstanding the obstacles which beset the pathway of these avant 
couriers of civilization, no less than 1,200 had reached their destination 
before the 10th of August, the time appointed for the departure of all the so-
called trespassers upon the sacred rights of the great Sioux nation from the 
Hills, in accordance with a proclamation issued by Gen. Crook, who, with his 
escort, was at that time present and personally supervising this unhappy affair. 
By and with the consent of Gen. Crook, seven men were permitted to remain in the 
country for the purpose of looking after the interest of the outgoing miners. 
These men took up their residence at the Gordon stockade, where they remained 
until November 16, when they departed with Capt. Pollock and his command for Red 
Cloud, returning to the Hills early in December. The departure of Capt. Pollock 
and his command, who had been guarding the region against the so-called 
recalcitrant miners from August 10, was followed by a still greater influx of 
people, who, it is pleasing to note, did not have to contend with further 
government interference. Custer, the pioneer city of the Black Hills, had by 
this time gained considerable notoriety, having been originally organized in 
July under the name of Stonewall, reorganized and rechristened under the name of 
Custer City in August, and again reorganized in December. It was not, however, 
until early in the month of January of the following year, 1876, that the 
building of the city may be said to have been fairly under way. As early as 
March, 1876, Custer's population was variously estimated at from 6,000 to 
10,000, and her fame had spread all over the country. Under a provisional 
government the city progressed rapidly, assuming an air of metropolitan 
greatness that would have made much more populous cities of the outside world 
fairly envious by comparison. Her official directory embraced all of the 
officials necessary to conduct the municipal affairs of a city of ten times its 
population, including five police judges and a judge of the Superior court, from 
whose august decision there was no possible appeal. This was what may be termed 
Custer's boom period, which augmented as the days multiplied, invoked the 
wildest dreams as to her brilliant future. But alas! the fond hopes of the 
enthusiastic citizens were turned to ashes by the discovery of gold galore in 
Deadwood gulch, which resulted in one of the most remarkable heigiras ever 
experienced in the west. The gilded reports of rich gold strikes in the northern 
Hills in a few brief days had done its deadly work, and the proud city, with its 
great expectations and lofty hopes, was practically abandoned, as there remained 
but fourteen souls to hold the fort and await reinforcements from the outside 
world. There were at this time 1,400 buildings, all told, in the place, just an 
even 100 to each inhabitant. The remaining fourteen, realizing the danger of an 
Indian attack, constructed breastworks for their protection and awaited the turn 
of future events. It was three long and dreary weeks before their number was in 
any measure increased, and then only by a small number. Later on occasional 
additions swelled the population to a few hundred, when the work of mining 
development and other business ventures were resumed.

REASONS AND RESULTS OF EARLY INDIAN TROUBLES.

	The following facts, which were furnished to us by courtesy of Col. James 
A. George, an attorney of Deadwood, who has made a careful study on Indian 
treaties, will give an excellent idea of the rights of the Indians at the time 
the pioneers first entered, and the force of circumstances which required a 
qualification, or, in fact, abrogation, of the treaties witli the Indians.

	At Fort Laramie in the year 1868 the great and last treaty was made with 
the allied tribes of the Lakota or Sioux Indians, for though there have been 
agreements made since, no treaty can be made since 1871, Congress having 
declared no treaty could be made with Indians after that date. It is a strange 
fact, but true, the written minutes of the treaty of 1868 cannot be found. 
Jackets that once held them can be found in the Indian Office and in the office 
of the executive clerk of the United States senate, but the contents are gone. 
This fact will account for the fact that the direct proof in what was the south 
boundary of the big Sioux reservation is gone.

	The published treaty fixes the northern boundary of Nebraska as the 
southern line of the reservation. This the Indians deny, and say that in all 
their talk the Minnetonka, or Big Water, called by the whites Niobrara river, 
was the south boundary. Right here the official records furnish indirect proof 
that the Indian is right, for as late as June 23, 1875, the Brule and Ogallala 
bands made an agreement to give up their rights to hunt in Nebraska for the sum 
of $25,000, but this proviso was put in and signed by both parties to the 
agreement: "Provided, That we do not surrender any right of occupation situated 
in Nebraska north of the divide, which is south of and near the Niobrara river, 
and west of the 100th meridian; but desire to retain that country for future 
occupation and use."

	By the terms of the treaty of 1868, beginning at a point where the north 
border of Nebraska touched the i04th meridian, and thence north on that line, 
all the country east of the line was the big Sioux reservation, and beginning 
where the 104th meridian crossed the North Platte River, all the country north 
of the North Platte River and west of the 104th meridian to the summits of the 
Big Horn Mountains was unceded Indian country, on and over which no white man 
was to go without the Indians' consent. Sitting Bull and his followers always 
occupied the unceded country. At the time of the Indian war of 1876, Red Cloud's 
agency was in the state of Nebraska, where Crawford, Neb., is now, and Spotted 
Tail's agency at the head of Beaver creek, just northeast of Red Cloud.

	In 1875 gold was found in the Black Hills. Whites came in and were put out 
by the military. Congress then authorized the president to appoint a commission 
to try and agree with the Indians for a cession or lease of the Hills. June 18, 
1875, the president appointed the commission, headed by Senator W. B. Allison of 
Iowa. September 27, 28 and 29 the commission labored with the Indians in vain. 
Several propositions were made on several points, but the two about the Black 
Hills will be noticed. First. For a license to mine in the Hills, etc., the 
government would pay $100,000 per annum, the United States reserving the right 
to terminate the lease on giving two years' notice, and at the expiration of the 
two years' notice all private property remaining in that country was to revert 
to the Indians. Refused by the Indians.

	Second. They then made a money offer of $6,000,000 to buy outright the 
Black Hills. Refused by the Indians.

	The agreement of 1876 was made by a very small fraction of the Indians, a 
bulk of the Indians being on the warpath. August 24, 1876, a commission, headed 
by George W. Manypenny, was sent out, and in September and October made the 
agreement for the cession of the Black Hills. By this agreement the western 
boundary of the reservation was changed. The line was pulled east from the i04th 
to the l03d longitude on the north line of Nebraska. Thence north on the l03d to 
the south fork of the Cheyenne River. Thence down that river on the south bank 
to the intersection with the north fork, or Belle Fourche River. Thence up that 
river on the north and east bank to l03d longitude, and thence north, etc.

	Under this agreement the United States exchanged, giving rations, 
annuities, etc., for a fixed period, and agreed to give until the Indians became 
self-sustaining, which, the Indians hold, runs from that time to eternity. While 
under the treaty of 1868 at least 4,000 Indians should have signed any agreement 
to part with lands, as a matter of truth only 247 Indians signed. The deed was 
worthless.

	But it has been made valid by the Indians in the agreement made with the 
Foster-Warner-Crook commission of 1889. The treaty of 1868 and the agreement of 
1876 were amended and ratified by the signatures of 4,463 adult Indians. Under 
this last agreement the Great Sioux reservation was segregated and the country 
between the Missouri River and the Black Hills opened up to white settlers. 
Under this agreement for all land settled on the first three years the Indian 
fund was to have $1.25 per acre; the next two years, 75 cents per acre, and 
after that 50 cents per acre, and all of lands undisposed of at the end of ten 
years the United States shall take over and pay into the Indian trust fund at 50 
cents per acre. The United States was to give cows and bulls to the Indians, the 
increase to belong to the Indians, but the cattle given to be kept, except when 
too old, and then, under United States supervision, they may be sold. Schools 
were to be provided. At Rosebud and at Pine Ridge fine brick buildings, water, 
electric lights and steam heat is provided, and about 100 day schools on the two 
reservations. There is a fine non-reservation school at Rapid City, under the 
able supervision of Samuel B. Davis, assisted by a corps of diligent and able 
teachers.

LOOKING BACKWARD 56 YEARS.

Broad Thoughts in Condensed Form.

BY MAJOR A. J. SIMMONS, M. E.

	The discovery of gold in California in 1848 marks the beginning of the 
most momentous epoch in the history of our country-of stupendous national, 
international and commercial importance.  It was a new world-building era, 
involving the destiny of hundreds of thousands of people and millions yet 
unborn. The boundless possibilities of the gold fields were rapidly exploited by 
the energetic prospector until a vast untrodden region from Alaska to Mexico, 
from the Pacific coast to the Rockies, half a continent, was invaded and its 
choice spots appropriated by the miner. It was twenty-seven years later when the 
gold discovery, excitement and stampede struck the virgin Black Hills.

	The "Golden Era" inaugurated a unique and picturesque world in the western 
mountains devoted to mining the precious metals. It was the cradle of American 
gold mining and teemed with adventure, hardship, tragedy, romance and riches. 
Mining was then a gamble, pure and simple. No previous knowledge or experience 
was available and experts were unknown, but they soon grew to the occasion. 
Extravagant and fanciful notions prevailed. Miners were controlled by impulse, 
sentiment or a "hunch," and to hit the pay streak was a question of muscle and 
luck only, yet it was a most fascinating and serious business.

	The mine promoter was also there, forming a conspicuous figure in early-
day mining. With picturesque language and dazzling free gold specimens he 
enlisted the sympathy and exploited the pockets of the credulous tenderfoot and 
eastern man-in which the latter acquired experience only. This system of 
financiering was worked to such a degree that Bill Nye's paraphrase of an early-
day "gold mine," "a hole in the ground, the owner whereof is a d-d liar," came 
to be the popular accepted definition-and even at this late enlightened period 
there are instances where Mr. Nye's theory of mines would find ample 
verification.

	However, fifty-six years of practical experience and exploitation in the 
world's greatest mining field, which has attracted the intelligence of bright 
minds from our own and other lands, have transformed the crude methods of early-
day mining to business and scientific principles.   Marvelous strides have been 
made in the metallurgy of ores, invention and mechanics. The highest scientific 
attainments in chemistry, metallurgy and mechanism have been applied to the 
great and growing mining industry. It is no longer controlled by haphazard 
methods and luck, but has been reduced to a broad business basis.

	In approximating the value of a gold mine it is well to bear in mind two 
fundamental principles: First, mining is not an exact science; second, the laws 
of nature, as applied underground, are not fixed and immutable. While she is 
generally controlled by certain well-regulated and uniform laws, nature is 
fickle, and too often suddenly reverses her system.

	In arriving at the value of a mine many things are to be taken into 
consideration which occur to the practiced eye on the ground, and in such cases 
where a moneyed consideration is pending, a reliable mining engineer or 
practical mine expert should be consulted. Inasmuch as every locality or group 
of mines has distinct peculiarities of formation and mineralogical detail, more 
or less dissimilar from any other, the capable and observant miner who has 
delved in the district and is familiar with its characteristics would be well 
qualified to pass on the merits of a mine in that locality.

	It is a comparatively easy matter to ascertain the values in sight in a 
developed mine by measuring up the tonnage of ore, determining its value by 
sampling and assay, or better by mill runs of ton lots, and to arrive at the 
cost of mining, the proper process and cost of treatment and reduction of values 
to bullion. But there is no absolute certainty of the continuation of a vein or 
ore body in any direction beyond the actual points of exploration or of what is 
in sight.

	Here nature's book is sealed, absolute knowledge ends, as no human vision 
can penetrate the rocks, and the question of probabilities enters into the 
scheme-an uncertain and unknown quantity. Yet the student of nature undertakes 
to, and sometimes does, unravel the mystery. His attention is directed as to 
whether the mine under consideration is a true vein or fissure lode that 
received its valuable metallic content direct at first hands from nature's great 
laboratories in the depths of the earth-or is it of secondary origin?-therefore 
of irregular and uncertain tenor. He examines the geological conditions as to 
its favorable chances for veins and the mineralogical structure for the presence 
of known active mineralizing agents. What precedents of production and vein 
continuity have been established on contiguous ground? Is it on a belt or ore 
horizon, the trend of valuable mines in the vicinity? If the ore is of a 
character to be treated on the ground, the questions of water, timber and fuel 
supplies are to be investigated; if a smelting ore, transportation facilities 
and costs are to be reckoned. These are some of the general conditions that 
would attract the expert, while every case would present more or less special 
details deserving consideration.

	Small veins, carrying high values in gold and rich pockets of ore, while 
attractive and conspicuous for brilliant specimens and in high favor with all 
concerned, are not given a valuation by the conservative engineer much above the 
actual values in sight. He is too familiar with the freakish moods of nature, 
and knows full well the unstable character of such deposits.

	On the other hand, the large low-grade mines in lodes or fissures and 
horizontal deposits, which are conspicuous features in Black Hills mining, stand 
in high favor by reason of their continuous production and persistent vein 
continuity. Such veins are the ideal type of the miner, and only ordinary 
common-sense business precautions are necessary in determining their value.

	The so-called "low grades" are tantamount to mines with vast quantities of 
ore, low in value, but with a small margin of profit per ton, and operated on an 
extensive scale produce large and continuous profits. The low grades relieve 
mining of risk and elevate it to a first-class standard of business and 
financial investment, with stability and profits far above ordinary 
manufacturing enterprises; the finished product commands an unvarying price and 
open market in the mints of the civilized nations of the earth.

	The "prospect" or undeveloped mine is an important feature in every camp. 
Perhaps but a small percentage of prospects make mines, yet every great mine was 
once an insignificant prospect. Mines do not blossom out in the light of day, 
ready made to be claimed by the first tramp that comes along, but are developed, 
MADE by diligent work-often many years and large outlays of cash are devoted to 
the making of a mine.

	The prospect, therefore, is not to be overlooked or despised. The prospect 
is a living factor of immense possibilities in the world of mining. The bulk of 
the colossal fortunes accumulated in gold mining have been made by purchasing 
and developing cheap prospects.

	Any old-time, veteran miner may recall from his stock of fading 
reminiscences the prospects he has abandoned or could have controlled for a 
trifling consideration, which have since been developed into great mines. The 
profound skill of the expert is called out in diagnosing the prospect, in 
following up and marshaling the clews, indications and evidence upon which are 
builded the future bonanza outcome of the embryo mine.

THE GEOLOGY OF THE BLACK HILLS UPLIFT.

BY DR. CLEOPHAS C. O'HARRA, A. B. AND PH. D., PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND 
GEOLOGY, SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES. (Portrait following.)

	The Black Hills region is in many respects a typical geological unit. It 
lies within the forks of the Cheyenne river on the South Dakota-Wyoming boundary 
line, a much larger portion of the area being within the state of South Dakota. 
Separated from the Rocky mountains to the west and southwest by a distance of 
less than 150 miles, the region possesses many of the lithologic and 
physiographic features of that great mountain system.

	Structurally the region is an elliptical outwardly-dipping uplift, the 
more distinct features of which cover an area about 100 miles long and 50 miles 
wide, the longer axis approximately coinciding with the meridian except in the 
northern portion, where the general direction is to the northwest. By reason of 
its isolated position, its simple structural features and the many excellent 
natural and artificial rock exposures, the history of the region may be 
interpreted with a considerable degree of ease.

	The general system of drainage is distinctly radial. The two enclosing 
arms of the Cheyenne river wholly separate the Hills from other drainage systems 
and receive the many smaller streams from the more elevated mountainous 
portions, a high western limestone plateau being the main divide. In certain 
places the rapid erosion of softer beds has modified this general radial 
arrangement, a prominent example being in the formation of the well-known Red 
valley, which forms a nearly continuous depression, separating the higher 
central portions of the uplift from the distinct but less elevated cretaceous 
hogback ridges of the foothills.

	Many of the streams continue actively cutting their beds. Each lithologic 
unit with its particular and sometimes striking color yields distinctive 
topographic forms dependent upon relative capacity for resisting erosion, the 
result being that in many places features of rare interest are produced. The 
Harney Peak area of the southern Hills, with its bold pinnacles and walls of 
coarse bare granite rising from their forest-clad base of metamorphosed 
sedimentary rocks, presents a beautiful panorama, while the steep-walled canyons 
of Spear fish creek and of Elk creek in the northern Hills are among the most 
picturesque that America can show. Again, to the northwest along the Belle 
Fourche valley, where the horizontal sandstones and shales have been intricately 
carved by the various streams and where the brilliant and varied colors of the 
several formations harmoniously blend with a wealth of forest and pasture, 
overlooked here and there by the stately, somber forms of porphyry buttes, there 
is presented a view well worth many a hardship to see.

	The prominent topographic features are a high central basin of granite and 
metamorphic rocks of Algonkian age, surrounded in a concentric manner by a 
rugged, infacing escarpment of massive, white carboniferous limestone, a wide 
depression in the red triassic shales and a high run of cretaceous hogback 
ridges or foothills. Beyond these are the later cretaceous shale formations 
which give rise to the nearly level plains. Farther away, on almost every side, 
interrupting the otherwise monotonous approach to the Hills, there are abrupt 
tables and buttes of tertiary clays, large portions of which have been carved 
into forms that bewilder the imagination of the most fanciful observer.

	In the northern Hills tertiary intrusive rocks have greatly modified the 
general topography and in not a few instances have formed prominent landmarks. 
Terry Peak, situated near the center of activity of intrusions, is the highest 
point. It reaches an altitude of 7,069 feet. Some distance to the west of this 
is the Bear Lodge range, which culminates in Warren Peaks, marking a subordinate 
but important center of tertiary disturbance. Several isolated igneous peaks, 
differing little in petrographic and structural nature from the prominent peaks 
of the more intricately disturbed districts already mentioned, stand as tall 
sentinels among the lower peripheral ridges. Chief of these are Bear Butte, Crow 
Peak, Black Buttes, Inyan Kara, the Missouri Buttes, and the justly famed 
Devil's Tower. The highest point within the entire region, as it is also the 
highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, is Harney Peak. 
This is the culminating peak of the Harney granite range in the southern Hills. 
It reaches a height of 7,216 feet. The surrounding limestone escarpment rises 
high above much of the central portion of the Hills and considerable areas of 
the plateau along the western side in the vicinity of Crooks Tower closely 
approach the height of Harney Peak. The mean altitude of the plains surrounding 
the Hills is little more than 3,000 feet. The average elevation within the 
hogback ridges is approximately 5,000 feet.

	The rocks of the Black Hills show a wide range in age and character. 
Within the crystalline nucleus are pre-Camb'rian granites, amphibolites, 
schists, slates, phyllites and quartzites.  Beyond this nucleus are limestones, 
sandstones, shales and conglomerates,representing a nearly complete sequence 
from Cambrian to Laramie. Their combined thickness is approximately 10,000 feet. 
Extensive overlaps of tertiary rocks are also present, while pleistocene 
deposits of various kinds occur widely distributed over the surface of the 
region. Silurian limestone is found in a few localities, but is of little 
importance. The presence of Devonian rocks seems as yet not conclusively proven. 
In the northern Hills there are porphyritic rocks in great profusion. 
Phonolites, grorudites, andesites, dacites, dioiites and lamprophynes are found 
and their recent careful study has aroused much interest among petrographers. To 
the prospector and miner they are of interest in that their intrusion has 
greatly influenced mineralization and the nature and distribution of the igneous 
masses have to no little extent been a determining factor in the occurrence of 
ore bodies. Fossiliferous beds are common among the foothills, while only a 
short distance to the southeast are the world-renowned White river bad lands, 
with their wealth of vertebrate remains.

	The sedimentary deposits were laid down subsequent to the upturning and 
metamorphism of the Algonkian rocks. These have had their various characters 
properly defined by recent study, the determined formational units receiving 
appropriate individual names. The oldest rocks of the region are the slates, 
schists and quartzites.

	They constitute the main central area of the Hills. Their dip approximates 
the vertical, while their strike corresponds fairly well in a general way with 
the meridian line. The quartzites are usually less easily eroded than the slates 
and schists, in consequence of which they not infrequently stand out with much 
prominence. Dark, basic, igneous bands occur in many places, their general 
occurrence being such as to give the impression of intercalation conformable to 
the original bedding of the metamorphosed sediments. These rocks have not 
received careful study, but they may be provisionally grouped under the name 
"amphibolites." They are commonly designated by the prospector as diorite or 
hornblende rock. Intimately associated with all of these are the granites of the 
southern and central Hills. In the northwestern part of the Hills on the South 
Dakota-Wyoming line, another small but important area of granite is found. A 
distinct feature of nearly all of this granite is its extremely coarse texture. 
The feldspar, quartz and mica, and even the less important and nonessential 
constituents, may be frequently found in isolated crystalline masses of great 
size. The rock is of the variety known as pegmatite, and as usual with 
pegmatites, carries an abundance of rare and useful minerals. Following the 
granites, which are later than the amphibolites but still of Algonkian age, 
there were no igneous intrusions until the tertiary. Then approximately 
coincident with the general uplift of the Black Hills region came the igneous 
bodies so abundant in the northern Hills. These for want of a better collective 
term are commonly designated as porphyries. They are generally, although not 
always, of a distinctly porphyritic nature, the large crystals being quartz or 
more frequently some form of feldspar, or occasionally hornblende or biotite. To 
mention all of the localities where these may be found would be a tiresome task. 
The following important mountains must suffice: Terry Peak, Bald Mountain, Elk 
Mountain, Ragged Top, Devil's Tower, Custer Peak, Bear Butte, Crow Peak, Inyan 
Kara, Sundance Mountain and Warren Peaks. Less prominent masses occur in great 
profusion and few important gulches of the region are free from good exposures 
when-structural details may be determined with much precision. The intrusions 
occur in the form of dikes, stocks, sills and laccoliths, few-regions in the 
world showing them in greater number or to better advantage. Intermediate and 
connecting stages of every grade are found and erosion has planed and dissected 
the rock masses so carefully that the faithful observer may easily read their 
meaning.

	Reviewing and collecting the foregoing facts with reference to the 
sequence of occurrence of the many phenomena, it may be said that in Algonkian 
time the schists and quartzites were deposited as sediments derived from some 
unknown archaen land mass lying apparently either to the west or to the 
northeast of the position now occupied by the Hills. Later these sediments were 
penetrated by basic eruptives and subsequent to this penetration the sediments, 
as as well as the basic eruptives, were ramified by quartz veins, many of which 
are gold-bearing. Following the eruption of the basic rocks and after most or 
all of the gold-bearing quartz veins were formed. extensive granite intrusions 
occurred. At some time during these disturbances great metamorphism took place, 
the slates and the schists reaching much the condition in which we now find 
them. During the middle or latter part of the Algonkian period the sea shallowed 
and the land, rising above the sea as an island, readied a considerable height. 
The rocks thus brought under the influence of erosive agents supplied much or 
all of the sediments which make up the Cambrian strata. After this the land 
became submerged, the later paleozoic and the mesozoic sediments indicating at 
first deep water, followed again by an unsteady tendency toward shallowing of 
the sea.

	Near the beginning of tertiary time great disturbances took place. The 
region was lifted quite above the sea and deeply cut by outflowing streams. Sea 
conditions disappeared, leaving the land partially or wholly surrounded by a 
considerable body of water in the form of a lake. Approximately coincident with 
these changes the porphyritic rocks of the northern Hills were intruded, and by 
their subsequent denudation and degradation added their portion of sediments to 
the surrounding lake. The lake then disappeared and upon its dry bed the modern 
streams have trenched their way.

 HOW TO LOCATE A MINING CLAIM; ALSO WATER RIGHTS.

	A full mining claim, under the laws of the state of South Dakota, contains 
a fraction over twenty acres, or a strip of land 600 feet wide and 1,500 feet 
long.

	In locating a claim the first thing necessary is to make a discovery of 
some kind of valuable mineral-gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, zinc, etc. The next 
step is to post a notice at the point of discovery, giving name of claim, date 
of discovery, and stating the general course or direction of the ledge or lode 
as near as can be stated at that time; also the number of feet along the ledge 
and the number of feet claimed on each side of the discovery, which cannot in 
any event exceed 300 feet on either side of the center of discovery, 1,500 feet 
being the maximum that can be claimed along the length of the vein.

	After posting the notice of discovery the locater has sixty days in which 
to sink a discovery shaft, so as to determine more accurately the course or 
direction of his vein of ore. He must also, within sixty days, more accurately 
define the boundaries of his claim by placing eight substantial stakes-one at 
each corner and one In the middle of each end and side line. He must mark these 
stakes with the name of his claim on the side of the stake facing the said claim 
and properly designate each slake with reference to the corner side or end 
occupied by it.

	After this has been done he must then file in the office of the register 
of deeds of the county in which the claim is situated a location certificate.   
This location certificate must contain substantially the same statements as 
those contained in the notice posted at the point of discovery, with this, 
additional-that it must locate the claim with some natural object or permanent 
monument.

	During the year in which the claim has been located the locater has to 
properly locate it by sinking a shaft ten feet deep or more, sufficient to 
expose the ledge and properly staking the claim. After that he must do $100 
worth of work each year or place improvements of that amount upon it until he 
obtains a patent from the government for it.

	The locater of a claim can begin application for a patent just so soon as 
he can show $500 worth of improvements upon tile ground. After the ground has 
been patented it is not necessary to do the annual assessment or development 
work upon it, but the ground so patented becomes subject to taxation.

	In case a person owns several claims lying contiguous and forming one 
group, the owner or owners may do development or assessment work on any one of 
the claims, provided it will tend to develop the whole group, but he must do on 
this one claim an amount of work which will equal $ico for each of the claims in 
said group.

	In locating placer ground the procedure is substantially the same, and in 
this manner many of the smaller parks in the mountains of the Black Hills have 
been acquired for agricultural purposes, the owners first locating them as 
placer claims, paying the government price, and, after complying with the 
provisions of the mining laws, occupying the land for farming purposes. In this 
way some of the most productive farms in South Dakota have been acquired.

	When application is made to the United States land office for patent the 
owner of placer ground is required to pay for the land which he claims at the 
rate of $2.50 an acre. On lode claims the owner must pay to the government $5 an 
acre.

LOCATING WATER RIGHTS.

	In locating a water right the locater must post a notice at the point 
where the water is diverted from the stream. In this notice must be stated the 
number of miners' inches of water claimed and the purpose or purposes for which 
it is to be used. The owner must then proceed to appropriate the water by 
constructing a ditch or flume from the place of diversion to where it is to be 
used. A person can only appropriate so much water as he can use and no more, and 
a failure to use the water so claimed within a reasonable time will work to the 
forfeiture of his rights.

SOME MINING TERMS IN COMMON USE.

	Any work toward taking out the ore more than is necessary for the purpose 
of development constitutes what is called stoping. The chambers from which the 
ore has been excavated are called the stopes, and these necessarily vary in size 
and position of the vein or ore body.

	Drifting is the act of following along with the course of the vein. 
Definitions of other mining terms are as follows:

Adit-Open cut or tunnel on the vein.
Amalgam-Gold or silver combined with mercury.
Apex-The top or highest point of a vein.
Auriferous-Any rock or sand bearing gold.
Bedrock-Rock underlying placer mines.
Blind Lode-Where there appears no outcrop to the vein.
Breast-The face of a tunnel or drift.
Breccia-Angular rocks cemented together.
Cage-An elevator used in hoisting ore.
Cap Rock-Rock overlying the ore or vein.
Cobbin-Breaking ore for sorting.
Contact-A junction of two kinds of rock, such as lime and porphyry.
Contact Vein-A vein between two dissimilar rock masses.
Country Rock-The rock on each side of a vein.
Crosscut-A level driven across the course of a vein.
Dip-The slope or pitch of a vein.
Drift-Horizontal passage underground driven on or along the vein.
Face-The end of a drift or tunnel. 
Fault-Displacement of a stratum or vein. 
Feeder-A small vein entering into a larger one. 
Float-Loose ore or rock separated from the original formation. 
Fissure Vein-A crack in the earth's crust containing mineral. 
Footwall-Layer of rock immediately beneath the vein. 
Free Milling-Ores that separate readily from the gangue by simple methods.
Gash Vein-A vein wide at the top and closing at a short depth. 
Hanging Wall-The layer of a rock or wall overhanging a lode. 
Horse-A mass of rock between the branches of a vein. 
In Place-Not having been distributed from its original position.
Level-A horizontal passage in a mine diverging from the shaft.
Lode-A vein, thus a lode claim is a claim having in its boundaries a vein. This 
	term is sometimes used to designate the mine itself.
Mill-run-A test of the value of a given quantity of ore. 
Open-cut-An open surface working. 
Outcrop-The portion of a vein showing at the surface. 
Pyrites-Brittle cubes or iron sulphides. 
Strike-The extension of a lode in a horizontal direction. 
Stulls-A framework to support rubbish when stoping out ore. 
Seams and stringers are used interchangeably for narrow branches running off 
	from the vein or lead.

GENERAL REVIEW OF BLACK HILLS MINING.

Various Formations and Character and Treatment of Ores.

BY JESSE SIMMONS, M. E. (Portrait below.)

	H. N. Ross and W. T. McKay, who were with the Custer expedition of 1874, 
made the first authoritatively substantial discovery of gold in the Black Hills. 
On the 27th day of July of that year, when the party was camped near the site of 
the present town of Custer, they panned gravel from the bed of French creek, in 
which the yellow particles were found. The military party continued its journey 
through the Black Hills, making a hasty survey of the country, and on returning 
to civilization reported to the government. They had found gold at various 
places, but, of course, no attempt was made to operate the diggings.

	The next year, as a result of this preliminary inspection, a party of the 
United States Geological Survey, under the direction of Professors Newton and 
Jenney, and with military escort under command of General Custer, visited the 
Hills and made a most careful examination of the country. To-day their reports 
to the government are frequently quoted and given the deepest consideration. 
They found gold and other precious minerals at various points. It was realized 
that the country was more valuable to the United States as a mineral producing 
and civilized region than as an Indian reservation, as it then was, and 
negotiations were commenced with the Indians for the purpose of acquiring title 
to the section.

	But the stampede began; despite snows and cold, the pioneers, in the fall 
of 1875 and spring of 1876, rushed to the Hills from all quarters.  Although 
they were compelled to brave the dangers incident to the zealous guarding of the 
country by the hostile Indians and the unlawful trespassing upon Indian 
reservation, punished by summary removal by the military authorities, thousands 
sought the gold fields of the new Eldorado.

	The government was obliged by its treaty with the Indians to protect the 
Black Hills from encroachments of whites, and escorted from the country nearly 
all of those who came to the country in 1875. But it was a tide that could not 
be stemmed, and, realizing that fact, the deportation of the pioneers was 
practically abandoned. The miners explored nearly every nook and corner of the 
Hills, finding gold in many gulches, but until the spring of 1876 Custer was 
looked upon as the mining metropolis of tile Black Hills, the commercial center 
and erstwhile capital of the country. But early in that spring the news was 
spread of wonderful gold discoveries in the Whitewood district, as it was then 
known; the depopulation of Custer took place in a night. The Mecca was the 
vicinity of the present cities of Deadwood and Lead. The claims were the richest 
yet discovered in the Hills, and during June and July thousands rushed to the 
spot.

	Placer mining was, of course, the first class of gold recovery attempted.  
It consisted in the washing of the gravel from the creek beds by water, the high 
specific gravity of the gold causing it to settle in the bottom of the troughs 
or sluice boxes, in riffles placed there. Crude though the processes employed 
were, fortunes were recovered during that summer. The Wheeler claim between 
Deadwood and Central City, on Deadwood gulch, produced $50,000. Others produced 
nearly as much. The first summer's work resulted in the recovery of gold to the 
amount of $1,200,000. Miles of ground along the creeks were staked, prospected 
and worked, and by the time winter closed in the excitement was practically at 
its height, with every available bit of land located.

	The next February, on the 28th of the month, the treaty between the Sioux 
and the government was signed and the natives relinquished their title to the 
country. The price paid to the aborigines was $4,500,000 (and other 
considerations). Federal law then became the authority instead of the vigilante 
party with its swift justice (?) of hanging or banishment. The wild towns of 
Deadwood and its neighbors were ruled by the strong arm of the law, and peace 
was not so ruthlessly broken as before, the Indians were driven away by the 
troops and mining resumed in the spring on a better basis. The production of 
1877 amounted to $2,000,000.

	Geology teaches that the placer gold deposits are formed from the erosion 
of veins, the gold being stored mechanically in the creek beds. Knowing this, 
the prospector's attention was turned to the seeking of the veins whence had 
come the placer gold, and many claims were staked out in Blacktail, Bobtail, 
Gold Run and Sawpit gulches.

THE HOMESTAKE DISCOVERED.

	Mose and Fred Manuel, brothers, and Jack Harney, discovered rich float 
quartz early in 1876, and when the snow allowed of the close inspection of the 
country they sought the vein whence had come the segregated pieces. On April 9, 
1876, their search was rewarded by the finding of a rich vein that they named 
the Homestake. They did a little digging and discovered a piece of quartz 
weighing about 200 pounds that was the richest ever found at the mine, and the 
next day commenced to open up their ground in earnest. They located, also, other 
claims, the Old Abe, Terra and Father DeSmet.   Eager capitalists bonded the 
Homestake for $40,000 and the Old Abe for $5,ooo, but did not buy.

	The Manuels continued developing the Homestake and Old Abe, finally, in 
the fall, building a road to Kirk and erecting a crude mill. Ore was hauled to 
the mill by ox teams and $5,000 was taken out during the winter. During the 
subsequent summer they sold their claims, the Homestake bringing $70,000, Old 
Abe $45,000, and Terra $35,000.

[Photo - COMPRESSED AIR MOTOR HAULING 28 STEEL BOTTOM-DUMPING CARS, CONTAINING 4 
TONS OF ORE EACH FROM ELLISON HOIST TO MILLS OF HOMESTAKE MINING COMPANY, OVER 
STEEL BRIDGE, 100 FEET HIGH.]


THE FIRST STAMP MILL

	However, the first attempt to work the quartz deposits was made by M. E. 
Pinney, who built a mill on the Omega mine, near Terraville. The plant was 
hauled into the country from Colorado, and for a while paid handsomely. About 
the same time Capt. C. V. Gardner built a mill, calling his company the Black 
Hills Gold Mining Company. The ores worked were from; the conglomerate deposits, 
and though bonanzas for a time, the richest portions were worked out and the 
industry waned. Dozens of little mills were built during this period and the 
quartz miners were elated.

EARLY PLACER CAMPS.

	Custer, the scene of the first gold discovery, was, during the year 1875 
and early portion of 1876, the largest city of the Black Hills, and the gulches 
in the vicinity were energetically worked for their placer gold. French creek 
produced its quota of the precious metal, and many dry gulches, from which it 
was necessary to haul the gravel in wagons to water, were successfully worked. 
Hill City sprang up also. Palmer, Friday, Sunday, Newton and other gulches 
produced heavily. Spring creek, on the banks of which the town was built, 
yielded well. Rockerville, too, was a placer camp of renown. A flume and ditch 
some fourteen miles long were constructed to convey water from Spring creek to 
the "dry" diggings.

	In the Northern Hills, Iron creek, Sand creek, Nigger gulch, Mallory, 
Potato, Bear and other gulches, all in the western edge of the state, and 
partially in Wyoming, were worked to advantage. In fact, one of the biggest 
nuggets of record in the Black Hills was taken from Nigger gulch. It weighed 
$453.

INDIANS MOLEST THE MINERS.

	During the first two eventful years, '75 and '76, the Indians were a 
constant source of annoyance and danger to the miners. They invaded the Hills, 
and, crawling up the high hills, shot at the men working in the bottoms of the 
gulches below. It was hardly safe to try and work a mine without having a man 
posted as sentry. Guns were kept handy and defenses provided in case it came to 
a fight at close quarters. In traveling across the plains from the nearest 
railroad points, some 250 miles, the Indians were especially dangerous. They 
would steal up on a camp at night, drive off the animals and massacre the 
members of the party.

	For many years the Hills lacked efficient transportation facilities. 
Sidney, on the Union Pacific, and Bismarck, on the Northern Pacific, were the 
nearest railroad points, and all supplies had to be hauled that distance. Ox 
teams hauled the freight, and passengers and mail came by stage coach. Even 
after the subjugation of the Indians, road agents, or highwaymen, molested the 
stage coaches, holding up the passengers and mail. The authorities finally 
exterminated them. and in 1886 the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railroad 
was built to Rapid City. It was extended to Deadwood in 1890, and followed 
shortly by the Burlington.

	The lack of cheap transportation for the heavy machinery needed in the 
mills was a burden hard to bear, but a good many thousand tons of freight were 
hauled to the Hills by the oxen. The first mill on the Homestake, built by the 
new owners, Haggin, Hearst and Tevis, was an eighty-stamp plant, and it cost 
$30,000 to have it transported to the mine from Cheyenne by ox teams. This is 
but an example of the almost prohibitive freight tariffs then existing.

	But notwithstanding these and other embarrassments mining prospered in the 
Black Hills during the early days. Of course, under the then existing conditions 
only the richer veins were worked in the majority of cases, and practically no 
effort was made to save other values than the free gold. The cost of shipping 
ore to the smelters at Omaha and elsewhere practically prohibited the treatment 
of stuff worth less than $100 per ton, so little was done in that line.

	The methods employed were crude and primitive. Nothing was known at that 
time of the many modifications and economies of mining and milling as to-day 
practiced. The cyanide process was locked in the bosom of the future. Matte 
smelting was not introduced until 1890, and so the production was greatly 
limited.

	But year by year the value of gold bullion annually sold has increased 
step by step, until in 1903 it reached the total of $7,229,000, proving the 
conquering by science of the difficulties that beset the early miner, heralding 
the introduction of matte smelting, the perfection of cyanidation and the 
approach of the day when the Black Hills shall stand alone and supreme as the 
greatest gold camp on earth. It is in the Black Hills to-day that ores that 
would be regarded as waste in other mining communities are treated at a profit 
by new methods. The Homestake mine itself is the greatest modern gold mine in 
many respects. In its mills are daily treated thousands of tons of ore that in 
other mining districts, and even in the Black Hills during the early days, would 
have been discarded as waste. Thus has mind conquered matter, thus has the 
scientific miner overcome the obstacles, thus have processes been adapted, 
altered to suit the different ores and adapted to surrounding circumstances to 
such good purpose that to-day mining in the Black Hills is conducted purely 
along lines similar to a common manufacturing business. Fortunes are not 
acquired in a day. Bonanza ores are the exception. The favorite toast of the 
late George Hearst, one of the most skillful mining operators of the world, 
"Here's to low-grade ore and plenty of it," has become the motto of the Black 
Hills.

OCCURRENCE OF ORES.

	In order to understand the ore occurrences of the Black Hills a little of 
the geology of the region must be understood. In the first place, what is known 
as the Black Hills uplift is of itself an isolated mountain range, the primal 
rocks of which are the Algonkian slates, hornblendes and diorites, with heavy 
intrusions of eruptive granite, notably in Custer county, where they form Harney 
peak, the highest point in the Hills. These slates have a general vertical 
position, occasionally broken and twisted, with a course of northwest-southeast. 
Lying just above them in a horizontal position are beds of conglomerate, placers 
of ages gone by, formed from the erosion of the Algonkian veins. Immediately 
above the conglomerate are the Cambrian rocks, first 12 to 20 feet of quartzite, 
then 200 to 300 feet of shales and sandstones. Next above are the carboniferous 
measures, principally limestone, approximately 600 to 900 feet thick. These 
rocks (the Cambrian and carboniferous) are in the Northern Black Hills broken, 
twisted, contorted and folded by the action of intrusive eruptive dikes of 
porphyry, phonolite, trachyte, etc. Overlying these strata are the later 
sedimentary sandstones, shales, limes and gypsum beds, dipping gently away from 
the center of the Hills under the level prairies without.

THE FISSURE LODES.

	In the oldest known geological rocks, the Algonkian, are found the fissure 
lodes of the Black Hills. These great veins are of varying widths. Some of them 
are only a few inches, while others are fully 500 feet wide. In nearly all cases 
they conform to the stratification of the enclosing slates, or, in other words, 
are parallel, both in dip and course, with the wall stratification. The date 
when these big veins will become worked out is not conceivable for ages to come. 
They extend vertically toward the center of the earth and at 1,200 feet show no 
loss in width in values from a hundred feet depth. But it is a well-known fact 
that the heat radiating from the center of the earth causes discomfort to the 
miners at depths of a mile or more, and that there is a limit of the efficiency 
of hoisting engines for bringing the ores to the surface. These two physical 
difficulties will, of course, one day limit operations on the veins in that 
direction, but since they are explored and proven along their course for more 
than forty miles, the pratical end cannot be foreseen.

	The greatest development on this class of veins is on what is termed the 
Homestake Belt, which is in itself over a mile in width- a dozen veins fifty to 
several hundred feet wide, separated by strata of slate. This belt is exposed by 
its outcrop and developments from Maitland on the north to Keystone on the 
south. It has a general course from Maitland of south 35° east. Its entire 
dimension, so far explored, is one great mass of low-grade ore, with here and 
there stringers within the veins of exceedingly rich material.

	Other vein systems of similar character exist in the Hills. One of them 
passes through Galena, east of the Homestake Belt, and will perhaps prove 
equally as important when as fully developed. Another is found near Welcome 
City, Wyoming, on the western side of the Hills. Another underlies the mines of 
Bald mountain, one vein a little over three hundred feet wide being opened in 
the Horseshoe mine, under the Cambrian ores.

ORES OF THE CAMBRIAN MEASURE.

	Next to the Homestake the greatest producing mines of the Black Hills are 
operating on ores from the horizontal Cambrian beds. The first of these, 
geologically, is the conglomerate, which yielded so well in the early days. 
Exposures of immense beds of this ore are made at numerous points in the Hills, 
notably in Blacktail gulch, near Deadwood, and in the Nigger Hill district of 
western Lawrence county. In Blacktail gulch these ore exposures in the 
conglomerate show blankets twenty feet and upward in thickness and of good 
average values. The Phoenix, Esmeralda and Jupiter mills are built on mines of 
that class of ore.

	In the Northern Black Hills alone are found ores in the Cambrian 
quartzite, shales and sandstones. In all cases they are more or less intimately 
associated with the eruptive dikes of porphyry, etc., giving rise to the theory 
of their formation which has been universally accepted, namely, that 
accompanying these dikes as they were forced through the crust of the earth were 
mineral waters carrying gold and silver. The dikes formed outlets for the hot 
waters, and by chemical replacement ore was made of the soft porous Cambrian 
rocks, changing them to hard, close-grained gold and silver bearing materials.

	Then again at other points the great Algonkian fissures are overlain by 
beds of Cambrian ore. The coincidental occurrence of the two can hardly be 
explained by any theory save that the two were enriched at the same time, and by 
the same mineralizing waters from the earth's interior.

	Ores of the Cambrian are divided into four classes-quartzite, contact, 
shale and vertical. It is not in all cases that the quartzite itself is found to 
pay, although the Wasp No. 2 is a good exception to the rule. Here the quartzite 
assays $2 to $5 per ton, averaging about $3 in gold. The bed is approximately 18 
feet thick, lies near the surface, is cheaply mined and treated in a mill 
conveniently situated.

	The best grade of ore in the Cambrian is found between the quartzite and 
the shales, sometimes with either a roof or floor of eruptive rock. These shoots 
of ore are of varying sizes. In the Golden Reward mines at Terry one shoot is 
explored over a mile in length from the northerly to the southerly end in that 
company's property, where it enters the Horseshoe territory; the shoot is 175 
feet wide at the south end, and is really at this point a confluence of ten 
separate smaller shoots. It is from six to twenty feet thick, and 200 tons of 
ten-dollar ore are shipped from it daily to the company's cyanide mill at 
Deadwood.

	Higher up the mountains, both geologically and topographically, are found 
the shale ore. Immense beds, sometimes forty feet thick, are opened, producing 
ore to supply some of the largest cyanide mills in the Black Hills.

	The vertical ores of the Cambrian resemble very much, both in character 
and values, the contact ores of the same period. They are found filling fissures 
extending upward through the horizontal strata, and often penetrating the 
carboniferous rocks above. The ores of Carbonate Camp are notable examples of 
this class. Verticals here have been followed downward over four hundred feet. 
through limestone, sandstone and shale. Often these verticals lead to contact 
ore bodies on the quartzite, and this fact would indicate that when the shafts 
at Carbonate reach that point larger bodies will be found. Verticals are of 
varying widths, from a feather edge to several feet, widening out in places and 
pinching together in others.

THE CARBONIFEROUS ORES.

	The first intimation that the Black Hills had that ore existed in the 
carboniferous rocks was when float was discovered at Carbonate. That was in the 
early eighties. In 1895 rich float ore was found at Ragged Top, and the camp at 
once became the center of a boom. The ore was in verticals, similar to 
Carbonate, and these were followed to various depths. Later (in 1000) great 
blankets of ore on the very tops of the hills attracted capital, with the result 
that two cyanide mills were built at Ragged Top for its treatment. Since their 
organization these two mines had paid over $100,000 in dividends to January 1, 
1904. The ore is low grade, occurring in immense bodies, and promises to become 
of the utmost importance, since at least two more mills are to be built in the 
neighborhood within the year, and a substantial addition is planned for one of 
those already operating.

	Thus in all this variety of rock formations is gold found in paying 
quantities in the Black Hills. It is almost possible to truthfully state that 
every hill is a gold mine. Hardly a bit of rock that is found in the country 
will assay less than $l per ton, and from that on up. The day is surely coming, 
and at no great distant time, when $i ore will be handled at a profit. The 
special feature of the Black Hills is its large low-grade deposits-these have 
given it wealth at home and fame throughout the mining world. Systems of gold 
recovery are daily becoming more perfect and economical in their operation. As 
the cost of treatment lowers, so proportionately will increase the value of the 
mines. To-day it is resolved into a simple business proposition, combined with 
mining education necessary for the adaptation to various conditions, and to-
morrow it will become even more sure and higher in favor.


[Photo - CYANIDE MILLS OF THE IMPERIAL GOLD MINING COMPANY AT DEADWOOD.]


OTHER MINERALS.

SILVER.

	Attempts have been made at various times and places to work silver veins 
in the Black Hills. In the early days, when the white metal commanded a good 
price, much money was made from silver mining, but of late years not a great 
deal of interest has been manifested in this direction.

	Galena and Carbonate Camp were the two silver camps of the Black Hills. 
Galena, named after ores of that character, which were found in large quantities 
of high grade.  The Sitting Bull and Richmond were two mines that produced 
heavily in silver, shipments being made principally to Omaha smelters, 
transportation and treatment precluding the handling of ore worth much less than 
$100 a ton. The ore was found in the Cambrian formation, lying in a bed dipping 
strongly from the horizontal. The two mines adjoined, and the owners worked the 
ores out right up to the boundaries. The result was litigation, bitter and 
uncompromising, lasting for twenty years, which has just been brought to a 
close. And to show the march of progress and improvements made by science, the 
owner, Mr. Henry Earle, now contemplates building a cyanide mill to handle the 
waste dump from the old mine! The dump contains probably half a million tons. 
Several carloads have been treated by the Imperial mill at Deadwood and show pay 
values. The run was about 250 tons and the Imperial mill showed a handsome 
profit after cost of transportation and treatment.

	At Carbonate Camp in the early eighties rich galena ore was found at the 
grass roots.  Slight developments showed bonanza ore bodies, and several 
companies were formed to operate the mines. One company, the Iron Hill, built a 
smelter and pan-amalgamation mill, produced $736,000 and paid $165,250 in 
dividends. Speculation in the stock of the company wrought ruin, and a good mine 
to-day stands idle as the result of this folly. Other mines in the vicinity 
produced handsome sums, and the Black Hills is credited with having given to the 
world five millions of dollars in silver bullion.

	The only recorded attempt to work silver ores by cyanide in the Black 
Hills was made by Allen Brothers. Three years ago at Carbonate Camp, they 
erected a small plant to handle the tailings from the pan-amalgamation mill of 
the Iron Hill Company and worked during a portion of two summers. A photograph 
shows the result of one of their bullion melts-375 pounds of silver 925-1,000 
fine. The ore treated was what is known as cerargerite (chloride of silver) or 
horn silver, the only ore of the white metal known to be amenable to 
cyanidation. And it is a queer feature that this mineral is not soluble in any 
acid or combination of acids, but is very readily dissolved by the cyanide 
solution.

TIN.

	Tin in veins was first identified in the Black Hills in 1883, although in 
1876 it was found in the placers of Bear Gulch and vicinity. The Etta mine, near 
Keystone, where the first tin was found in veins, was purchased by the Harney 
Peak Tin Mining, Milling & Manufacturing Company, and with it were amalgamated 
thousands of acres of land in the vicinity, as tin veins were found in large 
numbers once the attention of the prospectors was drawn to the mineral. 
Operations were for a few years conducted on a magnificent scale. Two immense 
tin mills were built, hundreds of men employed, sawmills built in nearly every 
gulch, dozens of hoisting plants erected, a sumptuous headquarters provided for 
the chief and his aides, properties were purchased at alleged fictitious prices, 
the managers pocketing the difference-all this at the expense of the English 
stockholders. The alleged gross frauds, malpractices and swindlings were 
discovered, and the affairs of the company put in the hands of a receiver. Now 
the property amounts to but a few hundred acres. The valueless ground has been 
dropped, the best secured by patent, much of the machinery sold off, and the 
affairs practically wound up.  Now the question is, Will the company resume? 
Undoubtedly it owns large bodies of good paying ore, with mills to handle it, 
large quantities of timber, excellent streams of water, in fact, all the 
accessories, and could be made to pay. The Gertie Mining & Milling Company, near 
Hill City, and the Tinton Company, operating at Nigger Hill, Lawrence county, 
are to-day pushing active operations in tin mining.

COPPER.

	Various properties have been worked for copper and good pay ore shipped 
from them. One of the first and largest copper mines found was the Blue Lead, 
near Sheridan, in Pennington county. This big vein can be traced for miles, and 
several carloads shipped by R. M. Maloney of Deadwood carried a little over six 
per cent of the red metal. Adjoining the Blue Lead the Dakota Calumet Company 
has erected a smelter, and is developing its mines now to a point sufficient to 
supply the same.

	On Spring Creek, the Central Black Hills Copper Company has erected a 
lixivation plant for treating its copper ores. West of Rochford the Black Hills 
Copper Company has sunk a shaft 300 feet to open copper veins.

	Not a great deal of development has been done on the copper veins in the 
past, but at present the industry seems to be taking on a new vigor. Good copper 
outcroppings are found in numerous parts of the Hills, but no steady producing 
mine is yet operating.


[Photo - COKE  OVENS OF THE CAMBRIA FUEL COMPANY AT CAMBRIA WYOMING]


MICA.

	In the southern Hills mica deposits are quite extensive and productive. In 
1879 the McMacken mine, near Custer, was located, and has since produced 
$200,000 worth of cut and scrap mica. This mine is known now as the Crown, and 
is the property of the Crown Mica Mining Company.

	Other mines, the Climax, New York, Peerless, Lost Bonanza, etc., 
contributed to the output. Black Hills mica is said to have especial qualities 
recommending it to users for electrical purposes. It has a high fusing point and 
non-conductivity. The scrap mica commands a low price, and sheet mica according 
to size, from ten censt to three dollars per pound. Especially large sheets are 
encountered in the Crown mine, one taking the prize at the World's Fair in 
Chicago. There are good opportunities for investment of capital in mica mining 
in this country, as veins are large, well distributed and carry high value.

IRON.

	Good hematite is not abundant in the Black Hills, although the Poznansky 
mine, west of Rapid City, has produced ore running over 50 per cent. Over a 
hundred and fifty cars have been shipped from Nahant mines to smelters. This is 
bog iron. Deposits of hematite for commercially producing pig iron have not been 
found in the Black Hills, although with the building of the railroad along Rapid 
Creek, west to Mystic, some large low-grade deposits will be given rail 
transportation and may prove very valuable.

	Iron in all forms is more or less abundant in the Hills. Perhaps the most 
abundant form is pyrite, which occurs in nearly all the so-called free-milling 
ores in small quantities, and occasionally in almost solid veins by itself. When 
it occurs as last described a value is attached to it as a flux for the pyritic 
smelters, and for the manufacture of sulphuric acid.

	H. H. Francis of Custer is shipping pyritic ore daily to Chicago for 
transformation into sulphuric acid. It is a paying institution, and many other 
mines of like character will probably be worked in the future.

	There is a good opportunity for judicious investment in a sulphuric acid 
plant in the Black Hills. i


[Photo - OPEN CUT OF WASP NO. 2-A MARVEL OF CHEAP MINING AND MILLING.]


SPODUMENE.

Probably 2,000 tons of spodumene have been mined from the Etta, near Keystone, 
the property being worked under lease from the Harney Peak Company. Hermann 
Reinbold & Co. of Omaha used a large part of the output. Spodumene contains 
percentages of lithia, from which the "lithia salts" of the druggist are made. 
The largest known specimen of spodumene in the world was found at the Etta; it 
was thirty feet in length and over two feet in diameter, having the appearance 
of a white log imbedded in the granite.

TUNGSTEN.

	Wolframite and scheelite, the two ores of tungsten, are found in the Black 
Hills. Large shipments have been made from the mines of North Lead and Yellow 
Creek. For the ores carrying 60 per cent and upward, $3 per unit (per cent) is 
paid, thus bringing a good price for the ore. It was while prospecting for 
wolframite that Otto Grantz found his exceptionally rich ore on the Hidden 
Fortune. The Harrison, Reddy, Golden Crown and Wasp No. 2 are other producers. 
Some wolframite is found in the tin veins of the southern Hills.

	Tungsten is used in hardening steel for armor plate, and for giving cloth 
a bath which makes it inflammable. The latter use is steadily growing, and the 
demand for wolframite and scheelite great. The Black Hills wolframite carries 
gold in considerable quantities, and to date no attempt has been made to extract 
it before selling to the dealers, so there it is lost sight of. Samples from the 
Wasp No. 2 assay as much as $200 per ton in gold. So that Jack Gray is not far 
wrong when he says some of the battleships are armored with South Dakota gold.

MISCELLANEOUS.

	Lepidolite is found in commercial quantities at the Etta mine. Its uses 
are the same as spodumene.

	Jamesonite, an ore of antimony, is found near Silver City and Rochford, 
Penningtou county.

	Custer and Pennington counties produce from various mines ores of bismuth, 
though not as yet in paying quantities.

	Cinnabar (oxide of mercury, or quicksilver) is found at the Poisoned Ox 
mine, west of Rapid City. It has not been opened in paying quantities.

	Pitchblende, the ore of the new wonder, radium, is found in Pennington 
county, near Pactola, and in small quantities near Bald Mountain ; also near 
Rochford.

	Marble and onyx, of beautiful tints, and taking a fine polish, are found 
at numerous points in the outer Hills, and near Custer in the granite rocks. 
Commercial production has been made.

	Graphite has been identified in several mines west of Rochford, including 
the Copper Cliff. The mineral is used for manufacturing stove polish, gray-black 
paint, etc. Small production has been made, and the future will probably see 
large paying mines opened.

	Lead is found in nearly every milling camp in the Hills in varying 
quantities. Silver City, Galena and Carbonate have been the largest producers. 
Beautiful crystals of pyromorphyte (phosphate of lead) are found at Carbonate 
Camp.

	Arsenic, in the form of mispickel, or pyrite, is found in many of the 
veins of free-milling ore. The Ida Florence mine, near Keystone, contains large 
deposits.

	Platinum has been discovered in small quantities in the placers .of the 
southern Black Hills.

	Nickel and cobalt, associated with other minerals, are known to exist at 
numerous points in the southern Hills and the Clover Leaf mine at Roubaix, but 
have, however, received only small attention at the hands of the prospector.

	Fuller's earth is found in the foothills in large deposits.. Shipments 
have been made, and the grade shown to be excellent. It is used in clarifying 
lard, tallow and more particularly cotton seed oil. It is worth about $15 per 
ton. The world's supply at present comes largely from England and Florida.

	Gypsum, from which stucco is manufactured, is found in large quantities in 
the Black Hills. Several factories are operating steadily, including the 
Pettigrew at Spearfish and the Hot Springs Plaster Company at Hot Springs.

TREATMENT OF THE ORES.

	Gold-bearing rocks of the Black Hills are of two classes, namely, free-
milling and refractory. Roughly, refractory ores are those which will not give 
up their precious contents by amalgamation, and free-milling the opposite class.

	Free-milling ores were the first to which attention was directed in the 
Black Hills, and after nearly thirty years the process has been reduced to a 
science. Briefly, the process is as follows: The ore as it comes from the mine 
passes through crushers, where it is reduced in size to pass a one and one-half 
to two-inch ring. From the bins beneath the crusher it passes to feeders which 
automatically drop it under the stamps. These stamps weigh half a ton and work 
in mortars of iron. Water is fed into the mortar with the ore, and as the 
material is crushed it is carried through a screen or screens at the side of the 
mortar and onto long flat plates of silver-plated copper. These plates are 
amalgamated with mercury, the material having an affinity as well for gold, and 
as the ore, now in a fine state of division, flows over the plates the gold is 
caught. The plates are scraped, the resulting ball of amalgam of gold and 
mercury retorted, and the gold recovered in the native state. Amalgamated plates 
are also placed within the mortars to collect the gold particles too coarse to 
pass the screens. Retorting is a process of distillation, the amalgam being 
placed in an iron vessel with a top tightly fastened on, from which a pipe leads 
away. A fire is built under the retort, and the heat evaporates the mercury*. 
The fumes passing through the pipe are condensed and the mercury gathered in a 
pan or other suitable vessel. The pipe is kept cool by running water surrounding 
it in a larger pipe. The fire is made hotter and hotter and finally the last 
trace of mercury is expelled. The mercury is purified by the process and is used 
again in the mill.


[Photo - NEAR DEADWOOD-ORE TRAIN LEAVING THE MONTEZUMA AND THE WHIZZER MINES FOR 
THE SMELTERS.]


	This is the true free-milling process, and is employed in only one 
instance in the Hills. At the Clover Leaf mine 93 per cent of the values in the 
ore are extracted in this manner. At other properties, which are called free-
milling, adaptations are made of the process, the ore as it flows off the plates 
being caught and subjected to concentration, with eventual smelting of the 
concentrates, and perhaps after concentration, to a treatment by the cyanide 
process. At some mines the concentration is omitted, and the tailings from the 
plates conveyed directly to the cyanide mill.  In other mills the ore is crushed 
in a cyanide solution, is subjected to that process first and amalgamated 
afterward.

	Refractory ores, or those in which the gold does not occur in the native 
state, and are therefore not amenable to amalgamation, are treated by two 
processes in the Black Hills, smelting and cyanidation.

	For many years the refractory or siliceous ores from the Cambrian deposits 
proved a puzzle to the metallurgists. High assays could be obtained from mines 
at Bald Mountain, but no gold could be found in the pan, or could be saved in 
the stamp mills. Efforts were made by various parties to perfect a process, but 
all failed until 1890, when matte smelting was introduced. Matte smelting solved 
a great problem for the Black Hills. It was the first introduction into America, 
and was made by Dr. F. R. Carpenter, then dean of the State School of Mines, and 
who resigned to take charge of the Deadwood & Delaware smelters (now the Golden 
Reward). Of course at the first starting of the plant many difficulties had to 
be overcome, and there were times when it seemed it would be impossible to 
continue. But perseverance won, and the process has been adopted as a 
scientific, commercial success.

	In principle it is as follows: Ore, limestone (to form a fusible mixture), 
coke (to furnish heat) and iron pyrite are fed into a large brick and iron 
furnace. Air forced into the furnace under a slight pressure gives a draft, and 
the burning coke furnishes heat to melt this mixture. The iron pyrite, having an 
affinity for the gold, collects it as well as the silver, and on account of its 
superior specific gravity settles to the bottom of the furnace. The ash from the 
coke, the limestone, and valueless portions of the ores form a slag, which is 
drawn off through holes and removed to the dump. The matte, or iron pyrite 
containing the gold and silver, is drawn into molds through holes below the 
slag, "tap holes," and is shipped elsewhere for refining. Virtually this process 
consists of concentrating the values of about ten tons of ore into one ton of 
matte, which is refined at a low cost. The Deadwood & Delaware sold to the 
Golden Reward Company some years ago, and that company now has a matte smelter 
with a capacity of 500 tons per day. The National Smelting Company at Rapid City 
has a similar plant of 200 tons capacity.

CYANIDATION.

	Although cyanidation is a comparatively new metallurgical process, it has 
been widely used in the Black Hills, and is responsible for the marvelous gain 
in production and favor of the country in the last few years. It has made 
commercially possible the treatment of untold millions of dollars' worth of the 
low-grade refractory ores that could not be handled by smelting, owing to the 
cost of treatment.  Smelting costs from seven to ten dollars per ton, while 
cyanidation costs twenty-five cents to a dollar and a half a ton. Twenty-five 
cents covers the cost of treatment at the Homestake cyanide mills, where, the 
already crushed ore is received from the stamp mills. The higher figure includes 
the cost of crushing as practiced at some of the Black Hills plants.

	Cyanide mills are of three classes, namely, wet crushing, dry crushing and 
tailings mills. In the wet crushing mills the ore is crushed by the regulation 
stamps the same as in the free-milling process, only, instead of water, cyanide 
solution is used. The dry crushing mills pulverize the ores in rolls, or heavy 
iron machines operating on the principle of a clothes wringer. The tailings 
mills treat ores after other processes have been used to extract a portion of 
the values, as, for instance, at Lead City, where the Homestake treats the ore 
by cyanidation after amalgamation.

	In wet crushing the process is substantially as follows: The ore, which is 
crushed by stamps in a solution of cyanide (either cyanide of potassium or 
sodium being used), is transferred to large separators, of which there are many 
patterns, but all using the one principle. Here the coarser portion of the ore 
is separated from the finer, since the two cannot be treated in the same vat. 
This is accomplished by allowing the solution and ore to flow into the top of an 
inverted cone, equipped with a pipe at the bottom, and a small trough around the 
upper edge. Specific gravity causes the coarse portion to settle, and it is 
drawn off through the pipe. The fine, almost impalpable, powder floating in the 
water, known as slimes, overflows into the trough, from where it is carried to 
the vats for treatment. In some cases the sands are passed through another 
separator, but in all events pass to a vat of greater diameter than depth, 
usually 4 to 8 to i, or, in other words, from 20 to 40 feet in diameter to 5 
feet deep. This vat is provided with a trough around the upper edges similar to 
the cone, and here again the overflowing slimes are carried to their vats. Since 
there are used in the stamps from six to nine tons of solution to one ton of 
ore, it will be seen that there is an abundance of solution for this separation.

	The vat finally fills up with sand to within a few inches of the top, and 
solution is added. This solution is changed at intervals for a few days, from 
two to four days usually sufficing to extract the values, and water, which 
serves to wash the remaining cyanide solution from the ore, added in its stead. 
The cyanide solution, having dissolved the gold, is conveyed to the 
precipitation room, where the gold is extracted from it.

	Slimes, since they would pack firmly in the vat and not allow of 
percolation, are treated separately. The process consists of filling vats (of 
greater depth than diameter in the ratio of about 3 to l) with the mixture of 
slimes and solution. The slimes gradually settle to the bottom and the clear 
liquid is drawn off the top. More solution is added, the mixture agitated, in 
some cases by transferring to another vat, and the process repeated. Finally, as 
in the sand process, water is added and the charge washed. The solutions go to 
the precipitation room.

	The precipitation rooms are of different characters in different mills. As 
a rule zinc shaving precipitation is followed. In this case the shavings of 
zinc, fine threads of the metal cut on lathes, are placed in receptacles through 
which the solution passes. The zinc has the property of disassociating the gold 
from the cyanide solution, and the precious metal is precipitated to the bottom 
in the form of a black powder. This powder is carefully collected, usually twice 
a month, treated with sulphuric acid to dissolve the zinc, dried at a low heat, 
melted with various fluxes to remove the impurities, and sold to the United 
States.

	Precipitation systems are different, some mills using wooden and some 
steel boxes, and a great many using halves of whiskey barrels. In all the 
principle is the same. The receptacle is divided into two compartments, one 
smaller than the other. In the bottom of the large compartment a coarse screen 
is placed an inch or so above the floor. The gold bearing solution enters this 
compartment by means of a smaller one, from the bottom, the partition extending 
down to within an inch of the floor. The solution, flowing out of the large 
compartment, enters another similar receptacle. After the gold has been 
precipitated the solution has lost a small portion of its strength, perhaps one-
fifth, but otherwise is ready for use again. The cyanide thus consumed amounts 
to approximately one-halt pound per ton of ore treated, costing about 12% cents.

	The process is almost entirely automatic, requiring the following employes 
to operate a 300-ton mill: Superintendent, assayer and assistant, engineer, 
fireman, crusher man, solution man, stamp tender, man cutting zinc shavings, 
roustabout, and man emptying vats by flushing with water through holes in the 
bottom.

	Dry-crushing cyanidation employs the following process: Crushing ore to 
two inches diameter, pulverizing in rolls to particles from 1-16 to % inch in 
diameter, transferring to vats and treatment same as sands in wet crushing. 
There are practically no slimes made by this process, hence no separators, 
special treatment, etc., are necessary. The advantage gained is perhaps 
partially offset by the increased cost of pulverizing, since the wear on the 
crushing face of the rolls is great. In some cases furnaces are installed to dry 
the ore before pulverizing, thus adding another item of cost.