Full Text of “The Black Hills Illustrated” - Part 5


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During the mining congress this exhibit was freely visited and was the subject 
of much favorable comment.

	On March 10 action was first taken by the club on presenting Mrs. Phoebe 
Hearst with a loving cup. The matter was finally left to a committee appointed 
by President Gushurst. The efforts of this committee were crowned with the 
utmost success, as was evidenced by the purchase and presentation to Mrs. Hearst 
of a beautiful silver loving cup, at an approximate cost of $1,500. The entire 
amount of this sum was contributed by men, women and children of this city, 
excepting $63.10, which amount was necessary to make the full payment on cup, 
and which was paid by the Commercial Club. This loving cup no doubt will always 
be a constant reminder to Mrs. Hearst that the people of Lead hold her in 
affectionate esteem, and while a great portion of her revenue is derived from 
the dividends of the Homestake Mining Company, she takes a great personal 
interest in the institutions and people of Lead, as will be seen in our pages.

	On August 11, 1903, the club opened correspondence with Professor C. C. 
Stone of Illinois for the opening of a commercial college.  Professor Stone came 
to Lead and started the college about September 1 with five scholars. On 
February 1, 1904, there were 200 night and day scholars, with four teachers in 
charge.

	The club is constantly trying to better the railroad conditions of both 
passengers and freight on the Burlington and Northwestern railways, and at 
present is working with the Burlington Railway Company to get them to extend 
their present trolley system, which runs from Deadwood to and through Lead, on 
to Terry, and afterwards to extend still farther to Spearfish. Later on it is 
hoped that they will build from Spearfish to Central and from there to Dead-
wood. A committee will shortly go to Chicago to personally interview officers of 
both railroad companies for better railway facilities.

	The club has spent much in the past year in advertising and was a great 
factor in making the meetings of the American Mining Congress (of 1903) a 
success during the sessions at Lead. One of the committees is constantly 
reaching out for new industries with a view to having them locate at Lead. These 
industries include packing houses and branch wholesale grocery houses, making 
Lead a distributing point.

	During 1903 the club entertained Sioux City's Commercial Club and South 
Omaha's Stockmen's Association. In July, 1903, they entertained the National 
Editorial Association.

	The club holds regular monthly meetings and special meetings whenever 
occasion demands. Its 150 members are to a man public spirited and thoroughly 
alive to the general advancement and public interests of Lead and vicinity, and 
when a proposition is taken up by them there is always "something doing."

HOT SPRINGS.

	Hot Springs, South Dakota, lying at the south of the Black Hills, is 
destined to become, for at least that population lying between Chicago and San 
Francisco, the greatest health resort of the United States.

	The United States government, for one, has determined upon that statement 
as a truth, which is shown by its selection of a site at Hot Springs for the 
location of its National Sanitarium for Soldiers.

	The state of South Dakota had previously selected the same place for the 
Soldiers' Home, and many years before similar opinions were passed upon its 
location for the value of its curative powers by the Indians, who were then the 
sole owners of this entire section of the country, and who fought tribal wars 
for the possession of the waters of this magnificent beauty spot.

	Over half a century ago the Sioux and Cheyennes made a fight of extinction 
(for the latter) on historical Battle Mountain, the site of the buildings now 
under construction by the United States government.

	In June, 1879, Prof. Walter T. Jenny and Col. W. J. Thornby left Deadwood 
on horseback on a mine location trip. They arrived at Buffalo Gap and Colonel 
Thornby made a dangerous trip through Indian Territory and found and located 
what are now called the Minnekahta Springs of hot water. He located his stakes 
from the present site of the Evans Hotel, a half a mile up toward the present 
Soldiers' Home.

	His half-mile square embodied the sites of the present plunge baths. A 
month later he cut the foundation for a log house and had lumber on the ground, 
but his mining interests calling him to Custer, he gave his claim to Joe Laravie 
and John Davidson, two half-breeds, who afterward sold it for a round sum to the 
Hot Springs Land Company. Meanwhile a man had come to the Hills who was destined 
to play a most prominent part in the future of Hot Springs. This was the late 
Fred T. Evans, who had made large sums of money in real estate and street-car 
lines at Sioux City and had first visited the Hills with a freighting outfit in 
1877. It was he who hauled the first machinery of the Home-stake mine to the 
Hills, and many is the story told of the feats accomplished by this determined 
character, with his enormous freighting outfits, in the face of the most trying 
circumstances. But when, at last, the Northwestern railroad had built from Rapid 
City on to Whitewood, he turned his entire attention to the development of Hot 
Springs, where he had invested first in 1885, and he became a dominant force in 
the upbuilding of this now famous place. He erected the magnificent Evans Hotel, 
the Hot Springs Hotel, the original plunge bath, the Minnekahta business block 
and many residences. He graded and built the streets of the upper town at his 
own expense, and it was mainly through his influence that the Northwestern 
railroad built into Hot Springs.  The town suffered a great loss in his death in 
1902. At the present moment both the Northwestern and the Burlington railways 
run trains into Hot Springs, the former from Buffalo Gap and the latter from 
Edgemont.


[Photo - THE LATE FRED. T. EVANS.]


	The town has an altitude of 3,260 feet, and is situated in a valley, or 
canyon, between surrounding hills.   When Colonel Thornby located the Minnekahta 
Springs, he was much attracted by the beautiful Fall river stream, which pursues 
its course through the town and parallel with the main street. He says that at 
that time the stream was literally filled with wild geese and ducks, that were 
in such vast numbers as to be unintimidated by his presence. To-day this river 
is a glowing mass. winter and summer, of watercress, while tame ducks of varied 
hue lend a great beauty to its naturally picturesque appearance.

	The climatic conditions of Hot Springs are unlike those of any other part 
of South Dakota. They are even materially different from those of even thirty 
miles north, and, whereas the rain and snow fall of the Upper Hills are heavy, 
the annual precipitation at Hot Springs averages only seventeen feet. The 
atmosphere is so dry that in the summertime the heat is not felt, and the nights 
are spent under blankets.  In the wintertime an average temperature of December, 
January and February has been found to he about 27 above. Thus the climate is 
unexcelled, and, naturally, with the small precipitation, the sun is almost 
every day in evidence. In fact, the climate is invigorating the year around, and 
while the great influx of strangers is usually in the summer, people are 
beginning to discover the fact that Hot Springs is a charming winter resort.

	Another feature is the lack of wind, the hills about proving a thorough 
protection.


[Photo - CHAUTAUQUA GROUNDS AT HOT SPRINGS.]


THE SPRINGS.

	The town is practically divided into the Upper and Lower Towns. These, 
however, have come together, and are now continuous. In the Upper Town are the 
two magnificent plunge baths, two of the finest in America, and both deriving 
their waters from the Mammoth (or Lakotah group of) Hot Springs.

	The first natatorium built was that erected by Mr. Evans. It is fitted 
with toboggan slide, springboards, rafts and every convenience for those who can 
or cannot swim. The temperature of the water is about 96°, and there are springs 
in the bath itself, bubbling up through its pebbled bottom. The waters are as 
clear as crystal.

	The other natatorium, which adjoins the Palace Hotel, is owned by 
Congressman E. W. Martin, and is called the Mammoth Springs Plunge. It is built 
entirely of steel, and the bottom of the bath is of cement. Both natatoriums are 
thoroughly well patronized and the former, which is open the year around, 
although an adjunct of the Evans Hotel, is presided over by Professor Moore, who 
is a decided success in the teaching of swimming. Altogether, there are more 
than seventy-five springs in and around Hot Springs, and they vary greatly in 
their constituent qualities. They are all absolutely free from any vegetable 
substance and most of them are from 90° upward. The supply is constant, 
invariable and inexhaustible, flowing nearly a million gallons a day.

	The most prominent among these springs are the Mammoth Hot Springs (and 
Lakotah group), which supply the two natatoriums and the city, at present, and 
will supply the National Sanitarium.

	The Minnekahta Spring, which adjoins the Minnekahta Hotel, and which was 
the original spring used by the Indians, as evidenced by a moccasin-shaped stone 
bath, carved out of solid rock by the Indians and still in use at these baths, 
supplies the Lady of Lourdes Hospital and the Evans Hotel in its annex.

	Then in the Lower Town there are the Sulphur Baths and the Hiawatha, 
formerly called the Catholicon Springs, which are used in conjunction with the 
hotel and sanitarium of the same name.

	In addition to these, there are other springs, among them the Mud Baths, 
adjoining the courthouse and on the river bank; and there are many excellent 
sanitariums and a very celebrated spring called the Kidney Spring, which is 
opposite the Evans Hotel.

	Commencing with rheumatism and ending with the diseases of the liver and 
kidneys, the list of troubles treated successfully by the various baths would be 
too long for our space; but suffice it to say that there is no disease cured by 
the baths of Carlsbad, Germany, or those of Hot Springs, Arkansas, that has not 
been treated successfully in the baths of Hot Springs, South Dakota; while the 
conditions of climate and scenery are so effective that no health resort on 
earth conduces so greatly to Nature's curative powers.

	Mr. C. L. Jensen, who is a pioneer of the Black Hills, was formerly 
engaged in the transportation of troops and equipment for the government, and 
who now conducts a large livery business in the Upper Town, tritely expressed 
himself upon this point, when he said, "The physicians are my only competitors; 
and if I can get a man or woman on a horse, their cure is inevitable."

SCENERY AND PLEASURE RESORTS.

	The scenery around Hot Springs is so varied as to be almost indescribable. 
The conglomerate rocks on both sides of the canyon are extremely interesting in 
themselves, but the drives, in all directions, furnish as many peculiar types of 
scenic wonder. Cascades, geysers, waterfalls, canyons and mountain drives are a 
never-ceasing chain of wonderful suggestions.

	There are long drives and short drives, each with its peculiar 
attractions. Two of the most famous drives within easy access of the city are 
the Bad Lands, where the most remarkable fossils in existence are found in a 
perfect state of preservation, and where the most peculiar formations on earth 
can be found; and the Wind Cave, with its 2,000 subterranean caverns and 100 
miles of passages already explored, without finding a limit. The Wind Cave was 
discovered in 1877, but was not turned to account and was unexplored until 1890, 
when it was located as mineral claims, and an easy road was made from chamber to 
chamber by blasting. Later on, the proprietors got to quarreling among 
themselves, until finally the United States government took control and put a 
stop to the vandalism which was despoiling it of its beauties, in the carrying 
away of specimens. The peculiar formations of these various caves are perhaps 
more delicate than those of any well-known cave as yet discovered, and United 
States guides are constantly on hand to conduct parties through the cave after 
their arrival from a short drive from Hot Springs.

	Onyx Cave is also well worthy of a visit and is very unique in its 
formations of pillars and columns, stalactites and stalagmites.

	Longer drives can be made to Sylvan Lake, near Custer, of which a 
description is given in another part of the book.


[Photo - FALL RIVER, NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD, AND GILLESPIE HOTEL, HOT SPRINGS.]


THE SPORTS.

	The pleasure of the plunge baths in themselves would be a sufficient 
indorsement for Hot Springs, but at its very door are a great many varied 
amusements. Camping parties are numerous. The mountain streams abound with 
trout. Hunting includes the deer, wolf, wildcat, rabbit and many kinds of birds. 
Horseback and burro riding are liberally indulged in, and geological excursions 
are made interesting by trips to the Bad Lands.

	Tally-ho drives are made up daily, while the golf links are conveniently 
situated.

	The town was first incorporated as Hot Springs in 1890, under the general 
laws of a third-class city. It has a mayor and eight aldermen, is the county 
seat of Fall River county, and its population is variously estimated as from 
1,800 to 2,200, although this is vastly increased during the summer season.
In fraternal societies the Masons, Odd Fellows, Woodmen, Pyramids, Maccabees, A. 
O. U. W., Ladies' Degree of Honor, Rebekahs and Eastern Star are all well 
represented.   A splendid organization of some sixty women, called the Relief 
Corps, looks after the poor and has extended many charities.

	There are two weekly newspapers-the Star, owned by J. A. Stanley, 
postmaster, and edited by him and J. L. Denman, and the Times-Herald, owned and 
edited by E. S. Ames.

	The Soldiers' Home, which was erected some time ago by the state, is a 
magnificent institution, but the National Sanitarium, now building, will overcap 
anything of its kind now in existence.

	Battle Mountain Sanitarium, as it is called on account of its location on 
Battle Mountain, was projected in Washington, D. C., early in the present 
century, and the bill of appropriation passed the Senate and House in 1902. It 
is now under construction, and includes five hospitals and two general 
government buildings, its real purpose being to treat United States soldiers of 
all wars. Its capacity, with the present buildings, will be about six hundred 
men, and the institution will be in charge of a governor. The buildings are all 
connected by passageways.

	The first appropriation by the government was $525,000, since which time 
$75,000 has been added.

	The site was donated by the city and individuals.

	The sanitarium consists of one general group of buildings and its 
auxiliaries. The main group comprises the administration building, operating 
pavilion, service building, bath house, amusement pavilion and six ward 
buildings, whose ends form a circular arcade. This arcade surrounds a circular 
fountain court, one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and provides an enclosed 
and heated walk for winter exercise and a shaded walk and lounging space in 
summer.  It is intended to make this court beautiful by tropical gardening.

	The buildings are to be of stone, with low and spreading tile roofs. The 
ward buildings and other distinctively hospital portions will be ventilated by 
exhaust and forced draft, securing to the patients a constantly changing and 
ample air supply, rendered dustless and of mean temperature by the latest 
heating and ventilating devices. The whole will be served by hot, medium and 
cold water systems, for bath, general and drinking purposes, and will be lighted 
by electricity. The power for this service will be located in a station at some 
distance from the main group, the water supply being the famous hot springs from 
which the town derives its name. The architecture is strictly a hospital type, 
approaching the Spanish Mission buildings more nearly than any other recognized 
style. Some idea of the extent of the buildings can be had by realizing that 
within the main group itself nearly three full city blocks could be placed, 
filling, as it does, a circle more than five hundred feet in diameter. The 
superintendent's home, bandstand, stables and other accessories and auxiliaries 
will be picturesquely distributed in the grounds adjacent to the group. Situated 
as the buildings are, at the base of Battle Mountain on an elevated plateau and 
in birdseye view from all the surrounding hills, they will create an impression 
on the visitor not soon forgotten.

	The magnificent pink stone used in the construction of the main buildings 
is from the Evans quarries, which, with the Burke quarries, are both within easy 
access of the city.

[Photo - BATTLE MOUNTAIN SANITARIUM FOR SOLDIERS, JUST ERECTED BY THE U. S. 
GOVERNMENT.]


SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.

	No one, in taking his family to Hot Springs, need feel that his children 
will be neglected, either in their secular or religious studies. No better 
schools in the United States exist than the public schools of Hot Springs. The 
main public school may be seen on other pages, and the courses of study are as 
thorough as the exterior of the building indicates.

	In churches, the Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Episcopal, 
Congregatlonal, Catholic, German Lutheran and Baptist are all represented. As an 
indication of the class of ministers presiding over the various flocks, we might 
say that the Baptist church is in charge of P. Monroe Smock, a lecturer of very 
great ability. Mr. Smock's most noted subjects, entitled "Dreams and Dreamers," 
"Pestalozzi, Swiss Pedagogue," "Notes and Quotes from Robert Burns" and 
"Fraternity, the Eleventh Commandment," have brought him into prominence in 
practically. all the states from Illinois to South Dakota and from Minnesota to 
Oklahoma.

	He is supreme lecturer for the Bankers' Union of the World and the Ancient 
Order of the Red Cross, and belongs to the Red-path Lyceum Bureau, and thus 
lectures continually over the country he has heretofore covered.

	Most all the churches of Hot Springs are mission churches. in other words, 
assisted by their mission societies for a portion of their support.

[Photo - PUBLIC SCHOOL OF HOT SPRINGS.]


WATER AND LIGHT.

	A company with a large capital, entitled the Water, Light and Power 
Company, supplies the city with water and light. There are two plants; the one 
in the city is an arc plant pumping station and waterworks. It is furnished with 
a duplex pump, having a capacity of 300,000 gallons per day; also a 30-arc light 
dynamo and 60-K. W. alternator.

	The reservoir has a capacity of 600,000 gallons, with a water pressure of 
from 100 to 125 pounds. It is located on Evans Heights, 240 feet above the main 
street. There are 50 double hydrants for fire. The supply of water is from large 
springs and is conveyed by gravity from spring to cistern and there pumped from 
cistern to reservoir.

	The plant has a 70-horsepower capacity, and this comes from water 
conducted by stave flume to the station.

	The other plant, called the Falls Plant, is located 4 1/2 miles down Fall 
river. It has 300 horsepower and furnishes current for 2,000 incandescent lights 
at the present time.

COST OF LIVING.

	No one, in the most modest circumstances, need fear the early empying of 
his pocketbook at Hot Springs, S. D.  This is no idle assertion and is a great 
recommendation for a health resort. To give some idea of the various prices, we 
will refer to the principal hotels and sanitariums, from the highest prices 
downward, and these rates can be very much reduced by the renting of cottages, 
flats or rooms, of which there are many to be had.

THE EVANS HOTEL.

	This hotel, previously referred to, was opened in August, 1892, and has 
always since then been run in the summer months and will probably, hereafter, 
continue through the winter. It is one of the finest hotels between Chicago and 
the Pacific. It is owned by the Iowa Land Company and is managed by Harry D. 
dark, who is the lessee.

	The hotel is of modern construction, being built in the shape of the 
letter H, thus giving to each room an outside exposure. The construction is of 
pink sandstone. There are 250 rooms, electric lights, elevator and bell service 
of most improved types. An annex is attached to the hotel by an enclosed archway 
from the second story, and contains baths, deriving the waters from the 
Minnekahta Spring. There is a corps of attendants for every known treatment, 
Turkish needle baths and tub baths are given, as well as manicuring and facial 
treatment. Also suggestive and magnetic baths, massage, etc. The hotel can 
accommodate about 350 people and is strictly first-class, having rates for 
transients running from $3 per day upward. Mr. Clark, who is a son-in-law of the 
late Mr. Evans, is a young man of much force and energy, and is considered one 
of the coming men of the Black Hills, for which he has shown a great deal of 
patriotism in his outlay of time and money. He is a Sioux City man and acquired 
experience in the hotel business at the Del Prado Hotel of Chicago. He has been 
identified with Hot Springs since 1890.

PALACE HOTEL.

	The Palace Hotel, managed by J. W. Applegate, a very popular man, is run 
at a $2 rate, and special rates can be made for permanent boarders.

	The hotel is next door to the Mammoth Plunge, and a block away from the 
Evans Plunge. There are thirty-eight rooms, hot and cold baths and electric 
lights. Mr. Applegate knows how to run a hotel, having been interested since 
1881 in restaurants at Deadwood, the Etta Tin Camp and Rapid City, and managed 
the Hotel Harney in Rapid City for three years.

[Photo - PALACE HOTEL-HOT SPRINGS.]


HOTEL GILLESPIE.

	The Hotel Gillespie is managed by C. G. Fargo, who owns the building, 
which is of stone. There are 55 rooms in the building proper and ten rooms 
adjoining. The hotel is open winter and summer and adjoins the depot.

	It is furnished with electric lights and steam heat, and the rates for 
transients are $2 per day.

THE HOT SPRINGS HOTEL.

	This house is a popular-priced one and adjoins the Minnekahta Springs.

	The transient rate is $i per day, including board, and special permanent 
rates can be made. A free bus, steam heat and electric lights are adjuncts of 
the hotel, which has sixty rooms, and is excellently managed by H. M. Barr. The 
Minnekahta Baths, which belong to the Iowa Land Company and which adjoin the 
hotel, furnish not only the regular hot water bath and plunge, but also mud 
baths from mineral mud, a great curative for rheumatism, stiffness of bone 
joints, etc.

	Mr. Harry D. Clark manages these baths, as well as the Evans Plunge Bath.


[Photo - RESIDENCE OF HARRY D. CLARK JR.]


OTHER HOTELS.

	In addition to these hotels, the Catholicon, or Hiawatha Springs, as they 
are now called, have a very excellent hotel at moderate prices, in conjunction 
with the baths. And for patients who are feeble, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital 
furnishes an excellent combination of hotel and sanitarium, also at very 
reasonable prices. This institution cannot be too highly recommended. It is in 
charge of the sisters, and a corps of the best physicians of the city visit it 
regularly and perform operations when necessary.

INDUSTRIES.

	The country contiguous to Hot Springs, on account of the small rainfall, 
is naturally semi-arid, but the government is taking up an irrigation scheme 
under the national system and will take water from the Cheyenne river and 
irrigate an enormous acreage, which will provide cereals and ample products for 
the general country.

	In addition to this, a stock company has been formed of Hot Springs 
capitalists and is gradually extending an already large acreage by irrigating 
from Cascade Creek. This is the Hot Springs Irrigation & Live Stock Company, 
which has already built ten miles of ditch along the Cheyenne river and will 
cultivate an extensive ranch of grain, hay and alfalfa field, as also fruit 
orchards.

	There is already a great deal of cattle-raising in the immediate vicinity, 
and the soil, which is very fertile, provides, even in the most arid portions, 
excellent feed for cattle, sheep and horses, which thrive throughout the year 
without shelter.

	There are stockyards at Hot Springs, and at Smithwick, sixteen miles east, 
there are good facilities for the receipt and shipment of cattle.

	The main products of the irrigated country are oats, alfalfa, timothy and 
rye. Seven to eight tons of alfalfa to the acre is an average, and the profits 
can be measured when it is stated that it brings about $10 per ton.

	The climatic conditions and the soil of this section are peculiarly well 
adapted to the raising of fruit, which includes apples, pears, plums, cherries, 
strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, melons and grapes. 

OTHER INDUSTRIES.

	Lumber of an excellent grade is manufactured from the native pine forests. 
The Buffalo Gap Lumber Company has a sawmill at Pringle which turns out 600,000 
feet of lumber annually. They also import lumber from Puget Sound and the East.

	Coal beds which promise a profitable industry are near by. Stucco plaster 
is manufactured within the city limits, and this celebrated hard wall plaster 
took the first prize at the World's Fair at Chicago.

	The sandstone quarries, of which we shall speak exhaustively, are 
furnishing the handsomest sandstone to be found in the United States, and are 
practically inexhaustible.

BANKS.

	There are two banks, both of which are in a very prosperous condition.

BANK OF HOT SPRINGS.

	The Bank of Hot Springs was started January 1, 1894. It is organized under 
state laws, has a capital of $10,000, surplus and undivided profits of about 
$10,000. The deposits range up to $120,000. Their loans are mainly on pasture 
cattle, a very safe proposition, most of the ranchers being prepared to feed the 
cattle thirty to ninety days in the winter, if necessary. The officers are James 
Halley of Rapid City, president; I. M. Humphry, vice-president, and G. C. Smith, 
cashier. Mr. Smith was associated with the same parties previously for eight 
years at Buffalo Gap, that place having been in those days the headquarters for 
this section.

HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL BANK.

	This bank was formerly the Merchants' Bank and was merged into a national 
institution in 1902. Its capital is $25,000, and at the close of business 
January 22, 1904, the surplus and undivided profits amounted to $15,207.16.  
Deposits run from $110,000 to $130,000. Loans are made mostly on cattle and, to 
some extent, to people of the town.

	The stockholders are all in Hot Springs. E. S. Kelly is president and W. 
W. Stewart cashier. Both of these gentlemen were formerly of the Merchants' Bank 
and arranged the merging into the present national bank.

	Another fast-growing industry is the Hot Springs Bottling Works, owned by 
A. W. Riordan and G. L. Thorp, who also own the Hot Springs Fruit and Produce 
Company, handling, in a wholesale way, the season's fruit and vegetables, 
poultry, eggs, butter, etc.

	This bottling works is now putting up the Minnekahta water charged and 
also the same water in all sorts of flavors. The present capacity is about 
15,000 cases of all kinds, shipments being made to Nebraska, Wyoming, South 
Dakota, Iowa and Montana points.

	The plain spring water is shipped as far as Ohio, Pennsylvania and 
Illinois, for medicinal purposes, mainly for stomach and kidney troubles. The 
business is capable of enormous development in the future.

THE HOT SPRINGS PLASTER COMPANY.

	This company furnishes plaster for buildings instead of lime plaster and 
also makes a very superior article of dental plaster; 28 1/2 acres of ground 
adjoining the works embody the quarry. Shipments are made as far as Portland, 
Ore., and Seattle, Wash.; also to Denver, Grand Island and O'Neil.

	The daily 12-hour capacity is thirty tons.

	The company is incorporated at $100,000, in 2,000 shares of $50 each. J. 
M. Brelsford is president; George H. Stoddard, vice-president, and C. E. 
Brelsford, secretary and treasurer. At present ten men are employed, but the 
company unquestionably has a greater future than its projectors imagine. Hot 
Springs is a good business town for almost any line of business. Retailers 
naturally have an increasing business from strangers, as well as those who make 
their home at the Springs. But the location of the town and its railway 
facilities are such as to recommend the investment of capital in wholesaling and 
manufacturing.

EVANS SANDSTONE COMPANY.

	In the year 1890 the late Fred. T. Evans opened up this fine quarry of 
pink stone. It is located about three miles from Hot Springs, and a spur of the 
Northwestern road runs along the side of the ledge, so that the stone is loaded 
direct onto the cars. The present supply comes from a 20-acre portion of a 320-
acre ranch which has a foundation throughout its entirety of this handsome 
stone, which is in consequence practically inexhaustible.

	The equipment is very complete, with derricks and a saw-plant. The stone 
was used for building the Evans Hotel, the Minnekahta business block, the 
Gillespie Hotel and other structures of Hot Springs, and the public library of 
Sioux City, Iowa. It is also supplying the stone for the buildings of the Battle 
Mountain Sanitarium. This contract calls for 2,500 carloads, or about 75,000 
tons.

	The quarry is now owned by Mrs. T. M. Evans, widow of the late Fred. T. 
Evans, and her son, Mr. John H. Evans, has charge and manages the business for 
her.

THE BURKE STONE COMPANY.

	Building stone from the Burke quarry, at Hot Springs, is a favorite in the 
Black Hills. It is largely used in all of the better class of buildings, for 
instance, the Franklin Hotel, Carnegie Library, and Black Hills Trust and 
Savings Bank, at Deadwood. The company conducts a most extensive business, which 
is constantly increasing. During 1903 there were shipped 425 cars, and contracts 
for 1904 delivery made so far amount to 700 cars. And as far as the supply of 
stone is concerned, that is practically exhaustless. The company owns 280 acres 
of land, and the stone occurs in beds coextensive with the boundaries, some 33 
to 50 feet in thickness.

	The stone is of two shades of fine sandstone, white and buff, and is being 
used in some of the finest buildings in the United States. At Omaha a public 
library is being built of it; the Carnegie library at Fort Dodge (Iowa), one of 
the most artistic buildings of that state, is built of Burke stone; the First 
National bank of Lead, the C. & N. W. depots of both Deadwood and Lead, the 
public school at Hot Springs, several buildings in Sheridan (Wyo.), Omaha and 
Lincoln have been built of this stone, and in every case perfect satisfaction is 
reported.

	What is known as the West quarry is connected with the spur from the 
Northwestern railroad by a gravity tramway of 3-foot gauge about a mile long. 
Over this tramway 200 tons of stone can be conveyed per day. Plans for 
increasing the capacity are being considered, and the probability is that they 
will be carried out. The East quarry is connected with the main loading and saw 
plant by railroad. With these improvements the company will probably be able to 
supply the demand, although orders for one hundred and fifty cars had to be 
refused last year. The new facilities for handling will give a capacity of ten 
cars per day.

	The saw plant contains a two-gang stone saw, having a capacity of a 
carload of sawed stone per day. Other equipments include two horizontal boilers, 
one upright boiler, one 16 h. p. double drum hoisting engine and boiler, one 
double drum belt hoist, two 10-ton derricks, one 15-ton derrick, one 25-ton 
derrick, two 5-ton derricks, two 15-ton tram cars, three 10-ton tram cars, four 
10-ton saw cars, one 30-ton saw car, steam drills, complete water system for 
furnishing houses and boilers, blacksmith shop, etc.

	This equipment is sufficient for the production of a much greater quantity 
of rough stone than the present.  The work which is already contracted for for 
the coming season is but a step toward the building of a great industry, which 
it is believed will reach a maximum of two thousand cars a year within a decade. 
The substantial growth of the Black Hills and surrounding and tributary country, 
together with patronage from farther east presages a great future for stone 
quarrying. The company this year installed a new heavy derrick and stone 
crusher. The C. & N. W. railroad having ordered 75 cars of crushed stone for 
concrete work, machinery for its manufacture was secured. The company got a good 
early start on its 1904 contracts; in March 70 cars of stone were shipped 
against 2 cars in 1903, and in April 86 cars against 20 last year, all cars 
having a capacity of 40 tons each. In this way the output for the present year 
will greatly exceed the past.

	The Burke Stone Company is capitalized for $100,000, in shares of one 
dollar par value. The property-280 acres-is five miles west of Hot Springs, on 
the line of the Northwestern railroad, between Buffalo Gap and that point. The 
principal office is at Deadwood, S. D.

THE SOUTH DAKOTA STATE SCHOOL OF MINES AT RAPID CITY.

BY ROBERT L. SLAGLE, PH. D.

	The South Dakota School of Mines enjoys the distinction of being the only 
school of college rank in the Black Hills. In accordance with the spirit of its 
founders and the chief interests of that portion of the state in which it is 
situated, the work of the school centers in the mining engineering course, which 
covers a period of four years.

	The school is located on a ten-acre campus in the eastern part of Rapid 
City, and carries on its work in three buildings. The main building is a 
handsome structure of pressed brick with sandstone trimmings and basement. In 
this building are the offices of the president, chemical and physical 
laboratories, mechanical drawing room, general library and several lecture 
rooms.


[Photo - BUILDINGS OF THE SOUTH DAKOTA STATE SCHOOL OF MINES AT RAPID CITY. (The 
National Smelting Company's Works Are in the Background.)]


DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY.

	The work of this department is conducted in four rooms on the second floor 
of the main building. Each student is supplied with a set of apparatus and 
reagents, and is expected to make all possible experiments and analyses himself. 
The laboratory is made the chief place for the study of chemistry, the text 
books and lectures holding a subordinate position. Instruction in this subject 
extends through the first three years of the mining engineering course, and is 
so arranged as to include analyses of various minerals and metallurgical 
products, such as limestone, iron ore, coal and coke, blast furnace slag, etc.

DEPARTMENTS OF PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING.

	In this building are also located the physical laboratory and the 
mechanical drawing room. The course in advanced physics, extending through the 
Junior year, aims to give the student a thorough knowledge of those principles 
which have a bearing upon the future professional work of a mining engineer. The 
work in mechanical drawing extends through four years, and includes descriptive 
geometry, statics and design of mine plant. Engineering subjects, including 
mechanism, surveying, mechanics of material, thermodynamics, hydraulics, heat 
engines and power plant, are taught during the Sophomore, Junior and Senior 
years.

	The opening of the new school year should find the engineering department 
of the school in a position to exercise, to a larger degree than ever before, 
the important function for which it was conceived; to which end the entire 
second floor of the new annex to the main building has been placed at its 
disposal. Two large, well lighted rooms, newly furnished with modern desks and 
tables, will be used for the work in mechanical drawing and structural design, 
while a completely equipped blue-print room, in direct connection, will supply a 
long-felt want. A department lecture room, of ample size and newly furnished, 
will be a new feature, while another smaller room, strategically situated, will 
furnish pleasant quarters for the instructor in charge. In addition to these new 
advantages, a proposed large addition to the working equipment, particularly in 
the line of surveying instruments, should be noted.

DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.

	All the students in the mining course carry the prescribed work in general 
geology, mineralogy, blow-pipe analysis and economic geology. During the junior 
and senior years, students who choose the geological option carry on work in 
metamorphism, physiography, petrography and historical geology as substitutes 
for some of the engineering subjects.

	The rooms devoted to this work are situated on the first floor of the main 
building. Of the four rooms occupied, the largest is furnished with ample cases 
for the display of specimens of minerals, rocks and fossils, and will hereafter 
be devoted wholly to museum purposes. Adjoining this is the lecture room. The 
lecture room is followed by the instructor's study, and this in turn connects 
with the commodious, well furnished laboratory.

	The general mineral and rock collections are fairly representative and are 
being constantly enlarged. The Black Hills collection is particularly good. The 
departmental library is a growing one, and especial effort is made to keep up 
its high standard of usefulness. Appraratus necessary for such laboratory work 
as is required is provided, and considerable opportunity is allowed for such 
other investigations as may be desired.

DEPARTMENT OF MINING AND METALLURGY.

	The metallurgical laboratory is a two-story brick building, 60 by 138 feet 
in size. It is occupied by the department of mining and metallurgy. Here are the 
assay laboratory, the cyanide laboratory- in which students make practical tests 
on large quantities of ore- and the large metallurgical laboratory, the latter 
containing steam engine, small smelter, ore roaster, stamp mill, concentrating 
tables and a well equipped metallurgical library.

	The studies in this department are confined to the junior and senior 
years, and include assaying, the metallurgy of iron and steel, copper, lead and 
zinc, and gold and silver, lectures on excavation and tunneling, boring and 
shaft sinking, prospecting and methods of mining ore deposits, mine plant and 
mining engineering.

LIBRARY AND READING ROOM.

	The state legislature makes an annual appropriation for the support of the 
library and reading room. By means of this the library has received many of the 
latest works on metallurgical, mining, geological and chemical subjects. 
Valuable acquisitions have been made during the past year, especially to the 
works on geology.

	A new reading room and general library, with modern and attractive 
furnishings, will be opened at the commencement of the school year. Newspapers 
and magazines for general information and culture are readily accessible, as 
well as some of the leading magazines and publications of the government and the 
principal scientific associations, such as "Transactions of the American 
Institute of Mining Engineers" and "Bulletins of the Geological Society of 
America."

	The standard encyclopedias and scientific dictionaries may be found in the 
departmental libraries, convenient to the lecture rooms.

	In addition to several thousand volumes and one thousand pamphlets 
belonging to the school, the Rapid City Library Association have kindly loaned a 
collection of four hundred volumes, consisting of works on literature, 
philosophy, science and history. These are in the general library.

	Few schools of its kind surpass this one in the advantages offered. Its 
nearness to the centers of mining industry, its proximity to a mountainous 
region, its thorough course in the theoretical part of a mining engineer's 
training, unite to make it an efficient school. That these statements are not 
overdrawn is proved by the quality of the work of its graduates, the demand for 
the services of the present graduating class, and the acceptability of the work 
of the undergraduates to the Black Hills mining men during the vacation periods.

CAMBRIA AND THE CAMBRIA FUEL COMPANY.

	At Cambria, Wyoming, on the western slope of the Black Hills, one of the 
most interesting coal deposits and mining plants in the United States is owned 
and operated by the Cambria Fuel Company.

	When the projected transcontinental line of the Burlington and Missouri 
River railroad, from Lincoln, Nebraska, to a connection with the Northern 
Pacific railroad at Billings, Montana, reached Alliance, Nebraska, further 
construction was suspended until the railroad company felt assured of being able 
to obtain an ample supply of locomotive fuel in Nor' western Wyoming, as the 
proposed extension could not be profitably operated with coal from Iowa and 
eastern mines. With a view to securing a contract for building the road, the 
well-known firm of Kilpatrick Bros. & Collins of Beatrice, Nebraska, placed 
several prospecting parties in the field, during 1887 and 1888, which succeeded 
in discovering what are now known as the Cambria Coal Fields, and which are 
estimated, by the most conservative experts, to contain at least 40,000,000 tons 
of coal, particularly suitable for railroad locomotive service.

	The deposit is unique in containing the only bituminous coking coal so far 
discovered in the state of Wyoming, and the Cambria Fuel Company has apparently 
covered the entire area of available coal within the boundaries of the 17,000 
acres of land comprising its property. The vein varies in thickness from four to 
ten feet, averaging about six feet, and has a slope to the southwest of about 
three degrees; it is cut by a number of deep ravines, which expose the coal seam 
at several places.

	When the railroad company had, through its own experts, determined the 
quality and amount of the coal reserves to be satisfactory, contracts were made 
for extending the line westward from Alliance, and Kilpatrick Bros. & Collins 
undertook to open the mines, although operating at great disadvantage on account 
of being located so far from railroad facilities, and experiencing great 
difficulties in developing a water supply sufficient for the needs of a large 
mining plant and the railroad locomotives. Necessary machinery for the initial 
installation was hauled with teams, about 170 miles from Alliance, but when the 
last rail was laid up the canon from Newcastle, on December 4, 1889, the mines 
were prepared to furnish a regular supply of fuel. Since that time a steady and 
increasing production has been maintained, and up to December 31, 1903, 
5,719,000 tons of coal had been mined, of which the Burlington used 4,160,000 
tons.

	Experts describe this plant as the most interesting type of mechanically 
operated coal mines in this country. Machinery and automatic appliances have 
been introduced wherever they could be advantageously adopted for saving labor. 
The undercutting and drilling of the coal are accomplished with machinery 
operated by compressed air, for the distribution of which, over 20 miles of pipe 
are now in service to supply the different workings. Both the "room and pillar" 
and "Longwall" systems are used in these mines, the physical conditions in each 
district determining which can be adopted to the best advantage. The mines are 
entirely free from explosive gases, and develop very little water. The coal is 
gathered by both compressed air motors and horses, the former being supplied 
with air at a pressure of 800 pounds per square inch, distributed by an 
aggregate of about 3 miles of extra strong pipe, in which air is stored at a 
pressure of about 1,000 pounds per square inch; charging stations are placed at 
points most convenient for the operation of the motors.

	The tipple, power plant and loading arrangements are located in the main 
canon in which the town is situated. Both the tailrope system and a small steam 
locomotive are used in bringing the coal to the tipple, where, after being 
dumped, it is crushed, screened by both revolving and shaking screens, and 
loaded by gravity into railroad cars. The fine screenings are sold to commercial 
trade and also used for the manufacture of coke.

	A good quality of coke is made from the Cambria coal, the present coking 
plant consisting of 74 Bee Hive ovens, having a capacity of 74 tons of coke per 
day. An interesting and very unusual feature in connection with this operation 
is the occurrence of small quantities of gold and silver in the coal, which has 
been found to contain values as high as $2.00 per ton in the coal and $5.6o per 
ton in coke; an average of 31 cars of coke, on which a special test was made, 
showed returns of $2.74 per ton in gold and silver.

	The mining plant is well equipped with air compressors, of which five are 
used for operating mining machines and two for supplying the air motors and 
pumping water from the deep^ well. This well is also a remarkable feature, being 
the only place known where water is being pumped by compressed air from so great 
a depth. It is 2,345 feet deep and has a capacity of at least 325,000 gallons in 
24 hours, raised by an air pressure of 900 pounds per square inch to a 
distributing tank on the side of canon, from where the water flows by gravity to 
the reservoirs used for supplying Cambria and the town of Newcastle and the 
railroad about eight miles distant.  An electrically operated telpherage system 
is used for removing ashes from the i,8oo-horspower battery of boilers and 
keeping the latter supplied with fuel, the labor of one man being sufficient to 
do this work. Thoroughly equipped machine, blacksmith and carpenter shops enable 
the company to make all necessary repairs.

	The company has built and maintains an exceptionally neat and well ordered 
mining camp, consisting of about 150 cottages of various sizes, which are rented 
to employes at reasonable rates, and no saloons or professional gambling 
operations are allowed on any part of its large tract of land.  Consequently the 
nearest saloons are at Newcastle, 8 miles distant, and this fact is an important 
feature in establishing the excellent social status for which Cambria is noted, 
and the remarkable record that no police force has ever been Organized for 
keeping order in the community, which numbers about 1,400 souls, of all 
nationalities. The plant is not operated on Sundays, which is contrary to the 
usual practice of mining operations in the Black Hills. The employes of the 
company are so well satisfied with the uniformly fair and courteous treatment 
accorded them by the company that they do not favor the establishment of any 
labor organization at Cambria; none has ever existed there and strikes have been 
unknown, although a large percentage of the miners are members of unions at 
other places. A large new bath house was built in 1903, equipped with bath tubs, 
shower baths, individual sinks, with hot and cold water always on tap at each, 
and 250 lockers in which the miners can keep their good clothes while at work 
and change at night before returning to their homes. This bath house is 
exceptionally complete and greatly appreciated by the employes.

	The Cambria Fuel Company has a capital stock of $1,000,000.00. Mr. W. H. 
Kilpatrick is president; S. D. Kilpatrick, vice-president; R. J. Kilpatrick, 
general manager; Lewis T. Wolle, secretary-treasurer, and W. E. Mouck, 
superintendent. About 550 men are regularly employed.

THE HOMESTAKE MINING COMPANY.

Greatest Gold Mine in the World.

BY GEORGE P. BALDWIN.

From personal examination of the mine and a series of interviews with MR. T. J. 
GRIER, Superintendent.

	There is probably no gold mine in the world that has attracted such 
universal interest as the Homestake, and probably no mine of even half its size 
is so little known as to its exact location. Concisely speaking, the Homestake 
mine is situated at Lead, and while Lead has other resources, Lead in its 
population is practically the Homestake mine. As in the case of all great mining 
companies, facts and figures of the Homestake have been written of a thousand 
times and generally distorted in many ways, and I am glad to be able to give at 
last, through the courtesy of Mr. T. J. Grier, superintendent of the Homestake 
Mining Company, by a series of interviews with him and by his consent, an 
absolutely correct and unbiased account of this great mining company; also of 
the excellent conditions existing between the Homestake Mining Company and its 
army of employes.

	The Homestake Mining Company was incorporated in November, 1877, with 
$10,000,000 capital, consisting of 100,000 shares at $100 per share. At this 
time $100,000 was paid in, and afterward two assessments of $i per share were 
made, realizing $100,000 at each assessment. This made altogether $300,000 paid 
in at that time, and the assessments were made to cover the cost of the original 
property purchases and to build the "Homestake," which was the first mill 
erected. The original claim was the Homestake location of about eight acres, 
which was less than a full claim, the claims at that time being half the present 
claims, or ten and one-third acres (300x1,500 feet) ; a full claim today being 
600x1,500 feet.

	The Homestake mill originally consisted of 80 stamps and had one row of 
amalgamating plates. It was built on the Home-stake location (most of the mills 
taking the name of the lode claim on which they were built). The cost of 
transportation of this mill was at the rate of 6 cents per pound from San 
Francisco, and the total cost, including transportation, was $140,000. The mill 
started in July, 1878, the ore being taken from an open cut made on the 
Homestake claim. At that time no attempt was made to utilize the tailings, but 
one or two years later concentrates were saved on carpets, with the idea in view 
of having them treated by a smelter. As the concentrates, 20 to 1, ran only 
about $15, this was found to be impracticable. At that time there were no 
smelters in the Hills, and coke and coal had to be brought from Chicago. It cost 
variously from 2 1/4 to 3 4/10 cents per pound to bring coke and coal from 
Chicago. They had to be brought in sacks, which cost 10 cents each. Each sack 
would hold 200 pounds of anthracite or 100 pounds of coke. Thus figuring the 
cost of a ton of coal at, say,

	Three cents per pound for transportation. .... .$60
	Ten sacks ................................... I
	Original cost of coal......................... 8

A total would be found of...........$69

and in some cases where the transportation was greater, the cost far exceeded 
these figures, at that time approaching $100 per ton. It would have required, 
for the concentrates, 300 miles of wagon haul to Sidney or Cheyenne or 200 to 
Pierre, and then the cost of transportation by rail to Omaha and an additional 
expense of $16 (at that time) per ton for the treatment of the concentrates at 
the Omaha smelters. Later on, when a smelter was established at Deadwood, 
concentration of the tailings was indulged in and the concentrates were treated 
there with a net return of 50 per cent of their assay value per ton. Thus the 
returns from concentrates amounted to very little until the cyanide process was 
undertaken, and cyanide mill No. 1 started in April, 1901.

	From time to time the Homestake Mining Company has acquired adjoining 
claims until now its holdings aggregate over 2,600 acres. These purchases have 
been made in a very conservative manner, and at no time has an inordinate price 
been paid. The company has had the advantage of great wealth at its back and an 
unlimited credit on account of its conservative financial management, and thus 
acquired properties in many cases at a half or third of what would have been 
charged others who wanted time or options, or who were less well posted on the 
values of the properties.

	The first ore taken from the Homestake claim averaged a value of about $5 
per ton, and about 70 per cent of this was saved on the one row of copper plates 
then used.

	The greatest width of the vein is 500 feet and the whole of the vein goes 
to the mill. Some mines select ore, but the Homestake does not, and its recovery 
averages $3.50 per ton from the whole mass. About 40 miles of T railroad track 
runs under ground in the various tunnels, and although the mine has been running 
a quarter of a century, little or no ore has been taken from below the 800-foot 
level. The only ore taken from the 900, 1,000 and 1,100-foot levels is that 
which has been taken from the development drifts.

	The Ellison shaft is now being sunk at the rate of a foot per day. 
February 15, 1904, it was 1,250 feet deep, at which point its next level will be 
opened, while the shaft will continue downward. In addition to the Ellison 
shaft, the B. & M. is 1,100 feet deep; the Golden Star the same distance, and 
the Golden Prospect, the old Brig shaft and the Golden Gate shaft are each 800 
feet deep.

	The Ellison hoist is the wonder of the age among those interested in low-
grade propositions. It has hoisting engines with capacity for 3,000 feet; 
crusher engines with capacity for six No. 6 Gates crushers; a compressor with 
capacity for 250 drills, and another compressor for the tramway and underground 
motors. A compressed air motor, hauling 28 steel bottom-dumping cars, containing 
four tons of ore each, operates between the Ellison hoist and the mills of the 
Homestake Mining Company, over a steel bridge 100 feet high. The Ellison shaft 
has three compartments. In two of them double-decked cages are operated, each 
deck accommodating two cars, holding a ton of ore each; the third compartment 
contains man-ways, air-pipes, etc. The B. & M. shaft is also a triple 
compartment, as in the case of the Ellison, and is furnished with practically 
the same machinery as the Ellison, but on a smaller scale. The compressed air 
motor, hauling ore from the Ellison shaft to the mills, also runs around the cut 
underground to the Golden Prospect shaft, and to the B. & M. shaft as well, and 
brings their ore to the mills. The old Brig hoist delivers ore by endless wire 
rope (600 or 700 feet) to the mill. The Golden Gate delivers its ore by Robbins 
belt conveyor 250 feet to the mill. With the improved motor power and ore cars, 
the cost of hauling of ore from the various hoists to the mills has been reduced 
to less than a cent per ton.

	There are six stamp mills; two of 200 stamps each (one of which is the 
Homestake, which was increased from 80 to 200) ; one of 160; one of 140, and two 
of 100 stamps each. This totals 900 stamps, and 100 stamps are being added to 
the 140 stamp mill; thus the total number of stamps running June I, 1904, will 
be 1,000. The stamps are of the standard weight of 900 pounds each. I asked Mr. 
Grier as to the capacity of each stamp. He replied: "Each stamp crushes four 
tons and more in 24 hours." Thus the capacity is 4,000 tons per day, or 
1,460,000 tons per annum.

	In addition to the single row of amalgamating plates installed in the 
mills when they started more than a quarter of a century ago, there are now 
three additional rows, and 72 per cent of the assay value of the ore is caught 
on these four rows of plates and in the batteries on a small front plate called 
a "chuck block." The first row is simply amalgamated copper plates, but the 
other three rows are electro silver-plated copper plates, which catch a product 
that cannot be caught upon the first row.

	All precious metal ores contain a certain percentage of gold in such fine 
state of division (oftentimes called flour gold) that an ordinary amalgamated 
copper plate will catch only a small proportion. Electro silver-plated copper 
plates have been found, however, to catch a very considerable part of that which 
escapes from the first row of plates. The installation of these silvered plates 
was begun by the Homestake company ten years ago. At first one row was added to 
the mills; then another, and so on, until the company's mills were fully 
equipped with the four rows. In installing these plates, the effort was made 
(wherever space allowed) to widen the plate surface, making the second row wider 
than the first, the third wider than the second, and the fourth wider than the 
third, thus spreading out as thinly as possible the pulp from the batteries and 
giving the fine particles of gold a chance to reach the plate's surface and be 
caught. The fourth plate is about 60 per cent wider than the first.

	Many mining companies heat the water which flows into the mortars under 
the impression that better results are obtainable with warm water than with 
cold. Mr. Grier believes, however, in cold water. He says: "Nearly, if not all 
ores have a certain base element, and heat induces its oxidation. Whereas, the 
colder you keep the ore, the slower the oxidation. The oxidation of the 
sulphides covers the amalgamating plates with a film of oxide, which, although 
not thicker than a cobweb, is still thick enough to interfere seriously with the 
amalgamation of the very fine gold particles; thus the temperature should be 
that degree which produces the least oxidation of the bases of the ore."

	Mr. Grier finds the best results are given by water near the freezing or 
congealing point. While perspiration on the plates in the form of globules of 
mercury is evidence of too high a temperature, it may also occur through feeding 
too much mercury into the battery.

	There are two cyanide mills in operation, called Cyanide No. 1 and Cyanide 
No. 2. The former has a capacity of 1,250 tons per 24 hours, and this capacity 
is being increased 40 per cent by an addition to its present structure. Cyanide 
No. 2 has a capacity of 800 tons per 24 hours. Cyanide No. 1 (which was the 
first erected) returned in less than two years in profits the amount of money 
invested. The cost of treatment is 25 cents per ton.

	Mr. C. W. Merrill, a cyanide man of great reputation, who came from 
California to take charge of the cyaniding of the Homestead Mining Company's 
mill tailings, has full charge of these mills. He is here under contract of five 
years, three of which have expired, and he receives a percentage of the net 
profits. In other words, of the difference between the value of the production 
obtained and the cost of its production.

	To the question as to whether or not they treat refractory high-grade ore 
in the same way as the low grade, Mr. Grier said: "Yes, all the silicious ore, 
whether running $5 per ton or $50 per ton, is treated in the same way."

	Returning to the Ellison hoist, it may be well to say that, although the 
shaft at this hoist was started in 1895, it has only just reached its full 
benefit capacity. The cost has been about $500,000, with its equipment as at 
present. It is doubtful if the original projectors of the Homestake Mining 
Company, Messrs. Haggin and Hearst, even faintly realized what a great 
proposition this was to become, but as time and work developed, an increase from 
the original $10,000,000 capital was deemed advisable. When the Giant and Old 
Abe properties on the east side of and adjoining the Home-stake were acquired, 
the capital was increased 25,000 shares, or $2,500,000; and later an increase to 
the total present capitalization of $21,840,000 was made for the acquirement of 
other properties, the building of a railway and for an additional water supply.

	The railway, called the Black Hills & Fort Pierre railway, was started in 
1880, in which year ten miles were built from Lead. It was afterward extended 
year by year to Piedmont-38 miles-and a branch to Nemo twelve miles long. This 
railroad was originally intended to haul cord-wood and mining timbers to the 
mines, and in excellent condition for future use, was sold to the C., B. & Q. 
railway in 1901.

	The Spearfish water system cost in round numbers $1,000,000. It takes 
water from the head of Spearfish creek through nine miles of 28-inch (inside 
diameter) vitrified pipe to the pumping works on the cast fork of the Spearfish 
creek, where the water is elevated 400 feet by the pumping station, which has a 
capacity at maximum speed of 4,500 gallons per minute. After being elevated, it 
comes by gravity through four miles of the same diameter of vitrified pipes and 
enters into the head of Whitewood creek; the water then flows in the natural 
creek channel for four miles, after which it enters into wooden boxes and comes 
by flume the balance of the distance (four miles) to Lead City.

	The Homestake Mining Company produces its own gold bars in its own assay 
office located at Lead. The bars are shipped direct to the company's financial 
agent in New York, where they are converted into coin. The government charges 
are quite an item on such an output. The total production of gold of the 
Homestake Mining Company to January 1, 1904, was about $75,000,000, and the 
dividends declared have reached the enormous sum of nearly $20,000,000. It must 
be understood that this is a low-grade mine, the safest possible proposition. On 
a production of $75,000,000 in a high-grade ore, dividends would, of course, be 
much larger, but this is distinctly a manufacturing proposition, calling for 
large investments in plant (buildings, machinery and labor), and the labor 
contributing to such an enterprise reaps a greater percentage of its results 
than does the capital itself.

	About three years ago, realizing the lessening supply in the future of 
timbers for the mine, a method was adopted of refilling the slopes after the 
extraction of the ore. This is done with waste from above, mainly from porphory 
caps. Already a great saving in cost of labor and timber has been made, and this 
method recommends itself to experts from the fact that, once refilled with 
waste, these openings become practically as full of resistance as the original 
ore body to the pressure from above. Whereas, the resisting power of timber is 
completed with its life, which is only a matter of a few years.

	The amount of dynamite used by the Homestake Company is an interesting 
factor.   The consumption is about 1,250,000 pounds, of 40 per cent strength per 
annum, costing about 12 cents per pound, or $150,000.

	The pumping engine (steam actuated) on the 1,100-foot level at the Golden 
Star shaft is capable of raising to the surface at one lift, at maximum speed, 
550 gallons per minute.  Certain novel methods of ventilation keep the air pure 
and pleasant in the engine room at this depth. The Cornish pump also, on the 
1,100-foot level, but at the B. & M. shaft, has a capacity of 40 gallons per 
stroke, and while it may be run to ten strokes per minute, conditions do not 
require greater speed than five or six. Thus the mine is equipped with pumping 
facilities in duplicate, each capable of keeping it free from water.

	Three Ajax drill sharpening machines, one on the surface, one on the 800-
foot level and one on the 600-foot level, provide for the entire mine. Each one 
of the machines, in the hands of two men on a ten-hour shift, has a capacity of 
600 drills; this is an immense saving in labor. On the 600-foot level, a large 
blacksmith shop is maintained, where repairs of all kinds are made.  Pipe-
fitting is also done on this level, and every possible economy is used in these 
directions to overcome the necessity of handling tools and materials of all 
sorts through the shafts.

	Mr. Grier states that at least twenty years of ore is at present blocked 
out. That means that at its present capacity, the ore in sight, ready to be 
broken down, will last for twenty years.

	Something over 1,000,000 tons of ore are mined ahead and on hand, thus 
keeping at all times a year's supply ahead of the mills.

	Mr. Grier also states that the veins at deepest workings hold the same 
width as at the surface. In reply to my question as to how low-grade an ore he 
believes could be treated in the future by the new methods, which are constantly 
decreasing the cost of treatment, he replied in this way: "We are treating sands 
for 25 cents per ton, but that means sands already mined and crushed. The same 
number of men that can run a loo-stamp mill can run a 200-stamp mill, and the 
principal additional cost is that of coal. Even with drillers, the cost of labor 
in large ore bodies is greatly reduced, because a man can break much more on a 
large face than on a small one. The same holes drilled, the same amount of 
powder and labor will break twice as much from a big face as from a small one." 
"How much per ton does it cost you to mine and mill?" I asked. Mr. Grier 
replied:

	"The full amount per month drawn from the treasury, divided by the tonnage 
of ore milled, is what it costs the Homestead Mining Company to mine and mill, 
per ton. Many companies make statements of cost of ore production based upon the 
bare cost of mining and milling, and do not add general expenses, additions of 
machinery, cost of buildings, etc. Our policy is to let each month count for 
itself, and not deceive ourselves or others by false visions. As we add to our 
general plant, the economies thereby created will reduce the cost of the 
manufacture of our gold; and rather than deceive ourselves, we prefer to let the 
future speak for itself."

	"Why do you use the entire breakdown?" I asked. Mr. Grier replied: "There 
is no mine where the values in the vein are equally distributed. We find a low-
grade place and break it down because the history of our mine tells us that a 
richer place beyond may be confidently looked for.  Once broken, the low-grade 
ore lies on the floor; what are you going to do with it? You have to remove it; 
it costs no more to take it to the shaft than to throw it away. Therefore, the 
only additional cost is about 5 cents for hoisting, 5 cents for primary 
crushing, and i cent for transportation to the mill and 35 cents for milling; so 
that if it will yield over 46 cents it is worth sending to the mill. In other 
words, we will suppose the ore to have a value of $i per ton; we recover from 
this 72 per cent in the stamp mill; 46 cents cost leaves 26 cents profit; then 
why waste it or dump it in an old stope? If it is worth only 80 cents per ton, 
it would yield in the mill 57.6 cents and still leave 11.6 cents, or a good 
manufacturing profit. If we wished to utilize only rich streaks, I am afraid our 
mine would soon become honeycombed, its physical condition sadly impaired, and 
its term of life shortened. Whereas, it is impossible under our methods, with 
our present economies and those to come, to see anything but substantial monthly 
profits and longevity."

UNDERGROUND FIRE PROTECTION.

	Probably no mine in the world has better facilities for fighting an 
underground fire than the Homestake. In order to fully appreciate and understand 
the conditions that obtain there, it is only necessary to say that the vast 
network of pipes which extend all about the mine and through which compressed 
air is furnished to the machines used for drilling, are connected with a 
concrete reservoir holding one and a third million gallons of water and situated 
on the surface, so that in a twinkling of an eye the compressed air can be 
turned from the pipes and the water turned into them. In order to provide 
against a general bursting of the pipes at such depths as would call upon them 
to sustain water pressure beyond their capacity, should the water at the surface 
be turned on suddenly, the water is taken from the surface to the bottom in 400-
foot sections. A tank at the bottom of each section is provided with an 
automatic valve, operated by a float, and draws its supply from the tank 400 
feet above it. Hose, hydrants, standpipes and couplings are located at 
convenient points, ready for an emergency.

	The first superintendent of the Homestake mine was Samuel McMaster, who 
came to Lead from California in the spring of 1878. Mr. McMaster died in 1884, 
and was succeeded by Mr. T. J. Grier, who had been associated with the Homestake 
company, in charge of the office, since 1878, having previous to that time had 
charge of the operating room of the Western Union Telegraph Company at Salt Lake 
City. Mr. Grier was born at Pakenham, Canada. He is conservative in his 
treatment of the company's affairs, and this conservatism has been the means of 
saving the company a great deal of unnecessary expense. With this conservatism, 
he combines a liberality and sense of justice to such an extent that I have 
never heard in the Black Hills any but good words for him. His position is a 
difficult one; not only on account of the vast interests, details of which have 
to be constantly before him, but because of the gnawing and vexatious personal 
elements which have to be overcome in every large mining community where a 
mining company, no matter how great its beneficiaries and desire of justice, is 
constantly harrassed by unwarranted claims. But withal, Mr. Grier carries the 
same quiet and imperturbable dignity and the same justice, and he is as 
accessible to the miner working underground as to the wealthiest capitalist of 
the city.

	It is well known that the Homestake Mining Company has enjoyed a more 
perfect understanding with its army of employes than any other mining company in 
existence. The semblance of a strike has never even been thought of. This seems 
strange when



one contemplates the conditions at Butte and in the camps of Colorado, from the 
fact that 1,100 of the 2,500 operatives of the Homestake Mining Company are 
members of the Western Federation of Miners; but the opinion prevails in the 
Black Hills that if agitators were sent from headquarters to Lead with any 
ulterior motives in view, they would be promptly escorted by the miners 
themselves to the limits of the town-site and turned loose, with preemptory 
advice not to return. The miners at Lead enjoy free rental conditions of land 
for homes, which are not obtained in any other mining camp in the world. Mr. 
Grier consented to give me a thorough statement of these conditions and the 
reader may judge for himself of the results.

	The first comers in Lead did what is done in most mining camps in what is 
now the heart of the town. They located as lode claims and many of them combined 
together to lay out a small town-site. At that time, however, no application was 
made to the government for a town-site patent. Soon after these locations were 
made, the existence of large bodies of low-grade free-milling ore was reported 
to Mr. Hearst and Mr. Haggin, both California millionaires, and they immediately 
sent into the Hills an expert to examine the district. His orders were that if 
he found anything in the way of mines, which in his judgment had future 
possibilities of profit, to bond them with a view of buying. His reports, after 
examination, were so favorable that Mr. Hearst in 1877 came to the Hills and, 
being satisfied with the outlook, commenced immediately to buy such lode claims 
as were to be had at prices that, in his judgment, he could afford, commencing 
with the Homestake lode location.

	The incorporation of the Homestake Mining Company followed immediately, 
but upon application being made to the United States for United States patents 
to the lode claim by the Homestake Mining Company, some of the parties from whom 
the mining company bought interests in the mining claims, and others who were 
occupying the surface in whole or in part in what constituted the little town-
site that had been laid out by them, fearful that they might be required to 
vacate the mining surface by the Homestake Mining Company, if patents were 
obtained, found themselves also applying for a patent to the surface. Thus arose 
a conflict between the mineral claimants and the town-site claimants which was 
not settled (neither party getting a patent) until an arrangement was made and 
entered into between the mineral claimants on the one side and the town-site 
claimants on the other, which agreement was made in the year 1892. Under this 
agreement, which was satisfactory to the General Land Office in Washington, 
patents were issued to the mineral claimants, who gave the surface occupants a 
contract that they should not be disturbed in the surface occupancy of the land 
unless it became necessary to undermine their surface improvements, conducting 
the mining operations in good faith; and in the event of such a necessity, the 
surface occupant should have a sufficient length of time-not less than 90 days-
in which to remove his surface improvements. The same provisions apply to the 
streets and alleys, and the whole area coming under these provisions was 
surveyed and platted by George S. Hopkins, surveyor, and is known as the Hopkins 
survey of the Lead City town-site. The substantial improvements and growth of 
the town date from this agreement. The town-site claimants, in the small area 
circled by the Homestake, were in most cases granted titles to their properties.

	The limits of the city of Lead extend in all directions, far beyond the 
exterior boundaries of the area platted by Hopkins, and are, for the main part, 
on patented lode claims belonging to the Homestake Mining Company. Much of this 
area is occupied also by the employes of the great mine under a permit issued by 
the mining company, which allows the occupant the free use of the ground until 
such time as the company may need it in the conduct of its mining operations.

	The taxes on the land are paid by the mining company, and the taxes on 
improvements by the owner of the improvements. Sewerage is paid for by the 
municipality, and the pavements in business streets by the abutting property 
owners. The Homestake Mining Company has encouraged the building of homes by its 
operatives and greatly prefers seeing every one of them living in his own home. 
As long as there are lots to give they will get them. Where the company bought 
land with residences upon it, it allowed the occupants to remain. You can 
imagine, with a monthly payroll of $190,000, as was averaged in 1903 among 2,500 
operatives, that a city of beautiful homes would be built under these 
conditions, and such has been the fact. There are cases where an operative has 
to leave Lead for other climates on account, perhaps, of the effect of the 
altitude (a mile above the sea) upon the health of his wife. In such cases of 
necessity he is allowed to sell his home and the right of land occupancy, which 
latter is transferable through the permission of the Homestake; or he may lease 
the home with the same permission. This qualification is distributed with 
perfect justice, but is a good provision against the entry of a horde of 
agitators who might seek to entrench themselves. In this way a city has been 
built up, as Mr. Grier says, "of responsible, decent people, who are bread-
winners, and not loafers."

	The peace and dignity of the town are left to the mayor and aldermen. Of 
course, the Homestake Mining Company could, in the votes of its employes, if 
necessary, guide the selection of the city's officers to a great extent, but 
this has never been found necessary. The policy of the company is to let people 
think for themselves, feeling assured that they will always exercise good 
judgment in the contemplation of the future of their homes, themselves and their 
families and their pride in the city which they have built up. It has never been 
found necessary to disturb the occupants of a single home.

	The Homestake Hospital is an institution deserving special note. It is 
owned by the Homestake Mining Company, which materially assists in its 
maintenance. Each employe of the Homestake mine pays $1.10 per month for its 
advantages, which consist of hospital treatment in the hospital, or physician's 
treatment at home for an employe and his entire family; also for medicines and 
board while at the hospital. There is a general ward and a number of private 
rooms for both sexes. Drs. D. K. Dickinson and J. W. Freeman are in charge, and 
are assisted by other physicians and as many nurses as may be at any time 
required.

	Mrs. Phoebe Hearst maintains from her private purse a public library, 
called the Hearst Free Library. This was established in 1894, and occupies rooms 
on the second floor of the Hearst Mercantile Company, which is a large 
department store owned by Mrs. Hearst. In the library are 8,000 volumes and 100 
periodicals are maintained, consisting of dailies, weeklies and monthlies.

	The Hearst Free Kindergarten is another of Mrs. Hearst's beneficiaries and 
is maintained entirely from her private purse. It is free to all children from 
three to six years of age, and is open from April to December inclusive.   About 
150 children attend The rooms for the kindergarten are located in the basement 
of the Episcopal church, and Mrs. Hearst pays the church a monthly rent for the 
same. A matron and four teachers are in charge, and a man is in attendance to 
look after the heavy work and attend to the beautiful surrounding garden. Mrs. 
Hearst gives the use of the rooms one afternoon of the week to the Mothers' 
Union, and their well-attended meetings are held to exchange opinions on matters 
connected with maternity, the care of children and for lectures from physicians 
and others upon the same subjects.

	The Homestake Hotel is the property of the Hearst Mercantile Company, and 
is occupied mainly by operatives of the mine. Some rooms, however, are reserved 
for transients. There are 54 rooms in all, and the hotel is exquisitely kept and 
managed by John A. Blatt, one of the most popular men of Lead, and the vice-
president of the Black Hills Mining Men's Association.

LAWRENCE COUNTY MINING.

	Lawrence county is known to the world principally as the home of the 
Homestake mine. People have assumed that the only mine in the Black Hills is the 
Homestake. This mine, the greatest on earth, has done much to advertise the 
country, but there are a dozen other mines that to-day bid fair in time to equal 
the Homestake. The Golden Reward, a mine of not half the age of the Homestake, 
has produced $18,000,000 in gold. It is probably the largest holder of mining 
property in the Bald Mountain district, and has two big reduction works at 
Deadwood-a 500-ton matte smelter and a 200-ton cyanide mill. A second cyanide 
plant is contemplated by this company, to be built in proximity to the mines, 
thus saving a railroad haul. The Horseshoe, adjoining the Golden Reward, has a 
500-ton cyanide mill (the largest in the Black Hills) at Terry, and, though it 
can hardly as yet be classed as a second Homestake, ranks to-day third on the 
list of gold producers. The financial difficulties of the Horseshoe are well 
known to the public. It proved once again that speculating in stocks of 
unfinanced mining companies is a dangerous business, and that, coupled with 
mismanagement, caused the temporary setback. The Penobscot, only a year old, is 
one of the healthiest youngsters in the Hills. Its cyanide mill at Maitland 
treats 115 tons of ore a day, and about twenty-five tons are shipped to smelters 
daily in addition. The Spearfish, Imperial, Clover Leaf, Columbus, Hidden 
Fortune, Wasp No. 2, all are great mines, and all are in Lawrence county.


[Photo - SOME WELL-KNOWN PROPERTIES, WITH ETHEL TUNNEL OF THE HIDDEN TREASURE ON 
THE RIGHT.]


	Deadwood is the county seat of Lawrence county, the location of the United 
States Assay Office and six reduction works. The United Staets Assay Office is a 
branch of the United States Mint. Previous to its establishment, some seven 
years ago, it was customary to ship bullion by express to Philadelphia, 
subjecting the owner to considerable delay before settlement was made, but now, 
as soon as the value is determined, a check is given in payment. No metal is 
received containing less than fifty per cent gold. The reduction works in lower 
Deadwood constitute the largest milling community of the Hills aside from the 
Homestake plants. There are the mills of the following companies here: Imperial 
(dry crushing cyanide) 200 tons' capacity, Dakota (wet crushing cyanide) 120 
tons, Golden Reward (dry crushing cyanide) 200 tons, Golden Reward (matte 
smelter) 500 tons, Rossiter (dry crushing cyanide) 80 tons, Glass & Co. 
(tailings cyanide) 75 tons. Two miles below Deadwood is the 300-ton wet crushing 
cyanide mill of the Hidden Fortune, and which is strictly tributary to Deadwood, 
the nearest city. Deadwood is a desirable location for these plants, as it has 
the advantage of two trunk lines of railroad, furnishing transportation of fuel 
and other supplies to them at minimum cost, and two lines of narrow gauge 
railroad penetrating the mining districts of Bald Mountain, Ruby Basin and Crown 
Hill, six to ten miles away, with a down hill haul all the way from mine to 
mill.

	Lawrence county is the largest producing mining county of the Black Hills, 
and with the new mills under construction and contemplated for the present year, 
will show a great growth this year. The assessed valuation of Lawrence county is 
greater than any other county in South Dakota, and contains the second largest 
city in the state, Lead. Each mining district of the county in its turn will be 
treated in a cursory manner in the following pages, and some of the larger mines 
given special mention, with illustrations, as object lessons.

RAGGED TOP.

	The first mining was done at Ragged Top in the year 1886, the date of the 
discovery of galena ores at Carbonate Camp. Practically the same formation is 
exhibited at the two camps, and they are but about four miles apart. Some little 
work was done by A. J. Smith and associates, but, as they found no galena, 
suspended operations. Then some nine years later, in the spring of 1896, Wall, 
Rouse, Murray & Madill located the Balmoral group and started development work. 
Immense boulders were found which upon assays gave returns of anywhere from $200 
to $378 per ton from the first three samples. In July these men made the first 
shipment of ore to the smelters, and for a year the camp boomed as only a 
Western mining settlement can. The ores were immensely rich, and, lying right on 
the surface of the ground, easy to mine, and close to the railroad at Crown 
Hill, many fortunes were made. The ores were found to come from verticals in the 
limestone, and attention was immediately turned to following them down. They 
were varying in size, pinching and swelling, lean here and rich there, but still 
it was strictly a poor man's camp. During the year $250,000 was produced from 
the Balmoral (credited with $60,000), the Ulster, the Little Bud, the Dacy, The 
Starner, and the McPherson and Gray ground. The American Mining Company, owner 
of the Dacy group, sunk a shaft 500 feet, following an ore vertical all the way. 
From the bottom a diamond drill was run down 500 feet more. The idea was to 
learn what was on the underlying quartzite. Good ore was found there, and the 
company went down in Spearfish canyon, sunk a shaft to quartzite, and drifted 
under the mountain toward Ragged Top. Almost $200,000 was spent in this 
undertaking, and the work was suspended without reaching the objective point 
where the ore deposits were believed to exist. Thus nothing has been done since 
tending to open the ores on quartzite at this camp, but when that formation 
shall have been fully exploited, together with the opening of the horizontal 
deposit in the upper lime cut by the vertical in the Balmoral shaft, and which 
discloses its identity at other points, the camp will be one of the greatest in 
the Hills.

	Late in 1902 the Spearfish Gold Mining and Reduction Company put in 
commission a 250-ton cyanide mill to work large low grade bodies of ore at 
Ragged Top. The company since then has paid $90,000 (to January l) in dividends. 
Its success led the Dead-wood Standard Gold Mining Company to build a mill on 
similar plans, and this company had paid $6,000 in dividends to January i, 1904. 
The Potsdam, Victoria and Eleventh Hour mines all contemplate erecting mills 
this year, and it is likely that other plants will be constructed as well.

BALD MOUNTAIN AND RUBY BASIN.

	These two sections are virtually the center of production from the 
siliceous ore deposits of the Cambrian formations. It is here that such 
companies as the Golden Reward, Imperial and Horseshoe are operating. As early 
as 1879 gold was known to exist in the vicinity, but it was not until matte 
smelting was introduced that the ores were successfully treated at home. Prior 
to that time some ore was shipped to the smelters in the East, the 
transportation involving first a haul of a hundred miles or so by ox teams, then 
five hundred or more miles by rail, and finally burdened with excessive smelter 
charges. Hundred-dollar ore was made to pay, but the production greatly limited. 
With the innovation of the new processes in the early nineties a new era of 
prosperity dawned for the Black Hills. A successful method of treatment had been 
discovered for the siliceous ores, and the mines of Bald Mountain and Ruby Basin 
exchanged ownership at greater prices. Since then the mines have been constantly 
worked and the production increased year by year. A new mill is contemplated for 
this year at the Reliance mines, near Portland. Lundberg, Dorr & Wilson 
completed a mill and put it in commission during January at Terry, for handling 
the ores from the Big Bonanza and Buxton mines, the big Horseshoe mill of 500 
tons' capacity was finished last summer, and the Dakota company intends removing 
its cyanide mill from Terry to the mines at Portland.

MAITLAND.

	This camp is on the eastern end of the present known siliceous ore belt. 
It is the scene of great activity, the Penobscot Mining Company having completed 
a forty-stamp mill there last year, and having opened up a most valuable 
property, giving stimulus to mining in the vicinity. Several companies are 
busily engaged in developing their holdings and a typical growing mining camp 
has sprung up. The ores are similar to those of Bald Mountain, in the Cambrian, 
so, while at various points big veins of the Homestake belt are disclosed in the 
slates, the present developments indicate a most prosperous future for the camp, 
since exploitations are proving up large ore bodies in numerous mines.

THE HOMESTAKE BELT.

	Properly speaking, the Homestake belt is all of the territory along the 
strike or course of the big lodes opened at Lead City. At that place the belt is 
fully a mile wide, as elsewhere explained, and among the important producing 
companies operating along it might be mentioned the Columbus, at Central City; 
the Penobscot, at Maitland; the Hidden Fortune, at Lead; the Clover Leaf, at 
Roubaix; the Imperial, Sheeptail Gulch; Wasp No. 2, Yellow Creek. Among the 
prominent companies developing mines on this great vein system, but which have 
not yet reached the mill building and producing stage, are the Oro Hondo, south 
of Lead City; the Echo, Gold Eagle, Gold Stake, Beltram and Maitland-Keystone, 
at Maitland; the Anaconda, Transvaal, Tomahawk, Lucky Strike, Safe Investment, 
Homestake Belt and Myrtle, at Roubaix; the Globe, Rex and Dolphin & Comstock, at 
and near Lead City.

	The Homestake belt is practically a mineral empire in itself. The great 
vein system can be traced for two score miles. At various points there is pay 
ore in the fissures, but not at all points. The ore lays in shoots, with blank 
portions between. It takes money and judicious development to open up a paying 
mine. The Home-stake mine itself is spotted to a certain degree. Some of the ore 
from the veins is not worth a dollar a ton, while some stringers are plentifully 
sprinkled with free gold. Because a mine is on the strike of the Homestake does 
not necessarily make it invaluable. The veins have lean portions. And even 
though the ore is in a large body and assays as high as the Homestake ore, it 
does not follow that the mine will be the success that the Homestake is. Certain 
physical conditions must be considered. What is the facility for securing fuel? 
Where can water for milling be gotten? Does the company own timber for mining 
purposes? Are there satisfactory sites on the ground for the erection of a mill? 
And last, but the greatest consideration of all, is the management reliable, 
conscientious and conservative? This paragraph is not intended as a depreciation 
of mines along the Homestake belt, but to show certain factors determining the 
future possibilities of properties thus situated. The same might be said of all 
mines near or on the strike of ore bodies of meritorious properties, though the 
fact that the mine is on the strike of veins of renown adds a probability to the 
future possibilities of the mine in question. In other words, in every case, 
aside from theories, probabilities and possibilities, nothing short of pay ore 
on the ground will make a mine.

THE PHONOLITE BELT.

	Certain sections of Lawrence county, notably Squaw creek, upper Deadwood 
gulch and False Bottom creek, contain heavy dikes of phonolitic rocks cutting 
through dikes of porphyry, etc. In many cases on the contact between the two 
rocks and in the phonolite itself high grade ore is found. In these ores the 
gold occurs in sylvanite and pyrite in small veins. The developments are at no 
point as yet extensive enough to determine great depth or especially large 
values, though several companies are expending large sums in exploiting the ore 
bodies, and all have good prospects of ultimate success.

WESTERN LAWRENCE COUNTY.

	This is a section to which a good deal of attention has been directed in 
the past two years, with the result of opening up large bodies of tin and gold 
ore. The section described extends across the state line into Wyoming, and is 
much like the central portion of the Black Hills proper. In other words, the 
Algonkian rocks form the core, around which on every side lie the Cambrian and 
carboniferous formations. The tin ores occur in immense veins of pegmatic 
extending long distances. The gold occurs in placers in the numerous gulches and 
streams heading near Nigger Hill and in veins in the slates, in the Cambrian and 
carboniferous.

	The country is lacking in transportation facilities, but is well dowered 
in mineral wealth, and railroads are always sure to follow where gold leads. 
Near Nigger Hill were made the first discoveries of placer gold in the Northern 
Black Hills, but up to the present time no great amount of attention has been 
paid to the veins. The several companies operating in the district now state 
that they will soon be ready to equip mines with large reduction plants, and the 
era of production, it is promised, will commence within two years. That the 
country will be a favorite for investment must only be seen to be appreciated.

TRANSPORTATION.

	Two trunk lines of railroad furnish transportation for Lawrence county. 
The B. & M. R. R., entering the Black Hills at Minnekahta, comes through some 
eighty miles of the ruggedest portions of the mountains, terminating at Deadwood 
with the broad gauge line, but extending to Spearfish with a branch, and to Bald 
Mountain and Ruby Basin with narrow gauge lines, patronized chiefly by mining 
companies shipping ores to reduction plants at Deadwood, Rapid City, Terry and 
outside of the Black Hills.

	The C. & N. W. Ry. really enters the Black Hills proper at a point between 
Whitewood and Deadwood, skirting along the foothills for a hundred miles and 
deriving trade from the country tributary to such towns as Rapid City, Sturgis, 
Whitewood, Belle Fourche, etc. From Deadwood a narrow gauge extends to Bald 
Mountain to the mines, and from Whitewood to Belle Fourche a branch penetrates a 
rich agricultural and cattle section.

	Between Deadwood and Lead the Burlington operates a trolley system, with 
cars every forty minutes, and the Northwestern a narrow gauge passenger train 
every hour.

	A great deal of hauling is done in Lawrence county by teams, as in many 
cases mines and mills are at some distance from railroads. Carbonate Camp, 
Maitland and Ragged Top might be mentioned as furnishing employment to teams in 
the delivery of coal and other mining supplies and machinery. A photograph shows 
the difficulties sometimes encountered in delivering heavy pieces of machinery 
to mining companies. In the photo a heavy boiler is shown loaded on one of John 
Feldhausen's trucks, with heavy horses attached. The boiler was for the Big Four 
Mining Company, and was hauled to the mine from Deadwood, five miles.

THE IMPERIAL GOLD MINING COMPANY.

	The Imperial Gold Mining Company is one of the oldest and largest of the 
substantial mining companies of the Black Hills treating their ores by the 
cyanide process. It ranks in output and in the extent of its acreage along with 
the Golden Reward and other of the larger producing companies. Its reduction 
plant is located in the first ward, Deadwood, and is capable of handling a 
maximum of 200 tons of ore per day.

PROPERTIES ACQUIRED.

	It has property in Blacktail gulch, the Bald Mountain district, and Ruby 
Basin, and owns a large tract of mineral land on Beaver Creek which is covered 
with a fine growth of timber.

	The company was originally organized to work the American Express group of 
claims in Blacktail, a valuable piece of mining property situated on the north 
extension of the Homestake ore belt, and which contains also large bodies of 
siliceous ore, well adapted to the cyanide process.

	The company has since acquired an extensive acreage in this section, 
situated in the very heart of the Blacktail district. Later the company acquired 
the Eagle Chief lode, near Crown Hill, the Juno lode and other adjoining claims. 
In Ruby Basin the company has obtained a large supply of ore from the Bertha 
Fraction.

ITS POLICY.

	The policy of the company has been aggressive, though conservative. New 
properties have been purchased from time to time and it now owns extensive 
tracts of valuable mineral lands in all of the different camps. The Bertha 
property was purchased after it was supposed to have been worked out. The 
company has taken nearly $100,000 from this one piece of land alone, and large 
bodies of ore still remain.

	It also owns the Lackawanna Fraction and other property in the vicinity of 
Portland.

THE IMPERIAL MILL.

	The company's mill is what is known as a dry crushing cyanide mill. It is 
built on level ground rather than on a hillside, and in this respect differs 
from all of the other mills in the Black Hills. It consists of a number of 
buildings, each designed for a particular department of the work; power plant, 
crushing department, fine rolls, drying and solution department; and the ore 
after being crushed and dried is conveyed to the solution tanks by means of belt 
conveyors.

RAILWAY FACILITIES.

	The company owns a valuable tract of land in the first ward, Deadwood, 
where its plant is located, its mill site being one of the very best, both the 
Burlington and Northwestern railroads having spurs built into the plant.

	John T. Milliken, formerly of Florence, Colo., has been in charge of the 
mill, and is now mill superintendent.

FINANCIAL STRENGTH.

	The company is strong financially, numbering among its stockholders some 
of the wealthiest men of Pennsylvania. It was organized chiefly through the 
efforts of W. S. Elder of Deadwood, who succeeded in interesting W. W. and R. S. 
Jamison, of the Jamison Coal & Coke Company ot Greensburg, Pa., in the 
proposition. Later on Hon. J. S. Beacom of Greensburg, and A. J. Cochran, a 
large and wealthy coal operator of Dawson, Pa., became interested. Since that 
time other prominent capitalists of Pennsylvania -M. J. Galiup of Mt. Jewett, W. 
P. Weston, Joshua Davis, F. M. Brooder and Mark Hirsch of Kane, and A. J. 
Thompson of Titusville-have become interested.

	The company is capitalized for $1,250,000, in shares of $l each, under 
laws of South Dakota.

	The present board of directors consists of James S. Beacom, Greensburg, 
Pa.; A. J. Cochran, Greensburg, Pa.; W. S. Elder, Deadwood, S. D.; M. J. Gallup, 
Mt. Jewett, Pa.; Mark Hirsch, Kane, Pa., and R. S. Jamison and W. W. Jamison of 
Greensburg, Pa. The officers are as follows :

	W. S. Elder, Deadwood, S. D., president. 
	W. W. Jamison, Greensburg, Pa., vice-president. 
	R. S. Jamison, Deadwood, S. D., treasurer and secretary.

	Editor's notes: Since the writing of this description it is learned that 
the Imperial Company has added to its already large holdings by the purchase of 
the McGovern property at Portland, a large and valuable tract of land embracing 
about one hundred acres. This property, which is situated in the heart of the 
Bald Mountain district, is one of the best known and best thought of properties 
in that locality. Mr. Elder has great confidence in this district, and Mr. Elder 
is a man of brains; in fact, in this connection it behooves me to tell a few 
facts about this gentleman. Mr. Elder is one of the most prominent attorneys of 
the Black Hills and has a high reputation for sagacity and good judgment. His 
treatment of the Imperial property has been able and conservative; the mill of 
this company has experimented with various classes of ore from as many mines, 
and much custom work has been done for other mines, until at last it may be said 
that no mill of the Hills is better equipped for economic handling of ores.

	Meantime, outside of his large law practice and mining interests, Mr. 
Elder has made time to donate much work in the city council to pure politics and 
Deadwood's welfare, and to no other man in the Hills can more credit be given 
for the present force and standing of the Black Hills Mining Men's Association, 
in whose interests he was untiring, as its former secretary, in welding the best 
element of the Hills together for the promotion of honest mining.

GOLDEN EMPIRE MINING COMPANY.

	Nigger Hill district is a section in the western part of the Black Hills 
which derives its name from a mountain that rears its head some 6,400 feet above 
the level of the sea, and whose top is high above the surrounding peaks of the 
rugged neighborhood.  The steep slopes of Nigger Hill form the heads of various 
gulches- Bear, Mallory, Sand and Beaver creeks-from which hundreds of thousands 
of dollars in placer gold have been taken. Nigger Hill was so called from a band 
of negroes who owned an immensely rich placer claim from which they took a 
fortune during the summer of 1876. Their reputation was of such a character that 
it deserved commemoration, and so the mountain was named. Others than the 
negroes owned valuable claims near Nigger Hill, and in the course of twenty-
seven years three-quarters of a million dollars have been taken from them. In 
these gulches and canyons under the friendly shadow of Nigger Hill the first 
placer gold was discovered in the Northern Black Hills in the summer of 1876, 
and a veritable stampede was made to the neighborhood. The little town of 
Welcome was built on the banks of Sand creek, and the section received great 
notoriety. When the richer claims were believed to be about worked out, one by 
one the hardy pioneers left the locality, save a few who believed that they 
could find the great veins from which the placer gold had come.

	Over a year ago a Colorado financier was reported to be buying all the 
property available in the district, and it was noised around that the old and 
almost forgotten section was about to be revived. And the rumor proved to be 
true. The man was Henry J. Mayham, and when he laid bare his plans to the public 
gaze, it was found that he had secured some 10,000 acres of ground-a tract 
approximately four miles long and six miles wide. He also said that he had 
organized the Golden Empire Mining Company, and invited people to come and see 
the property. The very immensity of the proposition was dazzling in itself, but 
the statements that he made as to its possibilities were if anything more so. He 
said that with electrical machinery he could handle at a profit the gulches with 
their placer gold and make money on the operation of the old deposits which had 
been crudely worked, and upon the new deposits which were too low grade to work 
by hand. He said that the two machines which he proposed to buy would cost 
$150,000, and that he wanted capitalists to help him in the enterprise. He said 
that besides the gold there was stream tin in the placers, and that it was of 
sufficient value to make it of considerable importance. He said, too, that he 
had the veins from which these deposits of gold and tin in the placer had 
originated, and that he wanted money to help him develop them.

	So capitalists went out to the Nigger Hill district, interested in the 
wonderful stories of the richness of its mineral deposits as told by this man 
who had the courage to attempt to develop thousands of acres. They were 
satisfied with what they saw, and the money was forthcoming. It is now being 
spent in the development of the company's five great propositions, namely:

	First-Vertical veins in the slates. On the Eureka and other claims they 
have been proven to be over 300 feet wide, while the experience in all sections 
of the Black Hills is that they continue almost indefinitely toward the center 
of the earth-at the Home-stake and Holy Terror mines they have been explored 
1,200 feet deep. On the Eureka claim a hoisting plant is being limit, and the 
shaft is being sunk 500 feet.

	Second-Siliceous ore in the horizontal Cambrian formation. On Mineral Hill 
and other eminences these deposits overlie the vertical veins in the slates. The 
ores are most easily treated by the cyanide process-the method almost 
universally in vogue in the Black Hills.

	Mr. Mayham's policy, as usual, is to do a great deal of development work 
on this class of ore and get the deposits well opened up before the mill 
building stage-an excellent and wise method.

	Third-Virgin placer ground. The Beaver creek placer, consisting of 356 
acres, is an example of this character of deposit owned by the Golden Empire 
company. It is on this placer that one of the electric dredges will be 
installed. The claim contains millions of cubic yards of gravel that will pay 
handsomely to work by the machines.

	One of the illustrations opposite gives an excellent idea of the panning 
of gravel of these placer deposits of The Golden Empire. In this case, however, 
the methods are those ordinarily used by the placer miner of the past instead of 
the wholesale mechanical operations to which we refer above.

	Fourth-Conglomerate deposits. These are ancient placers, made centuries 
and centuries ago, and which have lain so long that they have become cemented 
together. To obtain the gold from them a stamp mill is required. What is called 
Cement Hill is a deposit of this ore four miles in length, owned by the company.

	Fifth-Tin, in the placers and in the veins. The placer tin has been 
mentioned before, and the veins are of great importance. The Spearfish tin vein 
is over three miles in length-a vertical 100 feet in width. The Tinton company 
is operating a 100-ton daily capacity mill on the extension of this vein, which 
is good proof of its value.

	Water and timber are two requisites to successful mining operations. Of 
these commodities the company owns a sufficiency for all purposes. Under the 
control of the company there are 635 miner's inches of water, including one of 
the largest springs in the Hills-Cold Springs-which flows during the driest 
season of the year 365 inches. Conservative mining engineers have estimated that 
there is sufficient water to furnish that commodity to thousands of stamps. On 
Nigger Hill there are great forests of pine timber, virgin growths into which 
the axeman has not penetrated. In fact, all the physical and geological 
conditions on this company's territory are such that with careful management 
success seems assured. These great development propositions are watched with 
keenest interest, since nothing is more interesting than to watch the growth of 
virgin ground into paying mines.

	The Golden Empire Mining Company is capitalized for 15,000,-cco shares of 
a par value of $1 each, of which 8,000,000 shares have been placed in the 
treasury. The president is Henry J. Mayham of Denver; vice-president, William 
Sauntry of Stillwater, Minn.; treasurer, W. G. Brown of Denver; secretary, Irvin 
J. Price of Denver. Camele Rock of Welcome, Wyoming, a miner of experience in 
nearly every mining district of the world, is general superin-intendent. The 
main office of the company is in the Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, with branches 
in the Flatiron building, New York City, and at Deadwood, S. D.

VICTORIA GOLD MINING AND MILLING COMPANY.

	One of the prominent properties of Ragged Top is a tract of 170 acres of 
land near the confluence of Squaw creek and Spearfish river. Here practically 
the same character and quality of ore is exposed as has been found on the 
Spearfish and Deadwood standard properties. In other words, it is a typical 
cyaniding material that can be easily mined and most profitably treated by that 
process.

DEVELOPMENTS.

	During the past few years the company has been at work developing its 
several shoots of ore to a point where the erection of a mill would be Justified 
by the amount and value of ore exposed. That point has now been reached, and a 
mill will be running upon ore from the mine before another winter sets in. Upon 
this property the company has developed five separate and distinct ore shoots, 
known as the Rip Rap, Spearfish, Swift, Royal and Hurd shoots, some of which 
have been opened up in and along the shoot for a distance of 1,600 feet. They 
are from, 35 to 90 feet wide, and average five feet thick. The ore has been 
opened in tunnels, open cuts and shafts, in numerous places, and averages values 
of $5 per ton in gold-practically the same grade of ore from the handling of 
which the Spearfish company has paid dividends for a year and a half.

NEW PROPERTIES ACQUIRED.

	Shortly after the first of the year the company purchased a tract of 
ground from Deadwood parties embracing 70 acres, paying a handsome 
consideration. The ground adjoins the former holdings of the company. Three 
shoots of ore have been opened on this ground, and it is a most valuable asset 
to the company. Expansion and development have always been the motto of the 
company.

OTHER PROPERTIES.

	The Victoria company also owns 180 acres of ground at Hornblende, near 
Rochford, in Pennington county. Practically 3,700 feet of work have been done on 
this group, opening ore in five different places. Assays run from 80 cents to 
$40 per ton, while the average shows a good grade of milling rock. This is a 
free-milling proposition, requiring stamp mills and amalgamation to recover the 
values successfully.

FUTURE TREATMENT.

	The future plans of the company include the immediate erection of a dry 
crushing cyanide plant of 200 tons' daily capacity. Electric power for operating 
the mill will probably be generated on Spearfish river, where sufficient water 
can be easily obtained for running electric machines of many hundred horse 
power. The mill will be so constructed that the ore, after it is dumped from the 
mine cars into the bins at the top, will be automatically handled until it is 
discharged as valueless tailings. With this type of a mill treating its daily 
quota of ore, and with the same economy practiced in the future that has been 
followed in the past, the Victoria company should not be long in entering the 
dividend list.

	The Victoria Gold Mining and Milling Company has a capital stock amounting 
to 750,000 shares, par value $i. The president is Alien B. Smith, of Omaha; 
vice-president, Arthur C. Smith, of Omaha; treasurer, A. J. Malterner, of 
Deadwood; secretary, W. M. Glass, of Omaha; general manager, George S. Jackson, 
of Dead-wood, who is one of the directors of the Mining Men's Association and a 
man of great experience in mining and mineralogy. The main office of the company 
is at Deadwood, S. D.

HIDDEN SPANISH MINING COMPANY.

	Southeast of Lead City, and almost midway between the mines of the 
Homestake and Clover Leaf Companies, are 165 acres of mineral land showing great 
prospective values, the property of the Hidden Spanish Mining Company. The 
development work already accomplished has disclosed valuable veins-fissures in 
the slates- that show assays of gold from $1 to $90 per ton, with an average of 
close to $5 per ton.

WORK DONE.

	Five different shafts have been sunk in proving the mineral values. They 
range in depth from a few feet to 135 feet. The latter shaft is a two-
compartment working shaft, equipped with a whim, blacksmith shop, 'etc., and all 
enclosed in a substantial building. Work is being steadily carried on at this 
point in a systematic manner in sinking the shaft and cross-cutting the veins. 
The formations exposed are slate and porphyry, with quartz filled fissures 
carrying the gold values. The ore bodies show widths of from one to three feet, 
enclosed in well defined walls, and giving all the unmistakable indications of 
extending to great depths and offering opportunities for great permanent mining 
operations.

	After the veins are more fully developed, their nature and characteristics 
more fully understood, and the values explored will warrant, the company intends 
to erect large reduction works. It is proposed, however, before taking this 
step, to have a full understanding of the ore bodies, and for this reason 
development is under way. It is quite probable, however, that amalgamation and 
cyanidation will be the processes used in recovering the precious metals. The 
tracks of the B. & M. railway extend to within a short distance of the shaft 
house, offering excellent facilities for the delivery of machinery, fuel, 
supplies, etc.

OTHER PRODUCTIONS.

	On other portions of the holdings the company has developed bodies of 
kaolin and mineral paint, either one, or both of which, are destined to become 
producers of future wealth. The kaolin is found in veins in close proximity to 
the gold ores, and 100 tons a day could easily be produced from the supply now 
in sight. In order to be marketed it must be ground to 80 mesh and bolted, much 
after the fashion of wheat flour, necessitating expensive machinery. This the 
company proposes to install at an early date. The hematite or mineral paint 
deposit covers about forty acres of the territory to a depth approximating five 
feet. It must be prepared for the market in a manner similar to the kaolin. The 
mining (or quarrying of this deposit, since it lies on the surface) and 
preparation of this material should be accomplished for $2 per ton. The market 
price is close to $6 per ton, which would leave a good margin of profit.

	The physical conditions for an ideal mining enterprise are all at hand. 
Water is present in streams and springs in abundance for milling operations; 
timber for mining purposes grows upon the ground; railroad facilities are first 
class. These combined with practical business management in working the mineral 
deposits now under development should make the Hidden Spanish company wealthy. 
E. H. Darrow, the president of the company, has given nearly all of his time for 
the past year to furthering the interests of the organization, personally 
superintending the work on the property, and has displayed in the management of 
the affairs conservatism and care.

	The Hidden Spanish Mining Company is capitalized for $2,000,000, in shares 
of $1 par value. The directors are E. H. Darrow,, president; George N. Wright, 
vice-president; W.. E. Butler, treasurer ; N. J. Bylow, secretary; J. W. Freeman 
and Jules Hendricks. The principal office is at Lead City, S. D.