The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-09-04
THE NEW ELDORADO.
The Gold Discoveries I'm the Black Hills
The Precious sust round in the Grass
Under the Horses Feet.
Cor. Chicago Inter-OceaD.
cUsTER's BLACK HILLS EXPEDITION,

Under the Horses Feet.
TCor. Chicago Inter-oceaD.l
CUsrERs BLACK HILLS EXPEDITION,
IN CANT AT CUsrER's PARK,
DAKOTA rRRRIroRY, Aug. Z 1874.
They call it ten dollar diggin's, and
all the camp is aglow with the gold
fever. In previous dispatches and let
ters l have told of the discovery, but
the place then hadn't reached the dig
nified name of "diggin's, and only
few little yellow particles had been
washed out of painful of sand. This
is the first opportunity our miners have
had to make really.fair test of the
color" and it has yielded them
abundantly. They scraped a little
along the bed of brook till they got
the color, then with spade and pick
began to dig beside it a hole about as
loug and wide and deep as a human
grave. From the grass roots down 1t
was "pay dirt" and after dozen pans
' or more had been washed out, the two
persevering men who will be the pion-
GERS of new golden State came into
camp with little yellow dust wrapped
carefully up in the leaf of an old ac-
count book. 1t was examined with the
microscope was tried with all the tests
that the imaginations of fifteen hun
bred excited campaigners could sug-
gest, and it stood every one. 1t was
washed with acid, mixed with mercury,
cut, chewed and tasted till everybody
was convinced and went to bed dream
ing Of the wealth of CrGsus. At day
break there was a crowd around the
"diggin's," with every conceivable ac-
, couterment Shovels and spades, picks,
axes, tent pins, pot hooks, bowie
knives, mess pans, kettles, plates, plat
tiers, tin cups, and everything within
reach that could either lift dirt or hold
it was put into service by the worship
ers of that god. gold, and those were few
who didn't get showing"-a few yell
low particles clinging to a globule
of mercury that rolled indifferently in
and out of the sand Officers and pri-
Yates, -whackers and scientists, al !
met on common level, and the great
equalizer was that insignificant yellow
dust.
The miners traced up the creek some
distance, finding color at every step, till
the lead ran under a huge quartz noun
tain. Subsequent investigation proved
that there was belt, thirty miles wide.
as near as they could determine, run
ming from the southwest to the north
east, and embracing all these quartz
mountains which wehave looked at with
so much admiration for their exter-
Tor beauty. Gold must be under them,
the miners say, and the mineralogists
add that it is strange if there is not
but in such a shape that we cannot
reach it. No facilities for blasting or
mining are at hand. We have no pow
err except what the little brass cartridge
shells hold. and the EARTH will not I'M
bosom itself to any other power nei-
ther have we time to make the applica-
ton, for more than,half our time is gone
and half our ratIons used, and much of
the country to explore yet. But the
expedition has solved the mystery of
the Black Hills, and will carry back the
news that there is gold here, in quanti-
ties as rich as were ever dreamed of.
The method to reach it is yet to be pro-
vided. 1t is in the very heart of the
Sioux territory-in their choicest hunt
ing ground-and they hold the land
with as holy reverence as the savage
heart can feel. No one can come here
with any safety, or with any legal right,
as long as the treaties that now exist
hold good, and the wealth that we have
found must be for several years yet I'M
der the ban.
An attempt to solve the Indian ques-
ton was made around campfire the
other night, and conclave shook
hands together TO look fate in the face.
1t was company of rough men men
the most of them-who enjoy life on Sl3
month and rations, but they feel that
this expedition had in some dim wise
opened future for them, and they saw
reflected in the gloss of that little gold
dust great possibilities, and great hopes
grew out OF them for better things.
Some who saw that meeting may laugh
at me for this moralizing-but they
saw nothing but the brown faces of ad-
venturers, and [ thought | saw some
thing more-ambition not mercenary
alone, but an ambition throbbing with
pulsations of hope-and / imagined |
saw in some of these a glimpse of some
thing far beyond to be reached by this
bridge of gold.
The result of this meeting around a
campfire among a cluster OF wagons
was the formation of the Custer Park
Mining Company, to be n working or
ganization from that day forward, divi-
dends to be paid annually until further
notice. The company was duly formed
according to the laws of the United
States and the Territory of DAKOTA, with
authorized officers and Boardof Direct
ors.
A House Of Tragedies.
4 Washington correspondent of the