Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-09-17
GOLD IN the BLACK HILLS,
VERY RICH DISCOVERIES.
Surface Gold in the Grass
Roots-Quartz Veins in the
Mountains.

The Chicago later Ocean-which
has had an enterprising correspond
ent with General Clusters Expedition
to the Black Hills, who has sent
back some very interesting letters
publishes letters, dated Clusters
Park, Dakota, August Sd and 7th,
giving details of the discovery OF
gold there, the organization of o
mining company, and stalking OF
claims fer future operations, with
considerable excitement, from which
we take the following:
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD
was made on the Cd of August, in
the bed cf a creek we suppose to be
the French Greek of the maps, and
the yield was about thirty-five cents
in dust to three pans-a pretty good
yield if one could keep it up for o
year or so. and enough to assure our
miners they have struck lead
There are two of them-old veterans
in the crGft-who have been worth
fortunes as many times as they have
toes, and who know the names OF
every gulch west of the Rocky Noun
tains. Ross and Mckay are their
names, and General Custer employs
them in the scientific corps as ex-
perts. Soon after we left Floral Val
ley, and as soon in fact as we struck
the eastern ranges of the hills, quartz
rock began to appear at intervals,
and in time we saw huge mountains
of it, as beautiful as the hills of the
Celestial City--white and red and
green and yellow crystal that foil
under the hammers blow into emer-
aids and rubies and opals and all
sorts of precious stones. "Now, by
gosh," says Mckay, taking fresh
quid of tobacco, sit begins to look
like something" And he went to
work with his pick and pan, every
time the train stopped long enough
tor him to unstrap them. 1t wasn't
very satisfactory prospecting, to
leave a lead as soon as they got "the
COLOR" and they got it frequently,
but the expedition. hurried on, and it
was not until we went into camp
here that fair test was made. The
farther north we go, they say, the
better are the indications, and by the
time we get 10 the plains again, !
expect we shall be loaded down with
nuggets.
They call it "a ten dollar d'ggins,"
and all the camp ia aglow with the
gold fever. This is the first opportu-
nifty our miners have had to make
fair test of the "color," and it has
yielded them abundantly. They
scraped little along the bed of a
brook till they got the color; then,
with spade and pick, began TO dig
beside it q hole about as long and
wide and deep as human grave.
From the grass roots down it was
'pay dirt" and, after dozen pans
or more had been washed out, the
two persevering men, who will be
the pioneers of the new golden State,
came into camp, with a little yellow
dust wrapped carefully up in the
leaf of an old account book. 1t was
examined with the microscope; was
tried with all the tests that the i'm
aginations of fifteen hundred excited
campaigners could suggest, and it
stood every one. 1t was washed
with acid, mixed with mercury, cut,
chewed and tasted, till everybody
was convinced, and went 70 bed
dreaming of the wealth of Cresus.
At day-break, there was crowd
around the "diggings," with every
conceivable accoutrement. Shovels
and spades, picks, axes, tent-pins,
pot hooks. bowie knives, mess pans,
kettles, plates, platters, tin cups. and
everything within reach, that could
either lift dirt or hold it, was put
into service by the worshipers OF
that god, gold. And those were few
who didn't get "showing"-a few
yellow particles cling to a globule of
mercury that rolled indifferently in
and out of the sand. Officers and
privates, mule-whackers and scien-
lists, all met on common level, and
the great equalizer was that insigniti-
cant yellow dust.
The most excited contestant in
this chase after fortune was "Aunt
SalIie," the suffers colored cook, q
huge mountain of dusky flesh, and
"tne only white woman that ever
saw Black Hills" as she frequently
says. She is an old frontiersman, as
it were, having been up and down
the Missouri ever since it's muddy
water was broken by paddle wheel,
and having accumulated quite little
property, had settled down in Bis
marck to ease and luxury.
"Money didn't done brung dis
chile out hyar, now, | tells ye dat !;
dis haln't no common niger, now, L
tells ye; no it ain't," she says to me
one day. Else got done workin' fur
money, l have, now hyar me; an
We wouldn't cotch dis gal totin' chuck
out hyar, now l tells ye, If it hadn't
been for SEEM desc hyar Black Hills
dat Custer fetched US to. Use here'd
bout desc ERE hills long TO- Custer
did. Now I'm talkin'. When | was
on de Missouri-cooked on first boat
dat ever run up dat stream, an l
hainft had no hard luck, neither,
now l tells ye folks. But l waited
to see desc Black Hills-an' dey amt
no blacker dan am, an I'm no Afri-
can, now, you just bet l ain's; I'm
none of your common herd (; I've
got white blood in me, l have, and
I've got de money to back it, now |
have, tell you"
Aunt Sally expected to find the
Black Hills in some indefinite way
or other adapted to the colored race,
and was terribly disappointed but
the gold discoveries compensated for
the lack Of any distinctive mark OF
her race. and she Joined in the de-