Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-09-10
The Black Hills.

The Black Hills lie at the junction of
Wyoming and Dakota, northwest OF
Nebraska. Gen. Clusters expedition
left the Northern Pacific at its present
western terminus, Fort Abraham Lin
coin (marked Fort Clark in the maps),
on the Missouri. 1t marched up the
valley of the Little Missouri and then
took a general seutherly course to the
Black Hills. These hills, surrounded
as they are by the Bad Lands, yet
inclose within their rugged, locky,
jagged peaks of solid granite series
of rich valleys, watered by abundant
springs, crowded thick with flowers
hitherto born to blush unseen, and
stocked with bear. elk, and deer. The
floral luxuriance seems to be remarka-
BILE. Gen. Forsyth's diary is full of
descriptions of it. He writes "Wil1
flowers abound in every direction, and
our horses wade knee-deep among
them. The whole valley is car
peted with flowers. The vast
quantity of flowers crowd out the
grasses and gazing is only fair" The
country has hitherto been unknown.
Different exploring parties have skirted
its edges, but Gen. Custer was the first
to examine it thoroughly. The en-
gineers who accompanied him have
mapped the whole country. He has
discovered good wagon route connect
ing the rich land inside the hills with
the plains. Access would thus be COM
paratively easy for settlers. A few
days journey by wagon from Fort
Lincoln would take them to their
future homes. Gen. Forsyth sums
up his views of those homes in these
words "The scenery is beautiful,
grass splendid, water fine, and climate
delightful / hope to see the day when
there will be any number of brave set
tiers and fine farms there" The soil
is rich. There is plenty of timber and
building-stone. The climate is equable.
The summers are not extremely hot.
There are no signs of freshets along the
bank of the streams, so that the snow
fall is probably very light and the win
ter very mild. Even in the dry season
there is plenty of rain. Grass is abund-
ant and nutritious. Wild fruits thrive
we'll. The danger from Indians in not
great, provided settlers go in we'll armed
parties. At the same time, 1t Is to be
remembered that the Indians have a
title, guaranteed by treaty, to the whole
section. Until that title is extinguished,
white men have no right to settle there.
Gen. Sheridan has accordingly d.
rected the military authorities IN Mime.
sofa to stop all expeditions to the Black
Hills which have not been authorized
| by the Secretary of the Interior. A
Secretary more trammeled by law and
usage than Mr. Delano would not dream
of granting permits for the invasion
of an Indian reservation by gold
hunters, and 1T is not probable
that even he can be persuaded to 8
course so contrary to common prudence
and justice. Eager pioneers would be
wise to wait until the country has beck
thrown open to settlement by act o.
Congress but this is too much to ex
pect. For the present, the regard o.
individuals for their own skin anC
bones may keep all meddlesome white
men at safe distance from the raging
Sioux and their reported treasure
grounds but if ever it shall become :
tolerably safe undertaking otherwise
there will certainly be no lack of adven
turous spirits to risk the displeasure o
Mr.. Delano and his subordinates.
We have purposely abstained, so far
from mentioning gold as one of the at
fractions of the region. We believ
that it is the last and the least of them
The hasty search of the two practice
miners who were with the expedition
detected rich diggings of gold in tn
eastern range of the Black Hills. O
the country near Harney's Peak, Gen
Forsyth says : The very roots of tn
grass would pan five cents to the pan.
As yet, however, there Is no proof tina
the precious metals exist in large quar-
titles. There may be number c
"placers" and nothing else. In tha
event, rush of miners would result i
the beggary of most of them. Colo
!; seeking pays very poor returns as gel
, eral rule. 1t almost inevitably demon
Allies its votaries. California hs
never recovered from the recklessnes
of the argonauts of '49."-.Chica9
Tribune.