American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-04-15
THE NEW GOLD MINES.

Pan Out from SO to SIS per Day.
The Kansas City 7ymes's special cor
respondent writes from Hill City,
March Il:
Every miner who can raise sufficient
T" grub" to feed him for month or six
weeks "goes north :" on arriving at
Custer. The few who remain in Custer
or Hill City only do so long enough to
locate town lot or "ranch" and
sell or trade it for provisions then they
start NORTH This region of the north,
this new mining Ell Dorado, is said to
be about 75 miles northward, or a little
west of north. 1t consists of and in
cludes all the small streams and water
courses flowing northward from the
summit of the Black Hills into the Belle
Fourche or northern fork of the Chey
enne River. These streams flow through
rough, rocky country, almost mac
cessible to wagons, their banks and sur
roundings being precipitous and wild
in the extreme. From these returned
prospectors much valuable and inter-
esting information has been obtained.
This information is herewith transmit
ted for the instruction and satisfaction
of those who await reliable news from
this land of great expectations.
NOW, AS TO GOLD.
Having visited nearly every mining
camp upon the eastern and southern
slope of the Hills, and by critical per-
sonal inspection satisfied myself as to
the authority of the various gilt-edged
reports sent to the East, am enabled to
make the following report, which may
be accepted as reliable:
Gold is found in nearly every acre of
earth in which prospect holes have been
sunk; but in no case has it been taken
out in sufficient quantities to pay poor
miner living wages. The bedrock is
from Is to 40 feet from the surface, and
when reached the water becomes SO
troublesome that it is nextt to impossible
for men to work without the aid of fast
working pumping machinery. This
renders it next to impossible for poor
men to work the mines on this side of
the Hills without the aid of capital and
machinery, and this explains the cause
of the desertion and neglect of the mines
on French, Spring, Rapid. Box Elder
and Castle Cracks. Each and all of
these creeks have had mines opened
upon them, and are staked out into 800
feet claims for miles and miles along the
banks of these creeks. But not one out
of five hundred of these staked claims
have yet had q shovel or pick struck in
to them.
THE T" POOR MEMS DIGGINGs."
A moderate estimate of the number
of men in the Black Hills would place
Il at 5000. This number is increasing
at the rate of 40 or so arrivals per day
They are. pouring in from the Pacific
slope in swarms, mostly old California
and Montana miners. Few or none of
these practical miners stay on this side
of the mountains, but push out at once
over the snowy range to- the northern
slope OF the Hills. There are at least
1s50Q more over there at this time, and
have failed to find one who has re-
turned to this side who did not hurry
back as soon as he had exchanged his
gold dust for provisions. Not one
miner has returned to Custer or Hill
City to stay; all who have gone over.
the Hills are watching and waiting
alongside their claims for spring to
come. In conversation with two miners,
whom I found in Hill City trading dust
for bacon and flour, learned that new
diggings are being discovered almost
all the time where the bedrock is not
deeper than four or five feet from the
grass roots, and that the dirt pays well
from the surface. These shallow Dig
gings they call "poor mems diggings, q
and which will attract nearly the entire
mining population of the Hills during
the present season. There are many
streams on the north slope which have
not been, prospeeted. One of these
streams (the Spear Fish) is known to
be very rich. Mr.. d. S. Lunt, a miner
of national reputation as an expert,
having been connected with the Com
stock and Oplin discovery, and last
year employed by the Government to
assist Prof. Jenney, has shown me a
nugget weighing nearly one ounce,
which he found upon this creek.
There came into Hill City this even
ing party of four men, led by Mr.. Cy
Iba, an old miner, formerly from Fort
Wayne. This party brought in several
hundred dollars in gold dust, which they
are exchanging for provisions, with the
intention of returning at once to the
Deadwood diggings. Mr.. .Iba states
that gold is being taken out upon some
of the tributaries at the rate of $40 to
$15 per day. This party confirms the
reports sent out from these
mines, but agree that little mining can
be done until the middle of May. They
state that only small proportion of the
northern slope has been prospected and
staked out and claimed, and that there
is yet room and rich diggings for all who
go over the range. There is about two
feet of snow in the mines, and little
mining being done.
WHO ARE WANTED IN THE HILLS.
No man with good home and who
IS making comfortable living should
cave it to seek the golden uncertainty
hidden in these pine-clad rocks. Nor |
should poor men come here unable to
IL