The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-03-31
THE BLACK HILLS.
Poor Gold DiggingS-PriVaIiOns OF (
Miners.

a correspondent of the Denver, Color
ado, News writes from Fort Laramie
Wyoming territory, under date of Feb
ruary 26th, as follows:
l think a few facts may deter some
persons from going where thousands will
find nothing but disappointment. ar
rived here yesterday from the " Hills, -
and, like many others, found l had made
a great mistake in going there. Persons
going to the Hills with the expectation
of finding gold without digging hard for
it will be grievOusly disappointed. As a
general thing the diggings are deep
from fifteen to thirty feet-the country
is fiat (the gulches have but little fall
and great expense is attached to opening
claims in most localities Very little
prospecting has been done, and but little
gold has been taken out. At Custer City
mining Is entirely ignored, and town lot
speculation and house-building have
taken the place of mining. Everybody
owning claims there is on "the SELL" A
very few claims in any of the gulches are
showing paying prospects. There is wa
ter only about three months in the year,
and a claim must be first-class to pay ex-
| penses. 1t will take three months to
| open a claim at Custer. Deadwood
| Creek, ninety miles north of Custer, is
| probably about as good as anything
found there yet, and in this gulch there
seems to be a second deposit of gold, in
about two feet of earth, and it prospects
! tOlerably we'll. But below this is from
six to eighteen feet that contains but
| little gold until bedrock is reached, and
then five dollars to the pan will not more
than pay for working. The new corners
ta1 Int hn oI1
ners are all anxious to sell. If there are
any mines in the Black Hills that will
warrant stampede like the present one
have failed to find them. And that is
the honest verdict of all the parties with
whom have talked who know anything
about mines. They may yet discover
rich digglngs, but they certainly have
not got them now, and the chances for
another California are not good.
1t makes ones heart sick to see the
poor devils who are going to the mines
minus money, blankets, grub, or even
guns. They may be met by dozens, beg
ging their way; and the weather for the
past month has been cold, windy and
extremely disagreeable, and there are no
ranches beyond Fort Laramie where
these impecunious tramps may find
shelter.
There are thousands of acres of ground
in Colorado as good as the Black Hills
mines. There are, admit, a few good
claims there, but if they are as rich as
represented, why do all the miners want
to sell, and why are they pushing
further north to the Big Horn to find
more?
Flour and groceries have been obtain
able at prices quite reasonable at the
mines, and this has proved a most fortu-
nate fact, for but few had taken in more
than enough grub to last them on the
way. Corn is $1S per 100 pounds.
Freight from Cheyenne has shot up from
three to six cents to twelve and twenty
cents per pound. / don't see how those
blanketless and penniless fellows will find
grub, unless ground hogs and prairie logs
are plenty.
On an average, about forty persons
leave Cheyenne every day, and these are
not a tenth part of the arrivals at the |
Hills. At the present rate of immigra- |
ton there will be 10000 persons in !
the Hills by the 1st of July, and, iudg- |
of them will be disappointed and dis |
gusted-a starving crowd, as most of
them have their last dollar invested in !
their outfit. If the mines should turn
out good, year hence is soon enough to
go there.
My advice to the majority is, that if
they can get a good chance to make
board and clothes, they had better give
the Black FILLS wide berth, for before
another sixty days passes a change will
take place, and ;,n army of disguised and
foot sore gold seekers will turn home
ward.