The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-03-09

ui1Is Countrywide Appearance anu
character of the Mining Towns.
FFrom the Denver News.l
Tarrv Lewis, who has resided here for
a decade and a half, except for short in
+ervals of time, is late arrival from the
BLACK Hills, having left Custer City,
Saturday. the 18th. at noon, reached
Cheyenne Wednesday evening, and Den
ger night before last. The trip, there
fore. was made in quick time, and with
ont hitch or accident.
A NeaOs reporter interviewed Mr..
Lewis yesterday, and found him very
communicative, and brimful OF enthusi-
asm over the newly-opened diggings.
He gives more information, OF kind
sought after just now, than has been OBJ
tanned, SO far, from any returned pros
pector. and it is reliable. Mr.. Lewis
spent about q month in roaming about
the hills, visiting most of the camps.
Custer City and Hill City are the only
towns in the country. The former Is
situated in a small picturesque park,
hemmed In by mountains, Harney
peak, rising on one side, and near by.
The town site covers $40 acres, and this
area embraces the whole OF the park, SO
that the size of the town must be practl-
cally limited. Thesentire site has been
laid off into lots, fifty by 100 feet I'D size,
and which command prices ranging from
S25 to $500 each, according to desira-
bility of location and the eagerness of
BUYERS. The principal street is named
after Gen. Crook. 1t is 200 feet WIDE.
The other streets have width OF 100
feet, and the alleys are thirty feet VIDE,
and all run at about the same angle as
the streets of Denver. -Four hundred
buildings have been erected, and every
lot on the town site has the foundation
of some sort of structure laid on it.
There are four regular saloons, where a
bad quality of whisky is retailed, and
six stores, where you can buy groceries,
clothing, canned fruits, gum boots. or
whisky. So far nobody has had the en-
terprise, or the ten Gritty, to open a gam
bling-house, and IS there are only two
or three decks of cards In the diggings,
poker-playing is limited amusement.
A few drunken rows, amounting to little
more than boisterous hilarity, have oc-
Cured in Custer City, but nobody has
been killed, nor even hurt.
The prominent discoveries are located
on French, Spring, Castle, Rabbit, Iron,
Whitewood and Deadwood Greeks. The
two last named are seventy-fve miles
northwest of Custer City. There had
been a stampede in that direction for
some days prior to Mr.. Lewis departure
for Denver.
Sitting Bulls band of redskins has
been raiding the northern camps, and
altogether some seventy or eighty head
of horses have been run off. A good
many of the prospectors are, In conse-
quence, trudging about the country on
foot, packing their tools and provisions
on their backs. One miner, J. S. Nc
Gail, from Montana, was killed and
scalped last week by this same band.
He was riding alone to Hill City for pro
visions. Charley Mace, q Denver boy,
belonging to a party encamped on Old
Woman's Fork, shot and killed an In
dian, who, with ten or a dozen others,
was stampeding their stock. This oc-
Cured about ten days ago.
Mr.. Lewis says that during part OF
the winter the weather was bitter cold
and the snow quite deep; but when he
left Custer City the air had the mildness
OF spring ABOUT Ii, auo men were julia
ing, mining, and going about generally
in their Bhirt-sleeves. There we're no
idlers or loafers in the country. Every
man had an important object to accom-
plish, and that was to make his fortune,
and as quickly as possible. There are,
it is estimated, 1000 people in the Hills,
and the number is rapidly augmenting.
Mr.. Lewis thinks the country is one of
incalculable riches. He desn't hesitate
to predict that the bars on French Greek
will equal the famous Alder gulch, in
Montana, which yielded its millions.
He will return shortly.
AS Mr.. Lewis and his travelling COM
panions came out to Cheyenne they
found the road lined with soldiers, pros
pectors and vehicles.