The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1876-12-02
A BLACK HILLS LETTER.

L a DIVA nkAA0 ILL., 4AASe
! TopOgraphy OF the Gold Regi0n-Rich
lm Mineral Resources and Lumber and
Surrounded with Fine Arabic Lands.
| From the St. Paul Pioneer Press.1
LEAD CITY, BLACK Hills, Oct. 3d.
Newspaper correspondents and our own
papers Keep the public posted about the
Black Hills, but perhaps few of my
observations will not be unacceptable.
Bear Butte stands alone on the prairie,
a few miles west of the Hills, partly
covered with pine and hard wood, the
prairie stretching along the valleys
and up the hillsides. Following a few
miles up Whitewood Creek is Crook
City, in the Foot Hills, at the base OF
the Black Hills proper, where they be-
gin to rise up higher, crowned with a
heavy pine growth. Mining along this
creek as far up as Deadwood, eight
miles above, except a few claims, has
never proven very lucrative, miners
taking out 81 to $40 day to the man,
largely fine gold. Between Crook and
Deadwood cities the creek passes
through such rough and narrow gorges
that it has been impracticable to build
a road, and, following road from
Crook City, on either side of the creek,
one has to climb high hills before again
descending into the valley at Dead
wood. Here we find the principal
town of the Hills. Here is business,
life, money, and all the too numerous
to mention, etc., of q mining camp.
Near here are the good diggings which
have made the Black Hills famous as a
mining country.
We are in a deep valley, the hills
rising several hundred feet on either
side, crowned with light growth OF
pine, at the confluence of Whitewood
and Deadwood, which latter comes in
on the north side, from the west, keep
ing the general course of the White
wood below, and so ought to have re-
tanned the name. The road leads US up
the narrow Deadwocd Valley, where we
see all along miners cabins, bitches,
sluices, boxes, and piles of dirt and tail
ings, and miners like a flock of ducks
in q marsh. We soon pass beyond the
green timber and find the valley and
hillsides nearly bare, some bushes and
the limbless trunks of few trees, show
ing that tremendous fire had, within
a few years, burned every green thing
for several miles. Two miles from
Deadwood we reach Gayville, lively
little mining town. Here, from the
northwest, comes in Blacktail Gulch,
which is quite rich. Also ShOemaker's
Gulch on the south side.
Continuing up DeadwoOd we pass
Bobtail Gulch on the south side, which
is very rich, but deficient in water. A
mile above Gayville the new town of
Golden City has lately been started.
Starting again from Deadwood City in
q southwesterly direction up the valley
of Whitewood, we see less miners
work than on Deadwood, but high up
the north hillside they are digging a
ditch with which it is proposed to hy-
draulic all that part of the valley. In
two miles we come to the mouth of Gold
River, which comes in on the north
side, gulch or run which had paid
we'll in spots. Two miles up this run
is Lead City. At the mouth of Gold
Run we take new road, now building
up southwesterly along WhitewOod,
passing out the west side of the hills to
Cheyenne, Wyoming. We pass Last
Chance and Yellow Creek, little creeks
coming in from the south between very
high hills, in which coarse gold has
been found in small quantities. Three
miles along we find White Tail Creek
coming from the west on the north side
of Whitewood. Here they are just now
laying out town called Bullion.
High ranges of hills rise up between
these streams, which come from higher
hills few miles west, the highest of
which is Terry's Peak.
In the region referred to there is very
little granite to be seen. A granite
ledge for considerable distance caps
one of the highest hills between White
wood and White Tail. There is some
limestone. Sandstone prevails, with
gneiss, porphyry, argellaceous and tale
slate. Sometimes in the valleys are
large beds of tough clay, which breaks
up in large cubes.
There must have been upheavals and
overturnings, for the stratified rocks
are uplifted as high as the hills and dip
in different directions, and many places
show the effects of fire. There is a belt
of quartz veins, with general course
northwest and southeast, crossing these
ranges of hills not quite at right angles.
Many suppose that the middle of the
belt crosses near Gayville and Lead
City, where they show themselves most,
are most developed and supposed to be
richest. l can not say how wide the
belt is. There are some found as far
east as Deadwood City, and some three
or four miles west of this point. Most
of these leads are in the hands of poor
men, who discovered them and have
only been able to work enough to hold
about them yet. Some are known to
be rich in gold. South of here, and 1
suppose in the same belt, some are
known to be rich in silver. 1 will re-
fer to some of these leads in my next
1 have learned enough of this region
to reach the conclusion beyond a per-
adventure that the Black Hills are rich
in mineral resources and timber, sur
rounded with grazing and arabic lands,
with climate as little Objectionable as
any in this latitude. But it will require
money, labor and steady purpose to
develop this wealth, which has SO long
lain latent to human knowledge. Men
need not come here expecting to make
a fortune in single summer by strik-
ing some rich placer. Heretofore one
in thousand has done it, and hereaf-
ter one in ten thousand may dot. But
to the man whose circumstances are
such that he is seeking a new country,
and has learned s'to labor and wait,n
1 would say, turn your attention this
way.
think it inevitable that the settle |
ment of the Black Hills question and
the Indian troubles will be followed by |