The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1876-12-01
DzADwooD DRIFT. / !.
How People Live IN the New III Dorado wo-
men Floeking to the Hills New Discoveries
In Wolf Mountain. ~ bal@aA sfssi5st5fH 9.lG
From the Det-ys Tribune.

cent discoveries reported in Wolf Noun
tain, nearly 200 miles northwest, of Dead
wood. An enthusiastic. party of Midases
report from So to $50 to the pan, which, of
course, inaugurated a stampede. at once.
Don't be alarmed about me, for I'll not 60
this fall, for Crazy Horse and. autumnal
winds abide there, and o memory of the
last e ..-s-r. r..,
Long and dreary winter.
a ~ Ohlth cold and cruel winter. r ss 2.
overbalance my desire for gold. -.
Women are focking into the hills, bless
'en, and already the rough, uncombed mi
ner Of the spring and summer begins to
spruce up. Paper collars are common, and
one occasionally meets broadcloth coat in
the highway. A canary bird hanging out
in the morning sun, yesterday, drew almost
as great crowd as the dog fight half block
off. And when I write that I have neither
killed man or seen one killed for 6 weeks,
you will admit our growing civilization.
We even expect Gainsborough hats and
cardinal ribbons to arrive with the blue bird
of spring.
Rents here are something wonderful to
contemplate. A rough, one-story 90 by 80
building on Main street rents at 500 per
month. I don't know an empty house in
'Deadwood. I'd rather have Goods block,
if located here, than be President of the
Tilden Reform Club.
There are about 5000 lodes or quartz
mines staked off, and are now ready for
sale at prices varying from $125 to a ST.
100000. Some of the property has shafts
sunk to the depth of two or three feet, and
somewhat deeper. But seriously, if some
of our miners would take off their coats and
develop their ledges, they would astonish
the mineral world.
!, What we now want is few scientific
chaps, or rock sharps, to tell us about these
hills. We've got all the gold we wish, but
feel a little delicacy about leaving here
without knowing something more about
the section Of country to which we owe our
boundless wealth. The little egg-shaped
handful of hills. called the Black Hills,
standing isolate and desolate in the Amer
ican Sahara, is as yet a mystery to its in
habitants. The vegetation, geological for
nation, and altitude all 60 to prove the
hills Of a subsequent eruption to that form
ing the main chain of the Rocky Mountains.
Our two loftiest peaks (Kearney and Crow
peaks) are both less than 1000 feet higher
than the sea, and the first glimpse the in
coming traveller gets of the hills convinces
him that he is looking downward rather
than upward. Our timber is limited to
pine, spruce, oak and birch, In walking
through the, forests one rarely sees blade
of grass, and still more rarely sees living
bird or animal.
Having no corner lot in Deadwood, I lose
nothing in saying it is one of the most un-
healthy towns within my ken. Mountain
fever seems to be the most prevalent dis
ease. This objection is, however, confined
to Whitewood and Deadwood creeks, and
their tributaries, I believe, and it is COM
monty attributed to .miasmas, arising from
decayed vegetation that abounds herea-
bouts. Can it be that gold blights every
thing it touches On Spearfsh, but few
miles north, luxuriant grass, grapes, nuts
and plums ar. ato.lnd, and the creek bedis
entirely innocent of gold. Auriferous
grayels, litaniferous black sand, together
with heavy washed boulders, are found on
the tops of our highest hills. While many
of our lodges are fair and square veins, the
greater majority of the gold lodges are ir-
regular and incomplete, amazingly rich for
time. Sometimes fellow knocks his bo-
nanza higher than a kite with asingle shot,
and the I" streak - is only to be recovered
after some work in solid wall-rock. 2'i-
On a gentle eminence, about like your
Capitol Hill, has been found one Of the
queerest gold mines extant. The locality
is about the last one one would sink for
quartz. Not particle of float or blossom
appears on the surface. A body of quartz
boulder, ferruginous clay and ordinary
creek gravel, very rich in gold, was found.
The boulders and gravel are rounded and
smoothed by friction, and the whole con-
glomerate mass seems to have been plastic
at one time, but now it is harder than Pha-
raoh's heart. The gold (of which 1855
have been taken from a single pound Of
rocky is of a reddish color, differing Ii every
respect from other lode gold, and while in
form and size the particles resemble the
.gulch gold, it is of much better quality.
The gulches on both sides Of this knoll, as
well as the adjacent hills, have been thor
onghly prospected without finding where
this deposit comes from, and chrome now
awaits, the man who win fix this little mat
ter up. ,,..1,
i Where can the miner Of olden times
have gomez I see no Starbottles, nor John
Oakhursts here not even Green Russell
or John Gregory,to bring the simile down
to. Colorado. The miner Of to-day is BIT
ter disappointment to Bret Harts's readers.
Common matter Of fact, fellows !; / grieYe
to say that even buckskin shirts, long hair
and bowie knives are falling into disuse..
One see no eight foot neck chains nesting
against coarse woolen shirts, no three-ounce
nugget breastpin, no betting Of oyster cans Of
gold on the sex of a horse three blocks of.
It is true the miner Of to-day loves whisky,
and cards, and women but as compared
with the forty-niner Of California, or the
fifty-niner Of Colorado. .hs isa hollow mock
cry and fraud. He il close and calcula-
ting, refuses to be swindied, and, is rule,
expects his moneys worth when out for
lark. ~ y sA1s is
Some very absurd stories hare been set
afoat down your way regarding the great
number Of cases Of smallpox here, I know
Of but three or four cases now. and as they
have been removed to the pest-house out
side the gates of our city, there is little feai
.ofa general epidemic. Our hospital is q
most vivid reminder Of Venice's Bridge 81