Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1877-12-06
DAkorA.s GOLD FIELDS.
From HAYWARD TO Rapid-Ths Rocker.
VILE Dry Digsings. spring and
Rapid Greeks.


|journ within it's quiet precincts our party
started back to Rapid, via Rockerville,
which is mining camp in the dry diggings
adjacent to Spring creek. We were favored
with delightful Indian summer weather du-
ring our horseback trip over and among
these southern Hills. The hazy atmos-
phere hung low over the parks land valleys
and the suns rays crept down into the shell.
tered hooks with just enough of warmth
in them to maintain the equilibrium be-
tween animal and atmospheric tempera ture
1t was glorious weather for mountain ex
ploration, and being stranger In these
parts. and one accustomed to the broad
prairie range of our Yankton surroundings,
If course fully enjoyed, under such fa-
vorable circumstances. the striking scenery
of this yet untamed wilderness. There
we're some things I did not enjoy SO vel
as others. It did not strike me as being
particularly conducive to comfortable sen
sa,ons to see Ely spur his sure footed bron-
cho up the almost perpendicular sid of
mountain six or eight hundred feet high
and to feel that I must follow. But never
tlinched from the appalling duty before
me- got off and carefully led my horse
up, for fear he might fall down and hurt
himself, and Maj Hanson did likewise
But these were only incidents of the trip.
Out from Hay ward We passed over e,iles OF
quartz claims all marked by location stakes.
As far as the cement deposit is supposed to
extend under the foothills in this direction
everv foot of the ground seems to be 10
Gated. Generally, however. no improve
ments have been made outside the Hay.
ward gulch. The stakes were new and l
Judged they had been recently put in place
oy prospectors who desired to hold them
until opening spring gave opportunity for
the development of their hidden treasures
Once over the cemsst belt we came upon
the dry diggings of Rockerville. They oc-
cupy an open patch of broken plain sur
rounded by timber, and have been dug over
until the whole country resembles the path
If a besieging army which had slowly ad-
vanced by rifle pit approaches The bar. if
1 may call it such, is considerably elevated
above the level of the adjacent water
courses and is probably five hundred feet
higher than Spring creek. A peculiar
quartz like rock protrudes from the jagged
knolls, the strata standing in vertical po-
sition and presenting a broken face. This
is the bed rock of the depressions where
pr ospect holes are sunk, and the miner who
i 10 fou x1,if1 a
face from which to CLEAN his golden har-
vest. Adjoining the pay ground, just In
the edge Of the timber, is the miners camp
1.-TWO rows of log cabins, about twenty in
number, including the saloon and store
Through the camp runs rivulet, the yield
of spring at the head Of the gulch. To
this stream the dirt is carried in wagons
and the gold rocked out. 1t yields all the way
from five to fifty dollars TO load of dirt, of
clean, bright gold. Miners make big wages.
even under these adverse circumstances, and
when capital turns water course into this
rich ground the profits of labor must be-
come enormous. A quartz lode has been
opened at Rockerville, the tunnel penetrat-
ing some fifteen feet into the hillside at the
time of my visit. About the intrinsic value
Of this rock there seemed to be mystery,
and the conclusion l reached was that it
showed large prospects. Rockerville is a
quiet camp, made up of orderly, industrl.
GUS men, who seem disposed to stay and
work out their fortunes from the golden
soil. This was the only placer mining l
saw while in the Hills, operations having
been suspended in most localities from
scarcity Of water and freezing weather. At
Hayward the gulches have been extensively
prospected and worked, but drifting in
placer beds there has been generally sus-
pended since cold weather arrived, and on
Spring and Rapid creeks the same cond;-
ton exists.
From Rockerville over to Spring creek
was but short drive, and when the bottom
of that gulch was reached realized that
We we're a considerable distance in the di.
rection OF the center of the earth. There
was streak of blue sky far overhead, visi-
BILE through the fringe of pines which ma
, ture has hung along the sides of the cliffs
1t was twilight scene there below. Dead.
wood is deep gulch, but compared TO this
it is only an overgrown ditch. Along
Spring creek are the abandoned claims OF
summer NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. either because
they are worked out or because winter
placed an embargo upon further.operations.
, But there is an abundance of rich gold
= quartz along this stream which will some day
receive attention. Out Of the Spring creek
4 canon and into the foothills again was no,
great distance. From the highest treelest
!. elevation before descending to the Rapid
: creek valley, grand view of the surround
ing country was obtained. The Cheyenne
, hills, fifty miles away, were visible, and be
hind, and seemingly almost oyer US lowered
the pine clad rocks of Harney's peak, tn.