Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-06-23
FACTS ABOUT THE BLACK HILLS.
The Chief City characteristics Of Dead
wOOd-Nlincrs Who Have Made Fortunes.

wood-NIlncrs Who Have Made Fortunes.
Deadwood is heterogeneous mass O
hastily erected buildings, log and fran
the former predominating - throw
into n narrow gulch, through who's
crooked length flows Whitehead creel
with its 1000 inches of turbid, murk,
liquid, the channel being of gravel,
clay. The Cheyenne stage road strike
the head of Whitehead creek about fif
teen miles from Deadwood, and follow,
the stream down to the city, entering
what has been known as South Dead
wood, or Sherman street. Just at pres
ent the south side is looming up, owing
to the establishment Of the post-oiflce or
that side, and the consequent attraction
of business thereto, so TINT real estate
spectators are reaping rich harvest.
The town is alive with carpenters, YET
the people complain that it is impossible
to get anything done. Carpenters are
paid from six to eight dollars per day,
and are cursed by their employers day
and night-not openly of course, but in
secret rs it were.
Two and half miles above Deadwood,
on Deadwood creek, is located Gayville.
a young and fourishing town, which will
be permanently prosperous, owing to
the fact that the largest and richest
quartz deposits yet found in the Hills,
are in the adjacent hills, surrounding
the town like crescent. There are
several stamp mills in constant operation
day and night crushing the quartz, and
three more are in course of erection.
There is on exhibition in one of the
banks in Deadwood lump of retort
gold weighing over 1877 ounces, from the
Father De Smet mine in Gayville, valued
at 50, $50, which was the result of an
ordinary days stamping.
Men are working in the gulch from
the head of Deadwood and Whitewood
creeks, to the far foothills-hundred of
thcm-and the very fact that they "keep
up their lick =" on many claims, night and
day, is sufficient evidence that pay dirt
is found. Another very convincing evil
dence is the fact that the four banking
houses doing business here, each buy
from 81 900 to $40, 900 in gold dust per
day, while the arastras and stamp mills
Rre sending out from $2O, 900 to $50, 900
per week in beautiful bullion bars and
buttons. Then, too, there is vast
amount of "trade dust" in circulation,
&c Dust" is the currency of the country,
md the man who buys thousand dol
lars worth of supplies, as well as the
man who orders two-bit "bull-doze
pulls out his buckskin bag of
gold and settles therefor with all nom
,halance imaginable. The newsboys by
lozens throng the streets ut eventide,
AIRY the pocket gold scale, and nine
enths Of their customers drop few
,rains into the scale, scarcely looking at
he weight, as they snatch the paper and
agerly peruse the latest news. There
re at present two papers published in
)eadwood - the Black Hills Daiy
Times and the Pioneer, a weekly.
In addition to the amount mentioned
bove, there is a constant stream of men
Ding out by the different routes, who
ave made "genteel sufiiciency," and
re going home to enjoy it. They carry
ut from one to twenty-five Thousand
ollars a piece, and some of them even
lore. We shall never know how good
,rtune has been to these men. They
o back to happy homes, erect fine resi-
ences, buy large farms and herds, or
west in business enterprises, and the
lack Hills knows them no more. Their
eighbors see them return, observe their
take it for granted that there
gold in the mines of the West, and ask
w questions, while the lucky ones,
moving the great uncertainties of life (
the mines, tell far more of tho diff ,,
llties, dangers and privations of the =,
urney than of the richness of the ,
ggings.