The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-04-27

He Says Black Hills Gold is No Myth.

their only, load being gold dust and the
stage guards. One day last week Mr..
Salisbury, the proprietor of the stage
line, tells me, his stage brought down
$1,000 worth Of gold. The superin-
tendent of the Union Pacific Express
(Mr. Marsman) reports that the road
shipped Black Hills gold east to the
amount of So, 200, 600 last summer.
At Cheyenne 1 called On Stebbins,
Post SC Co., bankers. They showed
me several bags and boxes of gold.
"Come in after the stage arrives to-
morrow" said Mr.. Post, land We'll
show you more"
1 called in the next day after the
stage came, and saw the daily arrival.
1t weighed out $4,000. 1t consisted of
gold dust, retort gold rendered from
gold quartz, and nuggets, One nugget
weighed nine ounce
do you buy and ship much gold?''
1 asked.
eyes, sir, we ship a good deal. We
shipped to our New York people
Kountze Brothers, - Wall street
s 2 400 in gold dust yesterday. On the
It'll Of April wa shipped $1,000; on the
4th, $1,000. We have received from
the Black Hills, up to this time, over
half a million dollars. But, SIR" adj
ded the banker, "why don't you jump
into the stage and go up there? It's
only ~forty-eight hours. Go and see
for yourself. / tell you, sir, it will
bear inspection. We estimate that
over 5000, 900 in dust, retort gold,
and nuggets were taken out of the
Hills last year; and this year, sir,
SIS. 600, 900 will come out. Go up
there, sir-go up!''
The next morning L took the stage
a regular old Concord coach-for Dead
wood, determined to see and knowfor
myself, and give the Sun readers the
bottom facts about the Black Hills gold
mines.
The stage went by Fort Laramie,
ninety miles from Cheyenne, Hat
Creek, Red Canon and Custer City.
Custer City, fifty miles south Of Dead
wood, contains about 5000 people. The
mines of Battle creek, French creek
and Rapid creek are near Custer. The
mining here is mostly gulch mining.
That is, a long wooden trough is made,
and the water runs into it. Then the
miners shovel the dirt into the trough,
and the water washes off the dirt,
leaving the heavy gold dust in the bot
tom. There is considerable gulch min
ing going on around Custer City, but,
owing to the scarcity of water, the mi
ners have chosen to push On fifty miles
further to Deadwood.
Deadwood is the objective point for
all caravans, stages, etc. 1t is the
centre of the Black Hills gold fields.
The town stretches eight miles up and
down Deadwood gulch, a stream which
I should say runs about a quarter as
much water as the Croton aqueduct.
This stream furnishes the water for all
the wooden sluices and rockers. Rock
ers are made like a cradle. They fill
them half full of dirt and water, and
then rock the cradle till the gold set
ties to the bottom. Deadwood has a
telegraph Office, II daily newspaper, and
$4,000 people. 1 should judge there
we're $4,000 people along Deadwood
gulch.
Here l found miners really getting
out gold in paying quantities. Many
of the miners are close mouthed, but 1
saw some of them taking out from So
to 500 per day in the placer mines
that is, the mines where the gold is
washed out by hand.
The gold is found in gold quartz, in
dust, and in nuggets. Many of the
placer mines yield fifty cents worth of
dust to a bushel of dirt. Nuggets are
found weighing from a quarter of an
ounce to five pounds. The Williams
Brothers, three of them, took 1000
pounds of dust out of Deadwood gulch
last summer. This would be worth
Sale, 1000.
Old California miners say the gold
bearing quartz, a brown quartz specked
with gold, is the richest ever found in
! this country. There are now three
| steam quartz mills in working order in
Deadwood gulch; also n ball crusher
! and two arastras. Six quartz mills for
breaking and grinding the quartz are
now on their way from Cheyenne, and
the miners say that there will be TWEEN.
ty-fve steam quartz mills located
around Deadwood before fall. There
are sixty miles of gulches around Dead
wood; miners are prospecting or work
ing in almost all of them.
/ Four or five hundred new corners are
pouring into Deadwood daily. The
hotels are crowded. Log boarding
houses speck every hillside. Board is
from So per week to 1926. New
comers, as soon as they get rested GO
out prospecting, and soon get settled in
some gulch or mine near Deadwood.
Thousands of p~rospectors are now NOV.
ling up into the Big Horn country. AL