Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-07-07
BLACK HILLS LETTER.
The Opinion Of One who Thinks tt
n Great Country.
CITY,
Lawrence county, ID. T.

~ THE ECREKA SENTINEL: Old
friend-Having seen my name men,
toned in your issue of -June, by
my friend Bob Stewart, and feeling
that 1t might be misunderstood, I take
the liberty Of replying and giving facts
and my fancies ABOUT this new Dora>b.
1 arrived here in the worst part of
last winter, everything covered with
the beautiful snow, and the thermome-
ter ranging, for six weeks, from about
200 above to 250 below zero. Every
thing was closed up, in the shape of
mining, and nothing doing except
occasional days, or parts of davs.
When they could they would work a
little on a house or mine to make IL
more comfortable, or facilitate work
for he coming spring-but spring was
a long time coming. After snow
ceased, as a regular visitor. we had
almost constant showers for two
months. But summer has now fairly
commenced, as there has been several
days as hot as Manager Probert's
works, but without the obnoxious
smell.
There was a great immigration here
in the spring-April and May-but it
has abated considerable and there are
but few coming in nov OF this i'm
migration, sOne estimate that three
thousand have taken up rifle and AK,
and gone to the Big Horn country to
open up and prospect that fahulously
rich country-while it has left here a
lot of i~mpecunious tender-feet to lie a
dead q upon a new community, as
they neither have the means to pros
pect, or the information OF how To do
il if they did have the means, and so
no one with money wishes to outfit
them, and they find it a hard road to
travel and naturally curse the eDuntr
for their iuafiiciencv, or bad luck, as
they term it. ! consider all business,
outside of mining. over done, and it is
no place for a man, at present, unless
he comes prepared To prospect or spec
ulate. My profession has not been
sighted, but they find that they are
not posted in mining surveying, and
therefore don't hold on we'll. One of
our important officials, after a brilliant
and short career, has taken his Depart
ure-
Gone from our gaze like q beautiful star,
To conquer new worlds in the Big Horn
atar-
Nv ~ oo'fi iAO ItSsliptl az W MHtIt
we are there has been a question
raised as To whether we are in Wyom-
ing or Dakota) is settled and the land
Office opened for business, there will
be better times, at least for surveyors,
as the mines of the country have suffi-
cient Inducements for their owners to
make every endeavor to get indisputa-
ble titles-and speaking OF the mines
brings me to my friend Bob Stewart.
He says / scold him out OF town be
cause he don't say this is the best
country he ever saw. Well, if
YOU should run across a great
big boy sitting astrids of a fence, with
a face as long as the ten command
ments, and tears as large as Dead wood
nuggets running down his cheeks,
you naturally van to know what's
The matter. And he slim
Shocks got u new hat, and my ma
won't give me one.' Now, that was
Bob's fix. He came in here a year az
ter the discovery, and he found all The
earlier settlers with new hats, and
from his looks then you would have
thought that he never had any. But
he ma, got into fair diggings now, and
looks and talks better, although he
said at first that he wouldn't give one
big sagebrush Tor all the berries in the
Black Hills. But j don't blame him,
for if any one knows what a sagebrush
is good for, It's Bob.
As for this country, there can be no
question of its richness. 1t is young
yet, not quite two years old, and there
fore only slightly developed, for no
quartz lodes were located prior to this
time last year, and at this time last
year il was not safe for a man to pros
80. a. -. .,,tAZ x.ax f.A.. I.-I
canyon; yet the developments so far
have shown a richer surface than the
great Comstock, including Gold Hill,
ever had; and as for its future, no one
eau tell that, but it promises as fair as
any camp | ever saw, and better thar
Eureka did in 1870. Some claim that
il is not sufficiently extensive. but that
can't be so, if we TAX experience and
comparison into consideration. The
belt crosses the head or near the head
of Deadwood gulch. and continues to
near the head of Whitewood, about
four miles long. This is the rich belt,
aud in the immediate neIghborhood of
Deadwood; and then there are outside
districts that certainly have merit,
from the description of miners who
have visited them and the ores they
have produced. These districts are all
Wilnln the TdnR6 Oh MY miles, anu are
as near as / can remember as follows:
False Bottom, Bare But,es, Castle
Creek, Bear Gulch, Sand Creek, Battle
Creek, Spring Greek aud Rapid Greek,
Deadwood and Wildwood being the
center of The mines at present, and The
most developed. AS q dwood, False
Bottom, Castle Creek, Rapid Greek and
Bare Buttes have all shown good pros
poets and good ore. l taxi it that you
and l have to consider it good until
proven bad; and taking il altogether,
If this country will produce its pro
rata according to its prospects, it will
not be many years when it will equal,
if not rival. our older Batlle-born
State, which | believe produced near
iy fifty millions last year..
Deadwood City, now a little more
than a year old, is the largest mining
town l have ever seen. 1t contains
about 1000 inhabitants, with as many
more in its vicinity. 1t has two
theaters, one melodeon, and a large
dance house, about IL faro banks,
EnD. a. u tho Snnnra also thran hanE.