Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-07-09
rhe BIncDx Irill. sry.tery.

The question % to whether the Black
Hills were or were not occupied by white
men prior TO the white settlement Of
l875-76 is being discussed by the Eastern
and Western PRESS. The Kansas City
Times, through its special correspondent,
announced the discovery near Calamity
Peak, on French Greek, OF the remains Of o
white mans camp or settlement, long since
deserted and abandoned. And it gave
forth the opinion then that the Black Hills
had been inhabited many years before Tai
lant's colony from Sioux City entered the
hills and made the first white settlement
ct Custer.
The statement made by the Sioux City
Journal, and now going the rounds Of the
press, announcing the discovery of the
relics Of white mems presence in the hills
many years ago, is confirmed by discover
les made by . gentleman in Kansas City,
who spent evsral years scouting in the
hills IS early as 1868. A party Of scouts,
including Henry Levin, Wilbur F. Harris,
Thomas Ferrier, Charles Engle and the
Kansas City man, found at the mouth Of
Beaver Creek, ct its junction with the
Cheyenne river, the skulls of three men, the
remnants of boats, the bones Of two horses,
. few rusty mining tools and other relics
Of : white mans camp. They were found
in the centre Of q natural fort or fortitica-
ton, on the crest Of a rocky backbone or
ledge. The large slabs of loose stone, d.
up edgeways a. . wall Of protection, WERE
snll In position as left by the unknown
pioneers who were killed there, perhaps
{ generation before. The bones were
bleached and decayed, and had certainly
laid there for years.
Another positive evidence Of the early
occupation of the Black Hills is furnished
by the Kansas City Times correspondence
Ia 1876, when another and a larger de-
serted camp was discovered near Tallant's
stockade, near French Greek. Here Col
onel Tallant, the leader of the white colo
nists, expelled from the Hills in the sum-
..s.r OF 1875, pointed out the remains of
white mem. settlements. In the bed OF
tho creek we're the remains OF rudely con-
structed sluice boxes, formed D. cnopping
the heart out Of cottonwood logs. lhere
we're four or five Of these, two of them in
IN advanced stage Of decay. The remains
Of two shovels, rusted, rotten and decayed,
pieces OF tin and fragments Of iron, evil
IDENTIFY OF frying pans and kettles, were
found not far from the decayed sluice
boxes. Near where these curious relics
were found was seen the former home OF
these mysterious and unknown pioneers.
A few pine poles, rotted by age, and falling
down, were found leaning against a shelter
ing rock, not far from the creek. These
had formed the support to therude miners
home many years before.
The strangest and most interesting fea-
ture about this camp was a rude wooden
cross, formed by pine poles tied together
with rawhide, and which stood upright
against q rock not far from the ruins of the
old cabin. On one side Of this cross, rude
" cut into the face of the moss brown
granite rock were two letters, ~. M" and
the date, 1885, This had evidently been
erected to mark the grave Of some unfor-
tunate pioneer, who had died there 20
years before. The fate of his companion
can only be conjectured, but from the APP
p~earance Of the camp ground, the broken
tools and camp equipage. it is infcrable
they fell victims to the ferocity Of the ter
rible Crows or Blackfeet or the jealous
Minneconjous or b~loodthirsty Uncapapas,
who nov follow the incorporating Sit
ting Bull.