Omaha daily bee., 1880-05-07
BLACK HILLS

become q necessity 70 tne pusiless
throughout the west.
BLACK HILLS NUGGETS.
Custer has organized q fire depart
ment and only needs q supply OF water
to make it effective.
The Homestake company at Lead
will build a new mill as soon as the
present one is completed.
Diamond City has a population of
about $50, and is likely to have an
increase as rich strikes have been
made nesr the camp.
The mail service between Rapid
City and Rockford is to be increased
to three trips q week, and will supply
Pactola and Diamond City.
The general roundup of stock of
northern Nebraska, a portion OF Wyo-
ming and Forsythe and Custer coun-
ties, will commence May 20.
Rapid City is striving to work up
interest in a Black Hills fair that it is
proposed to hold. 1t has 160 acres of
land set apart for that purpose.
A road from Custer to the Fort
Pierre road, at the Cheyenne river
crossing, via Battle river, is n of
the possibilities of the near future.
A new stage station is being intro
duced on the Sidney line, between
Big Cottonwood and the Junction,
and the latter will be removed further
north. t-
Several parties are sluicing on Ruby
aud Strawberry gulches, Galens, with
good results, several nuggets having
been found weighing from five t. thir-
ty dollars.
A force of men is employed build
ing a read from Rockford via Poverty
gulch to Myers City. The new road
will be half a mile shorter than the
old one.
In Deadwood hay is selling for about
$40 8 ton; higher than it has ever
been since the settlement of of the
Hills, and it is liable to go still high
or, as there is but little of it.
Deadwood's "Tammany ring" is
broken. VIM. Jones, ex county COM
missioner of Lawrence county, has
made q confession duplicating the
board of commissioners, register and
treasurer in a $l7 900 steal.
The long contested case of the
Boulder ditch, involving half a mil
lion dollars, has come to an end, so
far as the jury is concerned. The
Homestake mining company gained a
victory in being sustained IN their
using the water.
The government is now at work
distributing and planting the telegraph
poles to fill up the missing link be-
tween Rapid City and Fort SulIy, and
in a short time will be in direct COM
muuication with the Missouri river
towns.
Work is nearly finished inside the
Highland mill, and men are framing
the timbers and putting them in
place for the tramway as fast IS they
arrive. In a few days Lead can
count one more big mill in running
order.
The owners of placer claims in Skull
and Friday gulches near Rapid City,
are taking advantage of the melting
snow and washing considerable dirt
Some are rocking out an average of
forty dollars a day with the limited
supply of water at command.
The miners Of Nevada gulch feel
greatly encouraged over the prospects
in that district. Silver carbonates
are being foundt that givepromise of be-
ing very rich. The formation is some
what broken up, but the lower they
get the more favorable 1t looks.
In the southern Hills they have a
big excitement over the discovery of
another rich dry placer diggings. The
new diggipgs are located at the head of
Warren gulch, six miles west Of Gus
ter. The dirt, which is hauled some
distance, pays $40 per load. A scheme
is on foot to bring water into these
new diggings.
The Savage tinnel company is max.
ing great progress in its work. The
lume to bring the water to the boilers
is nearly completed. It is n~earlythree-
quarters OF q mile in length, and Is
boxed the entire distance. The en-
gines and boilers will soon be in posi-
ton, and then with the aid of steam
the drilling will be more rapidly done.
Quite . force of men are at work, and
it will soon look like q town up there
in the mountains.
The prospects for the Bear gulch
district are better now than they ever
have been, and q stampede into that
country would not be in any manner
surprising. A ditch has peen con.
structed from Bear gulch creek to
Niger Hill, carrying water to the
placer grounds on that hill. The
largest nuggets ever found in the
country were taken from the gravel
there. It is said that a pound of gold
dust il taken out with q single rocker
from that gulch, and it is expected
that rich c~lean-ups will be the re.
suit OF sluicing that gravel this season.
Rockford has Just completed the
biggest quartz mill in the world, the
Standby. The mill has 60 stamps,
with q capacity of reducing 1900 tons
of r . month. It is a solid and
substantial structure, with all the
most practical modern improvements.
Its motive power is the water of
Little Rapid, a constantly. flowing
stream Of 1000 inches, elevated at the
mill to 100 feet vertical pressure by
the company's substantial and costly
structure of three miles of ditch and
lume. Laffell's double. acting tur-
bine wheel is employed. The ore is
carried to the mill by 600 feet of mule
tramway from the mouth of the tun-
mel to the head of the incline, thence
400 feet by the INSTRUMENTATION
tramway to the mill.