The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-01-01
THE BIG HORN.
Onieia Report OF an Exploration
Through the Famous Big orn
Mountain Ceuntry.
Grana Canens Two Thousand Fec
Deep. and Heights with Perpet-
ual Winter.
Continued

some of the cultivated lands adj
jacent to the ranches, they were z ssh
and green, due TO irrigation. Near lie
heads Of the small streams we found a
tangled luxuriant growth Of willows,
small cottonwood, rose and berry bushes.
Prairie Dag creek and the northern
fork Of Piney is only a sharp ridge
shout fifty yards at its base; and an en-
terprising ranchman was at work on q
ditch and tunnel, which would drain the
water from the latter to the bed Of the
former. 1 have 10 doubt he can do it.
There is a saw-mill on thu Piney and a
small affair on Little Goose creek ran
| by the man who made it. He informed
me that it only cost him $40, but he was
making $40 a day running it, the price
of good pine lumber being $50 per one
thousand feet. In 1876 Gen. Crooks
command camped for some time on
Little Goose creek, and the Indians
with me, some Of whom were then with
the hostiles, pointed out the hills where
they amused themselves by shooting in
to his camp, firing the grass, and other
little pleasantries. In the tributaries
of Tongue river we again found trout.
There are more small streams and
more springs, and the grass is better
than the country drained by Powder
river and its tributaries. Tongue river
terminates the settlement of the ad-
v%enturous citizen ms on the valley to the
east and north Of the Big Horn range,
as the Crow Indian reservation, bound
ed by the line between Montana and
Wyoming, takes in all The land Of any
value drained by Custer river and its
tributaries.
Only few years ago this was the
centre of thousands of hostile Sioux,
Cheyenne and Arappahoe Indians. AS
late as 1876 a brigade of troops found
great difficulty in marching through the
country, and in the fall of 1877 there
was not a ranch from old Fort Reno to
Fort Custer. To-day, from the south
ern fork Of Powder TO the northern fork
of Tongue river, the greater portion
Of the best land has been taken up by
ranchers and stockmen, and large herds
of cattle have replaced the Indian
ponies, buffalo, elk, and other game
which thrived on the nutritious grasses
and pure waters of this valley. Nearly
every stream has n or more log
shanties with thrifty vegetable gardens
and small fields of grain, potatoes and
corn.
There are thirty ranches on Little
.oose creek, having an average Of fifty
acres each under cultivation, raising
vegetables, oats, barley and a little
wheat. Nearly all the owners irrigate
their fields.
On Wolf creek there are five stock
ranches. The climb up the bill at
Tongue river we found to be about the
same as at Crazy Woman's fork, and a
rather similar plateau is reached,
though not so wide. There were fewer
open parks, and the altitude of the
mesa is considerable higher. From
some Of the higher points, just after the
ascent, we had a fine view, q grand
panorama, in fact, of the country near
the forks Of Tongue river and thetribn-
taries of Custer, and along the Big
Horn river after it leaves the mount
aims. Softened by distance and the
hay atmosphere, the bluffs in the val
ley look like gentle undulations. TAX
ing an old Indian trail, we struck the
north fork of Tongue river near the
point where Lieut.. Sibley with a small
detachment had such n narrow and
marvellous escape in 1876. One man Of
my party wa with him on that perilous
scout. lie went TO the grove of pines
where the horses were abandoned, and
found the bones of his horse which he
had tied to a tree when they were
driven into the shelter. The poor brute
had been killed before the Indians
learned that the men had abandoned
ticLl w ulthb b'itiI escape.
At this point we took the trail used
by Gen. Sheridan and party in 1877 and
followed it with some slight deviations
to Il camp on the lakes near Cloud
peak. In crossing the divide between
Tongue river and Shell creek there were
on Aug. IL, huge banks of snow near
the trail, and near them a p~rofusion Of
wild flowers, the most beautiful being
a delicate fragile little forget-me-not,
with a faint though delicate perfume.
Near the head of the south fork Of
Tongue river and at the head of small
tributaries of Shell creek, we found
some deserted mines. The shafts had
not been sunk any great depth, none
that l saw being lower than thirty feet,
so that the ore is little better than
.'noat.n
We found some very good ore he-,.
having a trace of golu and .
Mines to be valued here must be very
rich, as the cost CT developing and
working them would be extremely
great on account of the deep snow and
the difficulty and expense Of transport
ing machinery. Enough work has been
done to hold them for the present.
There was a solitary cabin, doorless and
windowless, with a huge dirty bank of
snow a few yards IN its rear The holes
in the hillside look like ready-made