Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1883-11-01
Published Every Thursday.
THE NEW GOLD FIND.
Tho Facts Connected With Ransom Coun.
tvs Rich Bonanza.
Lisbon Star

Tho Facts Connected With Ransom Coun-
tvs Rich Bonanza.
Lisbon Star.
The Star is to-day enabled to give the
sequel to certain mysteriops movements
of strange meni this vicinity. For the
past six weeks the Headquarters hotel
has been the stopping place for "a Chi
cago gentleman named II. W. Griswold.
His arrival on the noon train from the
east has invariably been followed, in the
afternoon, by his departure in livery
rig for some heretofore unkhow point
up the Sheyenne valley. Sometimes he
had friend or two with him, but he
most frequently Travelled alone. With
in the last ten days other strangers
have appeared on the scene, stopped at
the same hotel, and then diappeared in
the same quiet and suspicious manner.
Further up the "gulch," (Which term
we can now appropriately apply to our
celebrated Valley the emystery surround
ing the movements of Mr.. Griswold
and his friends seem to have been great
ly intensified. The settlers in the
neighborhood of WiSner's mills. and
along the river as far up as Fort Ran
som, have wondered and speculated as
to the canse of the presence of so many
strangers. A month ago a small out
house on the Harris farm, on section 10,
1857, was occupied by queer piece Of
machinery which made Il terrible noise.
The neighbors held an Indignation
meeting, and decided that gang of
illicit distillers had taken up their abode
in the community, which had hitherto
acquired some degree of notoriety for
the temperance proclivities of its in
inhabitants. A Mr.. Madigan did not
agree to the whisky theory. He be-
lieved the strange men were either ban
dts or counterfeiters. Our esteemed
cotemporary took it for paint mill.
And SO the whole thing has gone un-
solved, and it remains for the Star to
lay before its readers to-day the true
inwardness" of the mystery, with its
detailed developments. In July last
gold mine was discovered by Mr.. Girls
wold and his associates on the north
east quarter of section 10, town 135,
range 81. An association was immeti-
ately formed, composed of George c.
Fry, Edward P. Baker, w. f. Sargent
and II. w. Griswold, all of Chicago, and
representing a considerable amount of
capital. The west half of section 10,
belonging to man named Harris, was
purchased, complete outfit of assay
er's impliments and chemicals was OBJ
tained in Chicago, and quietly taken to
the diggins," and other preparations
and arrangements were perfected, pre-
liminary to opening up the mine. In
the meantime samples of the mineral
were sent to well known assayers and
a systematic prospecting campaign was
inaugurated. Other tracts of land
were acquired either by purchase or by
mineral rights being filed thereon, and
everything being in complete readiness
| ~ "te' NSSibSu w SiNC VIC ptoplt VI LIS
bon and the rest Of the world the plain
unvarnished facts and let them take
their course. We have before us the
certificate of Walter Lee Brown, one Of
the leading assayers of Chicago and
author of a work on assaying, which is
in use in most Of our schools and collie
ges. Prof. Browns certificate shows
800 per ton of 1000 pounds as the result
of an assay made by him from rock
taken from the main lode on section
ten. Prof, w. A. Baldwin, also a well
known Chicago assayer, made twenty
assays, most of them from the same
lode. The lowest assay was two dollars
and siXty-two cents and the highest
torty-three dollars and forty-eight cents
per ton. Assays by Prof. Baldwin,
which were from samples taken at diff
ferent points in the valley as far up as
Fort Ransom, and one of them from
sand and gravel taken from the mouth
of a gopher hole showed $2l0 in gold
and thirty-seven dollars in silver
which is just about enough to make
ones head swim to think of the possi-
bilities of our gilt-edged valley. James
A. Dodge, professor in chemistry in the
Minnesota university, got fifteen dol
lars per ton as the result of an assay
Several twenty dollar assays were made
at the Northwestern university in
Evanston, Illinois, Prof. &. A. Marri-
ner, analytical chemist and aSsayer of
| Chicago, obtained similar results, and
about l40 assays made on the ground
| by Mr.. GriswOld show figures in keep
ing with those already given. The
original or "mother lode" of this ne W
Ell Dorado crops out on the west side of
asteep banked gulch, down which the
Tower City and Great Southern rail
road company has just completed the
survey for a new line. The ledge is
composed of a dark gray rock, very
brittle, protruding from the earth for a
distance of 1900 feet north and south.
An expert now on the ground says the
rock will work very easily.
Besides having purchased large
body of land in the vicinity on which
patents had been issued, thus making
titles to lands secure, and over which a
mineral claim will not hold, the associa-
tion has surveyed and staked out nu-
merous lode and placer claims on ada
cent unpatented lands. The country
has not been prospected above Fort
Ransom, and as the character of the
formation further up the valley north
and west of the fort closely resembles
that where gold and silver are now
known to exist, future developments in
that section will be watched with deep
interest.