Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1884-03-15

Through the kindness Of Jame'
Sutherland we are permitted to make
the following extracts from a lettcl
written by his brother Frank, formel
resident of Deadwood, dated at Belknap
Mont, Feb 2lst This is the town in
which the N. z. is interested and " whicl
they propose to boom the coming sea
son as the starting point for the mines
He says:
II came here about January 5th and
have pretty thoroughly explored the
country. The mines can tell you little
about as the snow is 50 deep no pros
pecting can be done. Several claims
now open are very rich on bed rock
but no drainage and very little fall
One man was shoveling into his boxes
with twonfeet Of water on bedrock and
he took out some very large nuggets
The gold is very coarse and full oi
quartz. Everybody is excited and the
country is booming. came here broke
and went to work on road building
into the camp, worked short time and
now have charge of construction at s.
per day and board. +. ID. Baker, secre
tary of this town and improvement com
pany, is my old Bath house partner. p
X. Fay. Baker is his right name.
will 20 into the mines again next week,
about 80 miles from here, About 100
men are coming in every day now. The
snow vas 3 to 10 feet deep last week
and now is three feet deeper here and
still showing. All roads and trails are
blockaded. have SO men on my road
8 yoke of cattle and three four mule
teams and will keep it open SO far as
constructed. John Cochran is here and
we own an interest i'm mule outfit.
saw Tom Hardwick q: Buttes. John
Flaherty is in the mines, Dennee, Dick
Low, Rowdebush and any number Of
old Black Killers. l met your old part
ner Al Dell, he has plenty Of ground
and is crazy on the camp, seems to be
nice sort Of fellow. | think the camp
will be overdone, but plenty Of room to
spread out"
AUTHENTIC.
Through the Kindness of Deputy
Ii. \. Ross we are permitted to
furnish our readers with the following
from the pen Of J. Kennady, one Of the
owners of the Old Bill, we'll known here
as one whose statements can be relied
upon:
EAGLE City, In,Ho, Feb. II, 1884.
FRIEND Ross Il arrived in the famous
mining camp Of CGur d'Alene noun
tains the first of this month. We left
the railroad at what is known as Trout
creek station and in crossing the sum
nit Of the Cpur d'Alene mountains we
over from five to nine feet of
snow. We found people wild with ex-
element. but more over town lots than
else. The only information !
have had in regard to the mines got
from Bill Keelerand and Dave Ingall
they worked some on their claim before
snow fell and as near rs | can guess by
what they tell me, they cleaned up
about 81 500 in little over one month
There has been no other prospecting
done that ] can judge by and it will be
late next summer before we know any
thing about the wealth of tins camp
The general supposition is that the camp
will be good, but that is all we know
about it. My advice to anyone thinking
Of coming here is to stay away until
May at least. 1t SHOWS here every day
and will probably keep it up till the last
Of March. When the snow begins to
melt water will bother the miners.
There has been some fine quartz found
here but it is not known how extensive
it is.
have not seen X. s. Burke since /
got here. He is somewhere between
here and Heron Station prospecting with
seven others in company.
Any flying reports from the camp
should not be noticed as the business
and railroad men are urging the
stampede all they can and plenty Of lies
are afloat at present-not saying that
the camp is no good-but / do know
that those who are blowing up the camp
know nothing about it outside of the
one prospect before spoken Of / be-
lief myself it will be good camp, but at
present can give no good reason for the
belief.
Respectfully yours,