Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1885-10-10
The Mines Around Custer.

!
The old time miner who has prospected
in the mountains of Colorado, Utah OF
Montana, where the mines usually range
from nine to twelve thousand feet above
sea level, would hardly expect to find as
extensive, varied and rich mineral dis
trict as is found in the comparatively
low altitude of 5000 feet, and in the
comparatively low hills such as surround
Custer City. Yet, by the time your
miner had sojourned in the vicinity for
a month, and had tested the ores from
the mines that have been opened, and
had travelled from morning till night
crossing mineral veins indicated by
continuous croppings), every few hun
dred feet, and by plying his pick and
shovel found that each Of these veins
were vertical and all bearing mineral
after its kind-some gold, some silver,
some copper, some tin, some mica, some
mickle, and some rich in mineral which
he never saw before, and to which he
of month, it would begin to dawn
upon him that he had struck about as
rich, if not the richest, mineral country
as he had ever got into; and if he should
stay here five, or even ten years, as
some of us have, he would find no cause
to change that good opinion once formed.
As an evidence Of this you may ask any
of the many miners here who have
prospected and mined in every mining
district that has been opened up in the
west since the early days Of California,
and it will be found that they all agree
on this point. Many Of these mines are
low grade gold mines but they are not
all low grade by any means; some of
them are high grade, from which ASSAYS
have been obtained running as high as
81 800 per ton. But the low grade veins
are very large, often over 100 feet across,
while the high grade are proportionately
narrow. Still i. is an unsettled ques-
ton which will pay the best We be-
lieve, however, it is in accord with the
history Of mining IN all the older min
ing districts in the west, that where the
milling capacity and the calibre of the
has been in proportion
TO the size of the vein, that the large,
low grade mines have been the most re-
Ii has certainly proven so
thus far in the Hi witness the Home
stake that that has ra,I paid al il lSj|sRds in tbs
the ore from this groupe of mines only
averages about $5 per ton. Though
many Of the smaller veins have paid
nearly as well in proportion to the
amount invested; bat the property here
is in Lawrence county. From
this the reader will understand that we
DO not intend to convey the idea that
all the good mines are in Custer county,
but we do not honestly believe land
that belief is founded on a familiarity
of the merits Of all the mining districts
Of the Black Hills, that when the same
amount Of capital and we'll directed
labor has been expended on the mines
in this county, that Custer will show the
largest net returns.
But, SAYS our northern friend, this is
merely an assertion, without proof to
which we answer. No, it is not an as
serton, it is merely an opinion, based
on the nature Of the veins, our knowl-
edge of the formation and the tests we
have made We do not wish to be un
fair; we do not intend to misrepresent
the Interests Of our neighbors, for, in a
broad sense, the whole Black Hills is
our country, and our interests are so
woven together that one part can not
prosper without the other deriving a
benefit. Still nature has stamped each
section with a difference and given to
each its own special advantages-some
thing to each which it has not given to
the other.
1t is our purpose mot in this article)
but in series of papers which will APP
pear from week to week in the CHRoNI-
Gle. to recognize these differences, to
discriminate, 70 compare and to describe
them. We can not treat the subject as
scientifically as its nature demands (that
must be left to abler hands,, but shall
give our ideas as miner speaking Of
mines. The facts as they appear we
shall state as facts. and our theory we
shall give as theory, reasoning from the
facts to the best Of our ability.
Time and space will not permit us to
peruse the theme further at this time,
but we shall endeavor to take it up in
our next.
Concentrating Ores.
1t has long been the opinion Of the