Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-05-29
Among the Tin Mines.

Caster City, OAK, May l3.-Supposing
your readers would like to hear from
the lin center of the United States l
write YOU Il line about it.
Custer is q beautiful little city in the
center of the Black Hills, as well as the
center Of the tin discoveries. Situated
on French creek it is famous as the
point where Gen. Custer's men first
found gold in 1874. The vicinity is also
flmolls as the scene of some bloody In
dian massacres Of the first e%migrants,
and from where the troops removed the
earlier emigrants. In 1876 it had a
population Of seven thousand the dis
coveries of gold at Deadwood caused a
stampede of the entire population. 1t
Custer tie miners were realizing from
three to ten dollars a day ut placer min
ing. Deadwood yielded from ten to a
hundred and presto, the thousands
working here left. a wonderful hegira
took place toward the richer placers of
Wildwood. And as the venerable, far
seeing founder Of st. Joseph said in the
summer of 1880, when the mighty food
of the spring pilgrims had left st. Joseph
deserted, The emigrant gone and he
no come back" Still the gold is here
all the same, and a few parties are still
toiling in the gulches for it. | was at a
camp to-day where the men hauled the
dirt half a mile to the creek and real.
lied eight dollars per day to the man.
The reader wonders why more are
not engaged in working for the precious
metal well, because most are expecting
greater returns from quartz and tin T;
then placer mining is toe much like
work on II tread-mill it Is routine that
tires the average frontiersman. 1t has
been SAID the old Texan will do n
amount Of work on horseback, but none
otherwise, and it may apply to most Of
the pioneers, hat while they have un-
bounded energy and endurance, they
won't 40 the same thing every day for
Il week.
The coming industry is tin. Many
mines are opened and several miles
square are staked in the tin belt adjacent
to this place. 1t is no random prophecy
to predict that within ten years Custer
will have back seven thousand people,
and will ship five millions of tin n
ally; and that then the mines will only
be i'm their infancy. OF course many Of
the mines are only prospects yet, but
many are rich beyond any cavil, and
vastly richer than the famous Cornwall
of England and will pay much more
profit. One Of the richest is the famous
Dolphin group Of six mines, showing
pure tin crystals on the surface. One
thousand and five hundred pounds of
the ore was sent to New York and
smelted ffty-six pounds Of pure tin, now
to be seen in the exchange buildings at
st. Louis. This group is all rich and
was bonded to st. Louis capitalists who
are expected to SOC erect works on it.
Tin cups, tin bars and rules are common
here, having been melted from the ore
in ladies over a fire, as lead is melted to
mould bullets. Well, i have a claim
here which / obtained Il good deal AS
souri, politician that he had lost his
quarter section in Kansas in 1854. The
Missouri man claimed he had n right to
vote, because he had a claim in Salt
creek bottom. The governor told him
he was sorry to tell him he had lost his
citizenship in Kansas, for while he had
been to Missouri on a visit some Yankee
had come along and nailed a tray of
clubs over the duce with which the
claim had originally been secured, and
having out trumped had taken the
claim, and that he could not vote. In
my case the original d~iscoverer had
taken a little chassez down to Arizona
a few years since and his gold claim
had slept quietly since. | found cyl
dences of tin, and not wishing to see so
many natives unproductive outtrump-
ed him. Likely next year some other
fellow will plant the tenspot and claim
game over that mine. The Black Hills
have been famous since the earlier
trappers visited the upper Missouri, con
tanning a goodly heritage for the Once
powerful Sioux, and they relinquished
it after being reduced to a handful in
comparison. Within this century they
we're the lords of a thousand square
miles Of the richest lands of this CONT
nent and numbered $4,000. Now they
are not a tenth in numbers and are
squeezed on an insignificant reservation,
awaiting the sure process Of extinction.
RAMBLER.