Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-08-28

~ ia ~ III = 40 W
after the dashing cayalryman whose
tragic death took place in the Big Horn
mountains, a range to be seen from the
tops of the limestone cliffs to the west
ward Of the town. Looking at a strik-
ing feature two miles to the east Of the
village, we were told that it was
Calamity Peak, and learned that il was
presumably in grateful remembrance of
Calamity Jane" a famous resident Of
Custer, who came in with Crooks COM
mand, ostensibly as u tsamster. Calam-
ity Jane was accomplished in her way.
Admiring cowboys and not a few solid
old-timers will relate with something
like pride tales of her beauty, her skill
with the bullwhip and the revolver, and
her splendid horsemanship. She serv-
! ed as waitress awhile in the first res
~taurant here, and VIC betide the uniuc, V
pilgrim who caviled at the provender
she placed before him. Stories are rife
Of her encounters with desperadoes anG
Of her disarming one of the old-stvle
dead drop" Mershals that were a nee
essity in TIE early days Of the frontier
towns. She married a wealthy young
tenderfoot and is said to be running q
clearinghouse in the C9u- d'Alene
region.
The hills around Custer seem an
epitome Of all Natures efforts in min
eral production. Sold, silver, copper,
tin, nickel, and iron are all here. Mica
mines are in abundance, some half
million dollars worth having ALREADY
been shipped from this point. In the
search for mica some Of the best iin
leads have been located. the miners
being mystified for a considerable time
by the peculiar unknown rock which
afterwards proved tin. There are also
found in the bills almost all the rare
minerals known to scientists-tantalum.
platinum, uranium, rhodium, molyb-
denum, etc. In the comparatively small
a.ea Of the hills are found more mineral
varieties than the largest continent
holds.
"As we drive westward from Custer
to visit a few characteristic mines Of a
large group of tin-bearing claims we
pass through park after park Of the
most astonishing beauty. To compare
any of them with the best efforts of
mans artificial work would be to 'gi|d
refined gold" Many of them are un-
occupied, and back in the hills sorne
presumably have never felt the foot O:
white man save the hunter and trapper.
We were constantly passing picturesque
cowboys who rode like Cen:aurs, and
bull teams" and bull p~unchers'' ~ho
! drove like nothing heretofore kaown.
Some of these outfits have as riany as
sixteen long-horned oxen yoked in
teams to the wagons, and none less than
ten. The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
with teamsters, although taken as Il
deadly slight by the coach-drivers to be
thus co~nstiuctively placed in the same
categorv-are a picturesque lot of
brigands The colored brethren and
our Mexican neighbors predominant in
this profession. l had heard OF their
proficiency in swearing, but must aver
that the specimens OF the class seen in
the Black Hills are given over entirely
to a mumbling inoantation which never
gets above a strange recitative mono
tone.
I'VE visited several mines in this
neighborhood With pretty much the
same results as before. except that it
began TO dawn on us hat tin is dissent
mated III rocks in Ibis portion Of the
hills in @ manner hitherto unknown
and unsupported, being found only in
the talcose slate and granite and schist-
ose rocks. / collected specimens of tin
in these rocks in micaceous schist, al
bite. por1hvry, and quartz, associated
with other minerals, but never il COM
bination or debased nor does the lin
appear TO have ever been injected into
the mass Of which. it is a constituent.
but rather it formed its constituent part
from the beginning. The belief also
grows that as these mines are developed
ard worked and SIS operations extend
into the earth's interior the veins vii
De more CONSTRUCTED and richer in char.
acter. while from the shape of the hitls
the cost Of mining will not increase in
proportionate ratio. In fact, in money
cost the deepening, or what would cor
respond to deep mining elsewhere,
might decrease in the same ratio as the
Gepth increased until at least a maxi-
mum depth Of 400 feet was reached, aud
every foot of this would be in paw ore.
This conclusion is reached by the CON
sensus Of experience in all mining
localities, and il conformable to the
generally approved geologic and metal.
lurgic reasons hat obtain among scieI.-
lists and skilled workers.
"The limestone range that stands like
an impossible barrier against the west |
ern horizon twelve to sixteen miles |
distant-and, indeed. but few <pasible