Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-01-02
The Mines Around Custer.
THE GRAND JUNTION NINE.

The Grand junction mine ia located
about six miles north from custer City
on high divide which separates the
waters Of Spring creek and Tenderfoot
yulches. The scenery around this Sec
ion, consisting AZ il does Of ever green
hills, between which are broad streaks
of park country, is exceedingly pictur-
csque and pleasing. The town which
axes its name from the mine, which
| axes its name from the conformation OF
he country, and was sugge sted by the
fact that right here five different gulches
come together, forming n grand junction
which makes it a very appropriate name
for both mine and town.
The Grand Junction ia not a newly
discovered mine by any means. 1t is
quite noted, has been quite extensively
worked, (after a4ashion) and has his
tory sufficiently interesting to Justify
a narration here. In the summer Of '76
DR.. White, Robt Breckenridge, and a
man by the name Of Abbott. did the
| first work on what is now the Grand
junction mine, which consisted in sink
ing to bedrock in the gulch near the
north end Of the mine, this open cut il
some 80 fee. long. Later the same year,
the afore mentioned Abbot ran in an
other cut, near the centre Of the mine,
on the east side Of the lode. Here he
claims TO have found good prospect,
and put up location stake, but went to
Deadwood the same year when nearly
everybody did from Custer. In April,
1879, John G. Woodruff and Roht. Brick.
enridge claimed to have located il un.
der the name ef the Lilly Of the West"
They made no record, did no work and
were not on the mine. On May 5tE fol-
lowing. c. c. Crary, Jas. =. Friend,
Joseph Somers, F. A. Towner, Freeman
T. Powers and Parker Masters, located
it as the Grand Junction." and applied
at once for patent. Developed it quite
extensively by sinking two shafts, one
80 feet and one 35 feet deep, cross-cut in
the north shaft "a feet in ore. uncovered
the lode for 100 feet at the exterior
south end, disclosing rich ore. On the
22nd of July, 1880, the mine was bonded
TO Chas. L. Arnold, extensive coffee
DEALER Of Nork, for $l35,000, 5000 for
felt, for ninety days. Before the bond
expired Mr.. Arnold failed. The owners
meantime were erecting a 20. stamp mill
in the gulch directly west Of the mine
Dropped stamps September 4th, 1880,
continued to run until December cath
following, when the water JAILED. Made
two more runs in May and June, 1881 {.
when sale was made to John Elliott
for ST. Louis firm. Elliott moved the
mill TO near Spring creek. one and one
half miles from the mine, where he
added 20 stamps more and got to run
ming about January J. 1882. Mr.. Elliott
run the mine and mill quite steadily
until May, 1882, when it WAS closed
down. The property soon after passed
into the hands Of Alkire and company
Of st. Louis, this was done in pursuance
Of foreclosure Of mortgage. The COM
pany reorganized under the name Of
the Constant Mining company, Ia close
corporation) and in about six months
started up again under the superinten-
dence Of Mr.. J. Mcdonald, who run
mine and mill continuously until some
time in February, 1888, when by order
from headquarters work was again dis
continued. Mr.. Mcdonald, however,
remaining on and in charge until July,
1883. when he resigned and the property
was turned over to John Wilhelm as
watchman, who lived on the premises
with his family. The property now
layed idle for year, until July, 1884.
when Mr. G. w. Robbins was called to
take charge. under whom, with Mr.. ID.
w. McFadden as foreman in the mine,
and Aaron Dunn as amalgamator in the
mill, work on the mine WAS again re-
sumed, and the mill, that is 20 stamps
we're set going, the balance we're hung
up disabled. Up to this time none of
these runs had been successful. The
reason is plain and easily stated. Each
failure has arisen, not so much from bad
management Of mine and mill as it was
| from bad arrangement at the beginning.
It is not the fault Of the mine for, al.
though it is low grade, it is nevertheless
rich enough to pay handsomely under
economical arrangement. business man
agelnent, skillful mining and scientific
amalgamating. But il must have all
of these to succeed. to fail in one is to
fail in all, and all of these the mine has
never received. As We have remarked
before, the whole arrangement is ad-
mirably planned for magnificent fail
ure and it is very hard to make any
thing else out Of it. without radical
change. Although the last run which
yielded about three times as much as
any previous run. and showed net
profit above all expenses. and would
have continued had the water not frozen
in the fume, which it did, and necessi-
tated the closing down Of the mill on
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