Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-04-03
TN INGoTs.
Custer County's Claims Corroborated.
Brace of TIN Pigs run From Custer ore,
Now on Exhibition in St. Louis.

Louis Daily Globe Democrat OF March
Goth, will be especially interesting tt
our local readers. The Dolphin mine j,
: situated six miles west Of Custer City
twenty miles west of the Eta, and thirty
miles northwest of Buffalo Gap and one
the many prominent locations in this
, vicinity that will doubtless become i'm
portant in the early future:
There are two ingots of pure tin in
the Aye of steel office mined In the
Black Hills country. great deal o
interest attaches 10 these black iumps
Of metal, as they represent the fruit oi
the first real y valuable tin find in
America. Ii has been claimed frequent
ly that America has deposit some
where Of every metal commercially
valuable. On that theory there has
been for years an exhaustive search for
tin by manufacturers and associations.
At one time it was thought the find had
been made in this state. but investors
aiterward learned the mine had been
sated to deceive them. Later another
discovery was made in Mexico, and It.
Louis capitalists had investigations
made which cost some money. AS a
result they found the metal there was
what is known rs stream tin it was
.unnd In nuggets two years ago an old
prOspeCtor discovered traces of tin in
he Black Hills, in Pennington county,
- T. lie opened there the Eta mine,
which was stocked in New York, and
the company Is now preparing to begin
operations. About 100000 has been
expended in stamp mills and sme%in.
,t,,u 20, -.
mine. A year later II p Moore, of =; a..
Louis, exploring for tin found it, in the
Black ills also, in Custer county, some
few miles from the Eta. He opened a
mine and called it the Dolphin. This
mine was stocked in st. Louis, and the
largest number Of shares are held by
Mr.. Moore and his brother.in-law, H.
II Green, Of the Green Car Company
The ingots mentioned weigh tifty-four
pounds, and are the reduction of $50
pounds Of ore shipped to New York and
smelted by an experienced man. In
this report the assayer says the ore con-
tains 3.53 per cent Of white tin and 7O6
pounds to the ton. The best Cornish
ore pays about twenty pounds to the
ton. 1t was well worth the freightage
on $50 pounds Of ore from the Dolphin
to New York to learn this. and il insures
10 the owners Of the mine as extravagant
returns as though the product was gold
and not simply tin. In America, though,
a tin mine will be as valuable as one
producing gold, for heretofore England
has manufactured all the tin plates used
in the world. and the United States has
taken two-thirds of EngIand's product
SO great has this consumption been, and
so remote was the prospect of tin plates
being manufactured in this country, the
duty on plates has been but l5 per cent
al ralorem, and on tin pigs has been
nominal The American Tinned-Plate
Association composed of large mum
ber of manufacturers interested in the
industries where tin is used, exerted its
energies and influence for several wears
to secure an advance of the tariff TO a
point sufii 'ientlv high to allow the
manufacture of plates to be carried on
protitaDiy IN this country. This was be-
fore an authentic find OF native tin was
made, and now that the Black Hills
promise to give all the crude metal that
can be used, more active efforts will he
made to secure tariff advances. The
known deposits heretofore have been
in Cornwall, where the mines have
operated since Julius Caesars days and
before; in New South Wales, and
Cochin China. The Cornish mines are
no longer turning out paying quantities
of ore, and fit was not the operations
are SO primitive as to consume but little
money they would be abandoned. The
| China mines are not operated largely,
and little seems known about them.
New South Wales has enjoyed the dis
tinction of furnishing the greatest part
of the worlds need in tin for some
years, and all Of its product has been
shipped TO English manufacturers Of
plates. Makers in this country would
have had no difficulty in buying as
much as they could handle Of this pro-
duet, but the cost Of manufacture, which
is from % to 400 per cent higher in this
country than in England, has preveted
their entering into competition. A few
competitive efforts have been made,
however. The very high prices of tin
plates that had prevailed in American
markets up to 1872, although the duty
was low, induced some enterprising
workmen, who had been employed in
tin plate works in Wales, to build works
at Wellsville, 0. The quality of work
turned out by these works was excellent.
Plates were successfully made in Leech-
burg, Pa, between 1873 and 1875, sam
pies of which. when sent to England,
excited surprise because of their beauty
of finish and excellent quality. Both OF
these works had closed early in 1879.
About that time works were rnt in
operation in Demmier, Pa. The prices
had then fallen about 20 per cent below
the 1872 quotations, still reasonable
profit could be made. Fearing grow
ing American competition, English
makers rapidly reduced prices, to crush
out of existence the American makers
The fight lasted until 1873, whe prices
had fallen 10 and 100 per cent below the
1872 quotations. At this point Ameri-
can competition failed.
In anticipation of the commencement
of home manufacture, the mines in the
Black Hills are being put in shape to
turn out immense quantities of tin The
Dolphin, from which the pigs previous
ly mentioned come, is one of a series Of
eight mines, which lie near Buffalo Gap,
on the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri
Val y railroad, branch Of the Chicago
Northwestern. The connection of the
gap with civilization by means of the
railroad was only made few mo, this
aro, and the last rail vas put down With
Ia iin.spikc driven hv a mica hammer.