Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-11-08
THE BLACK HILLS OF DAKOTA.
BY Frederick StearnS

The Territory of Dakota is nearly an
oblong square, about three times the area
of New York State, and containing in
round numbers about 10000 square
miles. The general surface consists of
vast, grassy plains covering thick sedi
mentary deposits.
In the southwest corner of Dakota is
the Black Hills region, with an area of
1920 square miles.
The name Black Hills comes from the
fact that from whichever side the region
is approached over slightly undulating
plains of q greenish yellow or reddish
brown, the hills loom up upon the hori-
zon dark or almost black with the somber
green of the evergreen timber clothing
their tops.
The Black Hills are peculiar in so much
as they are younger or more recent than
the plains, and have been pushed up by
volcanic force through the vast area of
level strata which forms the surface else
where.
It is evident that at one time the whole
Black Hills region, in the form of loaf
like elevation, was several thousand feet
higher than it is now, and was an isolated
islahd IN the midst of narrow inland
sea, the upheayai carrying with it, with
out much disturbance, all the sedimen-
t9ry formations peculiar to the upper
Missouri region. Since which vast erod
iuy agencies, aqueous ard glacial have
cut and carved down tbs surface of the
loaf to its present condition, and the
geological sequence in this chapter in
the book Of nature can here be read with
the utmost facility and ease.
A clear record from the compact, sticky
clays of the Tertiary period down TO the
gray archiean rooks.
The highest attitudes where the granite
ab0unds, Harvey Peak, is 5000 feet, while
the average elevation of the hill region
may be stated at 5000 feet, this above
the sea; but above the plains surround
ing the hills from $500 to $500.
While the plains themselves are abso,
lutely treeless, the hill tops and peaks, as
stated before, are covered with timber,
principally species of pine, "pinus
pondeross," not Unlike Norway pine, con-
tanning much more pitch than our Michi-
gan pine. This affords abundance of
fuel al d timber for mining purposes.
The arohean rocks which form the can
ter of the uphesval of the Back Hills,
consist of very coarse granite crystal
lice, containing much feldspar. Togeth
er with Huronian echists and states, these
cover an area of over 5000 square miles
and, of course, contain the important
mineral deposits.
Over these lie successfully red sandstone
and a conglomerate of drift pebbles oe-
mented by gypsum or calcic carbonate,
over this the subcarboniferous limestones,
then the triassic and iurassic deposits, in
Guiding the redbeds of the chalk period
and tertiary formation.
The scenery IF the Black Hills is ex
tremely varied ani interesting. The
foothills rise gently from the plains,
clothed with edible grasses to their sum-
mits, and as one drives slowly up the
draws or canyons into the higher regions,
these become deeper and darker, waters
come tumbling down more rapidly, the
ascent more abrupt, the peaks sharper,
the canyon walls more precipitOus and
dark, the ridges of which appear cut
sharp and clear out of sky of deepest
blue, while the air you breath seems cool
and bracing as if richer in oxygen than
that Of the open plains.
The temperature of the Black Hills
seldom rises above 800 or sinks below
minus 20. The so-called Chinook or
warm winds of the Pacific slope affects
this region so that snow never remains
long. This however, is also true OF the
entire territory, at least its western part,
though possibly in a slightly lesser de-
gree.
A curious fact is noted that since the
settlement of the region the annual rain
fall has gradually increased. In the
Black Hills in the past six years it has
increased from IA to 26 inches annually.
As stated in former letter, to the In
dian the Black Hills was a region or mys
tiers, the abode of the Great Spirit, his
treasure house. In its parks he herded
the Buffalo. From the red sandstone
CLIFFS flowed his great medicine water end
herein did he expect to find his final
resting place and home when driven from
the plains by the white man.
Little nuggets of gold shown by chiefs
to the early brave missionaries, members
of the Society of Jesus, who long age pene-
trated alone into the country, became
magnifed by time into legends of barrels
of the yellow metal filling the gulches.
Within twenty years this stimulated ad-
venturous prospectors into penetrating
| the region while il was still Indian coen-
| try especially reserved by the govern
ment. Hardy fellows whose endurance
and suffering no pen or tongue could ade-
quately picture were the pioneers in that
work of gold mining which OUR recent
history has made SO familiar. Thousands
of these men came, prospected. staked
out claims in gulches and hillsides.
Some few made money but many more
consumed their substance, wearied, heart
sick with waiting, died or walked away.
There is abundance OF mineral wealth
in the Block Hills, the principal deposit
being that of gold, the placer Or surface
deposits of which kave been largely ex-
hausted, but the gold bearing rock exists
in enormous quantities.