The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-02
Bold Western Pioneers.
St. Paul Pioneer Press.


 Bold Western Pioneers.
 St. Paul Pioneer Press.
 It was on November, 6, 1874, that party of twenty -four miners, with one woman and child, left Sioux City, Iowa, for that part of Dakota known as the Black Hills to break the trail and pioneer the way that thou sands upon thousands followed. The outfit was known as the Collins and Russell expedition. General Sheridan, learning through the press that it was forming, issued orders to the frontier commandants to arrest the leaders and imprison them and disband and send home their followers.
 In view of this order, and to mis- lead the government, the six wagons containing the paraphernalia and sup plies of the determined little party had painted on their sides in lal ge let ters, "For O'Neill's Colony" Gen. eral O'Neill had at that time estab- lished a colony at the head of the Elkhorn river, in Nebraska). By using this precaution the government was thrown completely off it's guard, and General Phil Sheridan's celebrated order was sneered at by these brave pioneers.
 After a long, tedious journey of seventy-six days, yet not unmixed with adventure and excitement, the party arrived at the point where Custer City now stands and built the famous stockade three miles below. It was constructed of heavy pine tim bers, eighty feet square, with bastions at each corner and port holes every six feet. Log cabins were built in- side for the pioneers. It was closed nightly by heavy pine timber gate duly fastened as 8 precaution against the hair lifting Sioux.
 It was one of the strongest stock ades ever built on the frontier. In it ten men could have kept 10000 h. dians at bay, or until they were starved out. Captain Mix, who took the party prisoners during the spring of 1885, informed his commanding of- flee that the party could have defied him had they so willed, but being law abiding Americans they accom- panied him to Fort Laramie, where they were released on parole.
 Before being taken they had begun mining and sent seventy dollars worth of placer gold by two of the company to Sioux City, where it was exhibited and being proclaimed abroad stirred up such furore as made a gand exo- dus to the Black Hills. The govern ment became mort vigilant, and the hills were cleared of these first pion- eers and the others could not get in. Few of the original party ever re- turned, fewer still are left. Some drifted to other camps, some died and of the whole number less than half a dozen are now residents of the Black Hills.
 Had the Sioux nations known of the invasion of the Black Hills by the insignificant band of twenty -four not man would have lived to have chronicled the expedition. They marched on, accompanied by the god of fortune, plenty of nerve and A thirst for gold. However, they real DS0 eAIClI uduScI WAcu TcuCu CFeek was reached and built the stockade.
 The vast territory which then had only twenty -four whites, in a few years numbered its tens of thousands, and now the Hills can boast of it's 10000 energetic inhabitants. Thou sands upon thousands of acres, then considered sterile and worthless, have been transformed into productive gar dens and grain fields of the greatest fertility. Cities, characterized by features of the highest civilization, adorn the beautiful valleys ard can- yons of what was then an unexplored wilderness.
 Hundreds and thousands of cattle, horses and sheep roam in perfect se- curity, where then the buffalo, elk, antelope and deer were chased by the willy redskins. Millions of dollars in precious metals have been taken from natures: :rock-ribbed storehouse, resulting in the establishment of an industry and the erection of quartz mills that arc the marvel of the world, and that presage future for this lit tie domain, the glory of which shall have no euual.