Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1889-12-12
BLACz HILLS TIN.
..Tie Judge Locates These Val
uable Mines Right Here
in North Dakofa.
The Obstacles Which Have Been
Overcome iii the Ei1iart To
81 Develop Them. &
They are Richer s,s,d a1ore Ex-
tensiye Than the Famed
Cornwall Mines.
our own Tin tsines.

Our own Tin tSines.
The riost humorous article which has
appeared IN that humorous paper, The
Judge, FOR many months, is the editorial
on tin in a recent issue. OF course the
discovery Of extensive ;deposlts Of this
rare and. consequently, valuable metal in
the Black Hills, mady five or six years
ago, but which the eastern press seems.
only lately to have heard Of, inspires the
comedy OF errors Judges ignorance Of
mineral veins III general. and tin lodes
in particular, is revealed in it's indis-
criminate use Of many terms, III an effort
to describe the formation; such as
'.mountains OF solid ore, and 900 square
miles OF Mines It's geographical mis-
information is equally lndicrons. Ac-
corling to this humorous authority, the
Black Hills, which name is as familiar
to tle intelligent world rs the Alps or
Coney Island. is located in North Dako-
Ia, notwithstanding the long undis-
pnted claims Of South Dakota and Wy
oming.
The Judge states one proposition. how
ever, which no one will ieny-that the
American market, the greatest in the
world, should be supplied with American
mined and manufactured tin. There is
more than enough tin in the Black Hills
TO supply to world for centuries to come,
but the efforts to develop these mines
have met with more selfish opposition
than any other enterprise Of equal mag
nitude which has been launched in the
history OF industrial progress. Mr..
James Wilson CT New York city, the
{ oleomargarine king, hearing Of these tin
discoveries some years since, and recog-
nizins their valre should they prove to
be extensive deposits, went to the Hills,
satisfied himself that the veins we're true
tissures and nunerous.and at once began
quietly to buy up promising locations as
fast as they were made. After investing
a half million dollars in properties alone,
he endeavcred to organize company in
New York 10 develop and work the
mines. Here he met with the powerful
opposition of the millionaire tin import
ers. It was not difficult for them to
frighten conservative capital with the
wild cat story. Failing in New York,
he went to London with his scheme.
His many partial successes and repeated
failures to secure money in that great
financial center is a long story. A less
persistent man would have despaired
before the goal was reached, but Mr..
Wilson didn't, and he is nov dividing
his energies between the development of
his American tin mines and the prosecu-
tion OF both his American and English
malicious libolers. The latter are now
under criminal Indictment, and it is
hoped the former soon will be. If this
paternal government of ours will just
keep it's hands of, the mires will soon be
developed. One of the greatest difficult
ties which had to be surmounted was a
congressional enactment prohibiting g
aliens from holding more than certain
interest in property located in the terri
tories. This statute, so far as it applied
to mineral lands, was repealed more than
year ago, and shortly afterwards it was
announced that g3,00O,OOO, or nearly
s15,oOO,OOO, OF English money had been
subscribed toward the enterprise The
work of development is
NECESSARILY SLOW,
as but few men can work in a shaft or
tunnel at the same time; but the work
is being prosecuted as rapidly as possi-
BILE It's thought that within few
months the tirst American tin will be
placed on the market. 1t will, Of course,
be some years before the requisite
development work can be accom-
plished to supply the mills with
enough ore to turn out block tin in
sufficient quantities to meet the entire
demand. But that day IS coming, and
then the Black Hills will be the great
mining and tin manufacturing center OF
the west, if not of the world.
The Cornwall mines of England were
being worked when first the Roman
eagles we're planted on the British isles,
and 1T IS thought that they were the
chief prize which instigated the old in
vasion. The shafts are now 400 or l.50O
hundred feet deep. but they still supply
tin to the world. The Black Hills VEINS
improve as they go down into the bowels
OF the earth, or as they approach the
center OF the mountains, and expert
Cornish miners say they are practically
inexhaustable. The English syndicate,
known as the Harney Peak company.
owns over two hundred locations. for
which fully million dollars have been
paid. The mines extend in horse shoe