St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-01
Some Important Facts Con-
corning Dakota's Rich Min
eral Belt.
Extensive Deposits Around
Deadwood in the Black
Hills Section.
Believed to Form the Great
est Mining Camp in the
World.
Prosperous Stamp Mills
Prominent Men Interested
in Mining.

DEADwooD, S. D., May 30.-It is SIN
gular, but nevertheless fact, that dec
ade had passed before the merits of
some of the best mining camps on this
continent came into prominence, as in
stanced in the cases of Colorado, Mon
tana, and Idaho. While we of the
Black Hills for the past fourteen years
have always had unbounded confidence
in our vast resources, capital has been
skeptical and 10th to take hold with the
exception of the Homestake and Gale
donia companies) until very recently.
The former has been in operation for
ever eleven years, and the results
show what splendid property it
is, having paid dividends to its stock
holders to the amount of 81 $50, $50 up to
the 25th of last March. The first mill
eighty stamps) was erected and com
menced operation in July, 1878. The
results of this mill were so fiattering
that it was followed by another, the
lowing year. Others have been added
to these properties. and they are now
dropping at this writing 620 stamps.
with ore enough in sight to last for
years. A mining camp that has in sight
seemingly inexhaustible bodies of ore
continuously furnishing the above
numberof stamps to one company alone,
must have merit.
There are plenty of other propertie
adjoining the Homestake group and in
close proximity thereto that have been
idle for years for want of capital to de-
velOp and make them producers. And
why they have not attracted capital in
the past seems surprising. The Gale
donna, another California company on
the same belt Of ore, is also on the list
of dividend-paying mines. The ore
body on the 675-foot level shows no sign
of diminishing. Other properties in
the same vicinity have been paying
small dividends, with but small num-
Der Of stamps as compared with
notably the Puma (forty stamps) and
Monitor twenty stamps.) These, how
ever, are only occasional, and they can
not be classed as dividend-paying
mines. The belt gold deposits of this
section are without parallel in the his
tory of the mining world. The Home
st axe company controls only limited
amount of the ground holding these de-
posits. The rocks containing the ores out
crop to the surface in many places south
of Lead City, where the belt mines are
situated. Their geological relations
were carefully worked out by the state
geological survey under Dean Carpen-
ter, of the Dakota School of Mines, a
few years ago, and possibly through this
report the officials of the Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy railroad were at
tracted and concluded to build to Dead
wood. However that may be, their line
parallels the belt outcrop almost its en-
: Ia. n 10
But the most available ores around
which public interest now, centers, and
of which the outside world knows COM
paratively nothing, are the refractory
ores of Ruby Basin, Bald Mountain,
Blacktail and Terry's Peak, all in close
proximity to this city. These bodies lie
in horizontal deposits, and require no
hoistlng works, expensive pumps, ETC.,
and but few timberS, and none Of the
costly appliances so usual in mining.
They are, so to speak, upon the surface,
and can be mined so cheaply that the
proceeds will not be swallowed up in
mining material. These are the ores
that are building our smelling and
chlorination works. Their explored ex-
tent is greater in area than any hereto
fore ever known to the mining world.
They are almost ineXhaustible. The
term refractory in connection with these
ores is misnomer. They yield their
precious contents readily to any Sensi-
BILE process. For those carrying gold
only any modification of Plattner's
chlorine process will serve. For the
others either smelling with lead or with
copper will answer, They can also be
treated by amalgamation or by lixi-
walton. But, all things consid-
cred. matte smelling, as prac-
ticed for years in Germany,
or at Argo, Col, is the coming process
for these ores. The f1uxes required are
here in unknown quantlties-lim me,
pyrites, etc.-for nature, when deposit
ing the ore, generously supplied this
favored region spontaneously with all
the appliances for its reduction. This
section, with its resources as boundless
as the ocean and as permanent as It's
rock-ribbed shore, is destined to be in
the near future one of the foremost
mining camps in the world. Capital
may judge so from the contracts recently
est trunk lines in the west to Dead
wood. The Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy railroad and the Chicago &
Northwestern railroad. whose whistles
will reverberate through our canOnS
the coming fall and early winter, know
very we'll what they are about, and are
perfectly familiar with the vast re-
sources of Lawrence county. and recog-
niZe that DeadWOOd is the mining CEN
ter of the Black Hills. The former line
runs through the very center of the
hills, through a series of parks,
valleys and wonderlands, where
beauty is distinguished every
where and of a nature known
in no other land, stretching to the Hot
Springs at the southern extremity of
the hills. Harvey, Custer, Terry, Bald
Mountain, the White Cliffs of Dead
are seen plainly from this line. Custer
City, the oldest town in the Black Hills,
located where the gallant cavalryman
biYouacked and fingered in 1874, and
named after him, is situated on the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Hill
City also. where millions of English
capital is invested in tin. Gregory is
another brisk little town situated on
this line and recently brought into ex-
istence by the erection of siXty-stamp
Huntington mill, erected on Little
Rapid creek, to operate the ore
from the Montana group OF
mines. The mill has just COM
menced operation, and it will soon add
to the bullion pfOducG OF tne dlIlS. Ii is
close corporation. None of the stock
is or has been offered for sale. The
owners are Gov. J. Gregory Smith and
George T. Smith. of st. Adams. Vt. and
John V. Lewis, of Boston. The Chicago
& Northwestern railway runs along the
eastern foot hills through valleys, table
| lands and plateaus. The towns stu
ated along this line are Buffalo Gap,
| HermOsa. Rapid City, Black Hawk,
Piedmont, Tilford, Sturgess and White
| wood. The latter is ten miles below
this city. A tunnel 1900 feet long is
now under construction, and will be
completed by early fall. Through it
| trains will steam into Deadwood.
The name Deadwood originated from
the supeIabundance Of dead pine tim
| Der on the mountains and along the
| streams above the CITY and was so