Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-08-01
"rHE JOY OF THE DAKoTAs."

Rev. L p. Ludden, of Lincoln, has
furnished the Journal of that city two
column article descriptive Of the various
points Of interest recently visited by
him, from which we extract the follow
ing concerning Custer:
This is the oldest city in the Hills,
named after the brave General Custer,
who made it his camping ground in IA.
During the great gold fever of '75 and
'76, it attained a population of nearly
10000 but still belonged to the Indians,
and the authorities at Washington or
dered it vacated, detailing General Cook
to carry out the order and keep the peo-
pie out, until the treaty then pending
should be ratified. Only fourteen of the
thousands in this bustling city were left
here. Among whom we find Editor
Shankland of the CHRONICLE, to whom.
with the editor of the Mail, we are in
debted for the facts herein stated. Gus
ter now has about /, 900 people and bids
fair to again enjoy rapid and steady
growth. First, because of the new dis
coveries made in gold mining
Mr.. e. +. Olmsted has discovered q pro-
cess for operating refractory gold ore,
and is just starting at his work. Ore
that formerly yielded from 81 to So per
ton by the free milling process, by the
new process of Mr.. Olmsted will be made
oyield from $20to $S0per ton. The out
look now is very encouraging and this
enterprise promises to be an entering
wedge that willagain make the gold mines
of Custer the most noted in the world.
hn nf 10
nearly four miles from this city, it is
the nearest railroad point. Other re-
fractory ore bodies, just mile east from
Custer, are also being develoved. These
are the most massive ever found in any
country, running from 100 to 300 feet in
width. Twenty seven assays have been
showing the ores to be very valuable in
deed-running from $40 to $50 per ton.
But more than this, Custer is becom.
ing a summer resort. The tent days
are gone and the people of this city hav-
ing built substantial homes, are now de-
voting their energy to the entertainment
of the many strangers that come hither
to nourish their health or enjoy a real
out Of door vacation, free from the an.
noyances of the fashionable resorts.
Professor Bessy of our state university,
so recently described in the Journal in
and around Custer, that we omit many
of these points of interest that have to
be repetition of what he has just said.
The air here is delightfully."- cool. The wind
from the plains of Dakota seem to be
grandly tempered with the breezes from
the mountains. Days spent in this dry
bracing atmosphere cannot help but be
enjoyable and at the same time help ma
ture to rebuild the waste places i'll our
systems. A carriage drive in any di-
rection over the well gravelled road is
abundantly rewarded Aside from
this, ones times can be well employed
in Custer, for the walks and parks and
Ginning trips are innumerabie. In al
most any direction you can find the hills
gnashed with canyons or gorges, where
ferns and foliage are in abundance,
while the fora is unique in itself Then
remember you are in the midst of
great mining country, where to your
hearts content you can watch the
picturesque and even new methods of
obtaining and reducing the valuable
ore.
Right in front of this city, and coming
down to the very streets, nature has
grandly placed pioneer park, grander in
every way than what man could build
it, the crowning summit Of whose giant
rocks, stands Pyrotechnic point 400 feet
above the streets of the city; and 80
named that because on July 4, '76, the
citizens of this stirring city gave from its
very top their first display of fireworks.
A climb up the rocky sides of this hill
until you stand beside the flag pole on
the very top, and from which floats our
stars and stripes, you will be led to ex-
claim, or else have no love for the beauti-
full in your soul, "Custer City, beautiful
for situation, the Joy Of the Dakotas."
Those who have been here before me ex-
claim that the grandeur of this scenery
is beyond the power. of description.
We agree with them as we stand and
behold South mountain, or Buckhorn, or
dark ridges Of East mountain, or the
white strangely clefted Harney peak,
with all its needles. pointing like spires
to heavens, over Gods Great Temple,
while still farther away, as far as the
eye can reach, north or south, east or
west. the view takes in the Black Hills
in all their greatness, and so readily
known by their dark outlines of pine
tree coverings, truly beyond description.
And from nature out towards natures
God the heart is led as one sees the
Creator 80 wonderfully regarding His
creatures in giving them the bounties Of
the land, not only the necessary things,
aesthetic Of our nature by such superb
and magnificent adornment. In the
spirit of the times the citizens have now
well under way the damming up Of one
of the streams at point on one of the
pleasant and romantic drives near the
city.
Like Hot Springs, the hotel registers
show many Lincoln people have been,
and still are, here. And wherever you
meet them in this asylum for imr aired
health they are eager to tell y you ofwhat
they have accomplished and no one has
an i'll report to make, but all tell of re-
newed vigor and their unwillingness to
return to their homes and join in their
usual vocations. again numbering them
selves among the great army Of over
worked Americans.
President Hughitt ofthe Northwestern
railroad was right when he said in New
York city. "The 100 miles square of the
Black Hills is the richest spot Of equal
area known on earth" Ernest Ingersoll
will find many to agree with him in the
July Outing when he says. "Ths Black
Hills have q beautiful attractiveness of
their own, and the time will come when
they will be an popular as any part Of
the western mountains"
The Buffalo Gap Republican in speak
ip0 NJ that town aa n health reaOrt aav .
"The extreme healthfulness Of this re-