Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-07-15
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OUR MINERAL EXHIBIT.

The comments of the press upon the
Black Hills mineral exhibit at the Co
lumbar Exposition must certainly sub
iect to blush of shame and a
sense of intense chagrin, the people
who make this region their home. At
first it was given out incidentally by
those who knew really nothing of our
mines or their products, that the exhibit
was creditable affair, but Hills people
who visited the fair Unanimously pro-
nounce it dismal failure and nothing
more or less than a misrepresen tation
Of the greatest mining country on earth.
Later on, when all the other mineral
exhibits were placed in position and
the spectators were afforded an op-
portunity TO compare them, the insight
ficance of the Black Hills display be-
came strikingly apparent, and the fol-
lowing extract from a communication to
the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, written
by its editorial correspondent, is but
fair sample of the press criticisms which
the exhibit has called down upon itself
There is no spot on the globe which
in mineral wealth can compare with the
Black Hills. The output of gold from
the Homestake mine exceeds that of
any on earth. The Harney Peak tin
mine is tiie richest in America S33, Co.,
0D have been spent on the works and
$25, 900, 900 worth of ore are on the dump
or in sight. Copper, iron, coal, nickel,
aluminium and twenty other valuable
metals are found there in great profus
sion. But no one would suspect these
facts from any display at the worlds
fair. The small mineral collection in
the state building hardly attracts notice.
The pavilion in the mining building is
certainly not success 1t occupies a
most conspicuous position in the main
aisle near the rich and striking exhibits
Of California and Montana. The payil-
lion is made of Yankton cement. and as
in the state house that product is thor
oughly and appropriately advertised.
This structure consists Of four plain
walls, punctured by large windows and
corner door, the latter trimmed with
Hot Springs sandstone. Within the
room, which may be ten by twenty is a
monument twelve feet high and con-
structed of pieces Of tin ore-a striking
object. Here and there are number
Of small pigs of black tin, twenty-four
altogether. This is good. though some
models of the Harney Peak mills and
shafts, charts or diagrams giving ocular
proof of the mines richness, would have
emphasized the display and impressed
the passing crowds. But the total effect
of the exhibit is to convey an impres.
sion that this is the only valuable min
eral in the Hills. The gold is represent
ed only by a pile Of dull gray stone
labeled, "Homestake Gold Nine" with
nothing to indicate the richness Of the
lode or the precious output. Brazil has
lofty gilded cone representing her ten
years product Siberia has an enor-
nous gilded model showing the size Of
her golGen stream. California by o
gilded facsimile shows the wealth of her
mines. For $25 the South Dakota COM
mission could have constructed q box
the exact size of one years product of
Black Hills gold, eilded it and labeled it
properly. Such model, four feet cube,
would have drawn as much attention as
any other object on the ground. wonld
haye declared to the world q fact not
generally known and would have turned
immigration toward South Dakota. But
not one person in one hundred who
gives even q cursory examination to the
states exhibit realizes that we should
class among the gold producing states" I"
Though it il quite probable that every
word of the above is gospel truth. never.
theless II Is only justice to add that such
criticisms come with i'll grace from the
press Of sastern Dakots, in view of the
fact that the major portion of the Black
Hills share Of the appropriation was con-
snmed in advertising the agricultural sec
tions of the state. Had that amount
been placed in the hands of the Black
Hills members Of the commission, and
by them judiciously expended, oor min
eral exhibit would have been splendid
and entirely satisfactory one.