Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-06-24
A Visitors View.


week. writes his paper the following
brief but interesting description of
what came within the range Of his Wis
ion while in this place and county:
Custer county in the southern Black
Hills couatry, where in addition to large
mining interests, the people are engaged
in small way in agricultural pursuits
and stock raising, is twenty five miles in
width by seventy in length and contains
about 5000 people, most Of whom are
pioneers in some part of the Black Hills.
The principal towns are Custer City,
Buffalo Gap and Hermosa. Oats and
wheat are the leading grain crops and q
small quantity of hardy vegetables are
grown in the foot hills.
The county is very rich in minerals,
there being no less than thirty gold
mines which have been developed with
shafts and tunnels, while mica and tin
mines are almost as plentiful as the
rocks themselves. All the gold ore Of
this section is Of the refractory kind and
requires special treatment, and so far no
process has been discovered by which
all the gold can be saved, though the
Keystone works, near Hill City, are get
ting out considerable bullion. Consid
erahle placer miBing is and has been
done through here, many of the gulches
yielding as high AS $4,000 in dry dig
gings, so that all the placer mining
through here now must be deeper, and
in water or bed rock, which requires
some machinery and heavy timbers in
tInnel shifts. In this section are locat-
ed the great tin mines the Harney Peak
Mill and Mining company owns eleven
hundred tin mines and claims. 1t has
been producing large amount of tim
employing about 200 men. but March
|, owing to some disagreement between
the English and American stockholders
the mill was shut down, and all is quiet
in the Harney Peak tin district till the
stockholders can agree. Several large
mica mines are found through here, and
recently a Minneapolis company has be-
gun developing one. AS the workmen
sink the shaft, great books of mica crop
out from the lodges. Already several
thousand pounds Of tins queer formal
ion have been taken out, and this kind
Of mining promises to be one of the
great industries of this part Of he Black
Hills, as there are now twenty mica
mines part, developed.
The Fremont, Elkaorn & Misseari
Valley and the B. & NJ. roads run
through the county, giving first-class
railroad facilities for new country.
Lumber can be purchased everywhere
through here from 81 to so per 1000
feet, and first class building stone can be
had By picking il up. so buildings need
not be expensive. About six miles from
Custer City is one of the preitieet spots
as made by dame nature, picturesque,
majestic, gigantic and beautiful, Sylvan
lake. This was formerly Custer lake.
Down in a valley, yet at an altitude of
6,C00 feet, rests this beautiful little body
Of water, covering about 100 acres of
ground or rocks. Being of very soft
spring water il is remarkably clear and
bright, while all around it tower great
rocks hundreds Of feet high, casting
their shawdoNs into the crystal waters
A short distance from here is the fam
Gus Harney peak, 5000 feet above the
level of the sea and upon another side
the mountain known as the needles, fam
Gus in the history of the hills and grand
to behold. He e, too, is the government
mound number eighty two from which
the mineral surveys of the hills country
begin.
A number of springs surround this
wonderful and beautiful natural resort
and the parties owning it are making
some improvements preparatory TO
opening IL up as an attractive summer
resort for tourists and invaiids
Custer City, the largest and oldest
town in the Southern Hills, contains
about 1000 people and is the county
seat of Custer county. The people are
proverbial for their courtesy and liberia
lity, nearly all of them being in at the
first Of the opening Of the Hills to the
ambitious white men. The majority Of
them are experienced miners and have
valuable claims of gold, tin or mica, a
part of which they are ready to part
with as soon as the mines of this part of
the Hills begin to become desirable
properties. One national and one state
bank, two hotels. good court house.
three churches and good school house,
a good class of business men GO to make
up the wideawake little city Of Custer.
The Custer CHRONICLE, a weekly re-
publican paper, furnishes the news and
is largely responsible for the good con-
duet Of its citizens and handsome re-
publican majority in its county. Cap
tian Willard, the sheriff and Judge
Robbins are making special efforts to
encourage capital and to locate peop,e
in their county and with some outside
help will soon double the population.