Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-09-02
The Wonderful Black HilIs.

The writer of the following extract
from an article which appeared In the
Iowa City Republican Of some days ago,
is Prof T. II. Mcbride, a gentleman
who visited the Hills during the month
Of July. He was in Custer in company
with the U S. Fish Commissioner and
his assistant who were looking up a
location for fish hatchery:
1t has been already intimated IN a
former letter that the natural scenery OF
the Black Hills is beautiful. Here are
forest and meadow, mountain and
plain, towering rock and scarped cliff,
rolling hills and fat capped mesas
Italian skies and sunny days, and over
al. outspreaed the purple haze, the mist
that wells the mountains. Here are
wonderful valleys, studded with the
monuments Of Titans; wonderful moua-
tains whose ragged tops deserve the
name Sierra wonderful caves wiypse
may labyrinths extend for scoEb Of
miles and whose imprisoned airTpuisate
the barometic pressure as thought the
hills themselves were brc&thiag. 7s>k
is enough fo- the ordinary Haveier.
This is enough for the idle man, be his
idleness habitual or enforced, nut as
well for the active man as for the busy,
these hills afford attractions of the most
attractive and magnificent sort Here
capital has found secure investment,
and labor its rich reward. Certainly 10
equal area in the world exhibits such
varied and abundant mineral wealth as
these Black Hills. l made list not
long ago of the substances mined or
minable here within fifty miles Of Har-
ney Peak, the center Of the hills Here
is the list Gold, silver, copper, nickel,
lead, iron, mica, coal gypsum. The gold
mines are famous since 1876 when first
white people were admitted To the
regions. Deadwood, in the northern
Hills, is a historic place, and am told
city, put out $4,000 in gold each month.
There seems to be hundreds Of gold
mines still undeveloped. A poor man
can do little with quartz mine lead
and 1t is the quartz mine only that has
permanent value. visited the other
day the u. r." mine, near Hill CITY.
Three men are working the lead, which
here consists of rather rotten quartz,
and is accordingly easier to manage.
The rock seems exceedingly rich. AL
most any piece you pick up shows, when
broken, abundant particles Of free gold.
congratulated one Of the miners, hut,
said he, Il have been eighteen years in
finding out my treasure" About gold
mining there is an attraction that for
ever lures men on. Though they toll
for years in vain there rises still gilt
tering hope, and when the object of
their search is found-'tis gold. Lands,
men may have, but the harvests fail and
the value goes up and down; wheat
they may have and corn, but the prices
fail and the grinding Of mills runs low
but he that hath gold has wealth the
world is open 10 his wish, nor time nor
place brings change.
But more interesting Just now than
gold mines are the tin mines not sim
ply because they entered so largely into
the political nonsense of last fall. but
rather for the reason that il will be Of
value to the country and
the world when we produce as nation
within our own limits the metal we so
freely use. 1t would seem. am happy
TO say, that the supply of tin is these
hills is indeed abundant; and yet, as
said the cornish miner with whom l
recently conversed, "The amount Of tin
or metal of any kind in any mine is just
what we can see we do not know how
far it goes or how much more there is."
Tin mines, however. are on all the hills.
The Harney Peak Tin company. which
has beautiful mill near Hill City and
which has spent, they say, $1,000 600 in
developing its property, owns 1900 tin
claims This would indicate a wide
diffusion of profitable ore. The ore is
in the form of iderite, and there seems
no doubt of its excellence.