Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-02-29
& Are yon a candidate for delegate to
Black Hills Water and Mining Co.

an enter prise recently inaugurated in
this locality, which promises to result
in material benefit 10 this place and the
Hills at large. was recently contributed
to the Rapid City Journel by Mr..
Samuel Scott. we'll known mining
man of this city:
"The Black Hills Water and Mining
company was organized here on the
eleventh of this month with a capital of
100000 The directors of the tenn
porary organization are William Nevin,
o. l.. Metcalf. Jos ph Kubler of Custer,
Leo. G Cloud of Newport, Kentucky,
and II. NJ Healy Of Covington, Ken
lucky. Several capitalists Of Newport,
Coyington and Cincinnati, have stock in
the company. The purpose for which
the company is formed is to bring the
water from seventeen springs situated
twelve miles west of Custer at the head
Of Hell's Canyon to the placer ground Of
French, Lightning and Red Canyon
creeks and their tributaries. These
placers have been worked for the past
eighteen years in limited way. Owing
TO the scarcity or entire absence of
water no extensive work could be done.
Only the best spots, where the bedrock
is near the surface, have been touched.
The water will be conducted from the
springs TO the diggings III a cast iron
pspc' large storage RESERVOIRS wfn be
built for the storage of the water &C.
cumulated during the winter and spring
freshets. The springs furnish from 800
inches during dry season to 1900 dur
ing a wet season. 1t is estimated that
constant supply of700 inches can be had
at all times during the working season
OF eight onths. The nearest point in
the diggings reached by the pipe line
from the farthest spring is twelve miles,
and the distance to Custer is twenty
two miles. To complete the whole pipe
line as projected by the company will
require abou! fifty miles of pipe. The
entire cost will be about sl5O000. 1t is
not pfOpOoSu W w tiiis All III CuG cSasOu.
Ouly enough pipe will be laid the first
season to reach large amount of good
ground. As the digginCs are worked
out the pipe will be extended. The
management of the company have
exercised good business judgment in
putting in cast iron pipe instead of
.rnn1an A,nan Tha nina laid in tha
ground ready TO receive water will cost
about $4,000 per mile and will last for
more than one hundred years. The
company will in addition to placer min
ing supply quartz mills with water and
probably put In a system of water works
to supply Custer City. After the water
has been used and cannot be used again
for mining it can be taken up by the
agriculturists aud used by them for irri-
eating their land.
The placer mines of the county cover
an area Of about 10000 acres, all of
which will come under this pipe line.
Only the richest parts of the shallow
placsrs have been worked. Owing TO
the scarcity Of water nearly all of the
gravel so far washed in this county has
been hauled 10 water and there washed
| with rockers. 1t is more than probable
that there yet remains in the gulches so
worked more gold than has been reken
from them. The results SO far obtained
by placer mining in Custer county have
been from one to fifty dollars per wagon
load or cubic yard. The deep gravel
bars and gulches which are known to be
rich have never been worked. When
the pipe line 10 laid and water on the
grohnd. then three or four men will
wash from loo to 1000 cubic yards of
gravel daily, where now with the same
number of men about ten cubic yards
can be washed. The thickness of the
gravel deposits varies from few inches
to ten, twenty and probably fifty feet or
more. A conservative estimate places
the amount of gravel in Custer county
that will pay to work at 100000 cubic
yards. At the lowest estimate this will
pay fifty cents per cubic yard. A large
amount Of it will pay several dollars per
yard The heaviest gravel wash in this
district begins near the head of Light
ming creek about ten miles west of Gus
ter, following Lightning creek in a
southeasterly course to its junction with
Red Canyon, down that creek for a
distance OF five miles where it leaves
the creek still keeping its course to Hot
Springs. moro than forty miles from the
head Of Lightnina creek. The width OF
this ancient channel varies from a few
hundred yards on Lightning creek to
more than mile on Red Canyon,
further on towards Hot Springs it is
nearly or quite two miles In width. The
greater portion Of the gravel of this
wash is evidently Of potsdam origin. At
the mouth Of Lightning creek the wash
is fully two thirds potsdam sandstone.