Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-01-22
BLACK HILLS.
THE EnLAcK RICH GOLD MINES
Untold Riches in yellow Metal are Found
in Unlocked for Places.

In Unlocked for Places.
The Black Hills, rising like an isla nd
in the broad expanse of the plains, are
everywhere surrounded by the out
cropping edges of the sedimentary
formations, from the base of the Pots.
dam upwards in the order named over
tho carboniferous, triassic, jurassic
aud cretaceous to the tertiary, writes a
Custer correspondent of the Sioux City
Journal. These formations dip gently
away on all sides from the central nu-
cleus or the more ancient metamorphic
and eruptive rocks, consisting of gran
ite, gneiss. slate. diorite. quartzite.
chlorite, micaschist.p t.porphyry.trachyte,
rhyolite. phonolitc, etc, which rise up
in multitude of irregular peaks and
broken ridges with II general northerly
and southerly trend. Separated as
they are by more than 100 miles from
the nearest spur or subrange of the
Rocky mountains. the Black Hills are
"a complete study in themselves. The
elevation of the mountains above the
surrounding plains varies from l,OoO to
more than i.O)O feet above sea level to
Il height of 1.i0O feet.
Before the uprising of the Hills the
different formations above mentioned
extended entirely across the archaean.
We have excellent reasons for bellev-
ing that when the uplift began that
the Black Hills were entirely submerged
in shallow water and that the first dry
land was at the headwaters of the
present streams. So that they were
subject to the attack of the elements
at their inception and at that time an
erosion began which has not yet ceased.
The entire cretaceous. iurassic and
triassic formations have been removed
from over an area of country about 80
miles in width by l25 in length. The
Potsdam and carboniferous have been
partially eroded over an area 90 miles
in width by 65 in length. The softer
rocks we're worn away first. The emin-
ences point the hard rocks, the valleys
the soft. In many places within the
archaean area there are large tracts of
the Potsdam remaining: generally it is
capped with the calboniferous. The
Potsdum area contains gold. .silver.lead.
copper, iron and other minerals. The
gold is found free and also associated
with pyrites and tcllurides: the silver
ores are argentiferousg galcna. chlorides
and carbonates The carboniferous
formation carries the same minerals as
are found in the Potstlam.
Volcanic peaks aud elections are
found at numerous points in the north
ern end of the Hills, but no overflow of
land has taken place. South of the 44th
parallel there is no evidence of volcanic
disturbances. The main points of erup-
tion are as follows: CUSTER Terry, Grow
and Inyan Kara peaks. Bear Butte,
Black Buttes and the Bear Lodge range.
Besides these prominent peaks there
are many others less conspicuous.
The early prospectors in the Black
Hills in their search for gold confined
their explorations entirely to the archa-
can formation, never thinking or be-
lieving that gold existed in the Potsdam
and carboniferousf formations everything
the archaean.
No one at that time recognized the
deposit as belonging to the Potsdam
formation In 1877 free gold was found
in the outcropping Potsdam at Rocker
Vile. and at other places south of that
point: also along the south side of
Rapid creek from six to ten miles west
of Rapid City: also Il few miles south
OF Welcome and Bear gulch. Recently
free gold has been found in the Pots
dam south and west of Mountain City
and along the headwaters of Red
Canon creek, seven miles southwest of
Custer. With the exception of those
near Lead none of the deposits have
been worked to any great extent. Al
the town of Galena, on Bear Butte
creek, lead and silver ores carrying
gold. are found in the Potsdam. The
mines at Galena have been worked con.
tinuously since 1876.
During the year 1885 the first ship
ments of the siliceous or Potsdam ores
of Bald mountain and Terry's peal
were made. At that time there were
no reduction works in the Black Hill.
other than free gold mills aud all ore.
had to be shipped to Omaha, Denver
Kansas City or Aurora, ILL.,, for treat
ment. Any one that would not yield s3l
per ton could not be treated at profit
In 1889 the Golden Reward Gold Min
ing company erected small plant fo
the treatment of the silicious ores BY
the chlorination process. During th,
following year the Deadwood and Della
ware smelter was erected and blown in
Since then the Black Hills Gold anG
Silver Extracting company has put il
operation large plant for the treat
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