Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-03-27
GOVERNMENT OWNS TIE GOLD
Rich Find Told to an Editor by Con-
YiCt ut SinuN Falls.

Lead. March Bob" Hicks. who is
serving time in the South Dakota peni-
Tertiary for the murder of old man
Meyer, a cattleman. who lived in the
eastern part Of Meade county, has sent
o communication to w. A. Dawley, ed
itor of the Sturgis Advertiser, in which
he describes the location OF valuable
gold deposits upon the Fort Meade mill
tary wood reservation, adjoining the
city of Sturgis on the south and west.
The existence of the precious stuff"
was discovered by Jay n Bob Hicks,
two brothers who murdered Meyers.
They were confined in the Meade county
jail after the murder, but escaped in
May, 1894. after having been confined
for several months, awaiting their trial.
The Hicks brothers. after escaping from
jail, reached Deadman creek, south OF
Sturgis, and followed the banks OF the
stream until they reached the noun
tains. They were secreted in the noun
tains when captured by a posse. Their
recapture re sulted in the execution OF
Jay Hicks and the life Imprisonment of
Bob. The latter one learned how to read
and write while in the penitentiary, n
nine his ago wrote TO Editor Daw-
ley. The following is an excerpt from his
letter:
state Penitentiary, June, 1S96.-Mr.
Editor: | never liked you very much
before | came here, because If it hadn't
been for you Jay and i could have got
away and never been found. But since
| have learned TO read n understand
what we did / know you did what was
right and treated us as fair as we de-
served. You were only trying to catch
as for the good of everybody, while
them other fellows were doing it for the
honey Now, ! have got something I
want TO tell you in this letter, and IL you
can get il, il will give you a big lift, and
Mr.. Phillips, the warden. says newspa-
per men always need lifts. When Jay
and l went up on them mountains We
found a long hole in the rocks where we
laid all night. i went TO sleep before Jay
did because ] was played out. When /
woke up Jay was cutting something out
of the rocks with his knife he said was
gold, n we got away we would come
back and get it. He cut out a whole
handful Of pieces of 1t, but when we got
shot at that night he lost it when we
run in the creek. There was lots of il
in that hole, n If you can find it may
be you can get rich and help the old
woman and jim"
The letter contained a carefully
drawn diagram Of the place where the
man claimed the gold could be found.
The contents of the letter were believed
by its recipient because of the fact that
Jay Hicks had been familiar with min
ing. and il was thought quite probable
that he might nave discovered some gold
bearing rock. Mr.. Dawley and a friend
made every effort to discover the place
as designated by Hicks in the diagram.
but finally gave it up and credited the
letter TO an hallucination on the part OF
the prisoner. One day. however, BY the
merest chance, the place was discovered
by one Of Dawley's friends. Free gold
bearing ore was found Pieces Of the
rock were taken to an assayer and
showed in various assays, $4.55 to So:
$17.40 to SAL in gold to the ton. The
place was carefully surveyed, but the
editor, who had pictured to himself the
many luxuries which a real gold mine
would afford him, discovered that the
containing the ore was upon the
military reservation. Adj
vices from the United States and office
conveyed the information that 1T was
useless TO attempt to locate ii as II was
not upon public domain. An effort Will
be made by Sturgis people to have h a
part of the reservation which contains
ore opened, inasmuch as 1t is not nearly
so valuable for any other purpose. II
their efforts are accomplished the
ground may prove a valuable addition
to the many other rich mineral lands in
the Black Hills.