Middletown transcript., 1906-01-20
THE BLACK HILLS

Burns or Byr0n's StGde from Lethe sleep
arise, and here is how they put me in
print did Burns or Byron's spade from
Sethe's sleep arise" Think of the ghost
of these two immortal poets carrying a
spddel But the weary fingers OF the type
setter should be forgiven fsr picking up
an N instead OF an r or p instead of alI
H when the preacher from the pulpit will
slip in queting familiar passage Of Scrip
| ture. / once heard one say .lt is easter
| for rich man to get through the knee ol
an idol than for camel TO get into the
Kingdom OF Heaven"
have visited the Back Hills Of S utll
Dakota first made famous by the ininimail
massacre of General Custer and his brave
band in the Bad lands Of that State in
1876 1t became still more famous few
mouths later through the gold excitement
at Hill City aud Deadwnod. ! had tile
pleasure of standing Rpm the peak Of
Copper Mountain near Hill City and have
son of Custer's scout point out to me
the Bad Land country where the nuted
cavalry leader and his intrepid troop OF
| the 7tt Cavalry met their tragic end.
Tn that day that great stretch Of undulat-
ing plains was dotted with the smoky
tep esof Sitting Bulland his blood thirsty
warriors. To-day it is covered with the
white cottages OF the thrifty farmer aud
prosperous stockmen.
While South Dakota is now and alwa, s
will be noted for agriculture and stock
raising, yet it is still more noted as being
the third gold producing State in the
Union,-COlorado ranking first and Cali
fornia second. That whole section known
as the Black Hills country is wonderfully
rich in gold, copper and tin. One of the
greatest tin mines in the world is located
at Hill City about forty miles south Of
Deadwood on the Burlington, Railroad.
In the early days of the gold excitement
in the Black Hills, placer mining was
exceedingly profitable in the Hill City
section, and to-day all along the mountain
streams you will see the miner with his
shovel and pan washing out the gliltering
gold. 1t is said that they average from
five to fifteen dollars day each, and
quiet contentment seems to hang all about
them as they sit at their cabin door smok-
ing their evening pipe. But the more
ambitious and industrious are not satis
fed with placer mining in this primitive
way. They file upon code mining claim
of twenty acres, and sink shaft and 60
down after the gold vein where with dy.
Mantle and pick they get it in larger
quantities. Many of them do their work
in secret, like 'Scotty" of'California, for
fear others will find the source of their
wealth and in some unfair way juggle
them ont of it. Only recently this man
''Sctoty" was seriously wounded by par
ties who had followed him to his unknown
gold mine. The location of his mine
which WAS the source of his wealth was
mystery. and it is supposed that he had
been followed OH one of his trips TO the
mine aud was waylaid and shot. / have
known others in the mining sections Of
their mine periodically and secretly dig
out enough gold to meet all their de-
mands. | met such a miner near Hill
City. He has five lode claims, and iudg-
ing from the rich nuggets OF free gold he
showed me he must have bonanza. He
was reticent, secretive and cunning, and
he frankly said that ne had been working
on his claims for five years aud had put
twenty-seven hundred dollars worth Of
work on two of them, and that he had
never seen a man from the East whom
he would trust to incorporate his prop
erty or form partnership with him for
the purpose of development. After much
persuasion he took me to his property,
and finally entrusted me with the gold
nuggets for examination, and since my
departure has twice written to me.
was amazed at the number of the
paying gold mines in that vicinity. There
was the j. R. mine, The Golden
Slipper, The Bismark, The Bullion, The |
Key stone and The Holy Terror, all great |
producers within radius of few miles. |
My real purpose in going to the Black |
Hills however, was to visit copper mine |
upon which has been expended over three
hundred thousand dollars The company |
has lS0 acres of patented mining claims |
q smelter of the most improved type,
aud 10, 900 tons of good copper ore on the |
dump ready for smelling. This ore was
quarried out from the surface veins which |
are cropping out all over the property. |
One of Daly's Anaconda mining engineers |
said it was one of the richest mountains |
OF copper ore he had ever seen, but,
he added, "it takes money to get it out"
DAILY spent $500, 900 on the Anaconda be-
fore he took dollar of profit out of it.
That mine however, made DAILY multi.
This copper mine at Hill
City which l went to inspect is certainly |
a marvel in both the quality and the
quantity OF the ore. Open cuts have
been made at various places over the
property exposing fine clean-cut veins Of
ore of the oxidized form known as NAL
aclIite and azurite, carbonates Of copper.
Careful assays have shown values of from
eight to thirteen per cent copper besides
gold, nickel and iron, one gold assay /
showing value of $4700 to the ton.
These assays were made from the surface
Development, $1,000 tons of which are
now upon the dump. Some mining ex-
perts account for the large deposit of these
surface ores on the theory Of having
'leacbed up" from lower depths before
he drainage of the mountain was lowered
oy the erosion of the stream that now
lows at its base. As the drainage was
owered the pressure was reversed, and
he Teaching was OF necessity downward,
eaylng In its course great quantities of
copper ash" and leached copper ore out
d which the copper and other minerals
nave been leached. The greatest copper
mines of the world, like the United Verde
,f Arizona which has commercial value
'ated IN the hundreds of millions OF dol.
hfS, ditu Sdlu W D0 the most valuable
copper mine in the world, have under
zone fhe same downward leaching pro-
,ess. re-depositing, re-working and sorliHg
md concentrating the ore values at lower
principally at the water level.
Developments inthe United Verde were
confined to the upper z9nes where the
falues had been largely leached ont and
lence had problenatical career finan-
tally till it was purchased by United
States Senator w. A. Clark of Montana,
or the sum of $4,000 when ita exhaust
ess treasure vanlis we're developed in
lepth below the water level, The upper
zones in this property at Hill CITY are
trikingly similar To those of the United
Verde. and the mining expert III control
9 pursuing Senator Clark's method in
linking the shaft down through tile
cached ore, or copper ASH to reach the
.one rich in metal which IL never found
i'll the water level is reached. The shaft
i now 285 feet in depth and the last I20
eet OF it has been going through leached ,
copper ore. Water has been struck aud
,umps of greater power are being pnt in
o keep ont the water. 1t is needless to
ay that tile mining expert believes he is