Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-08-04
DISCOVERY OF GOLD !.
III THE BLACK HILLS
EXPEDITION FROM BISMARCK IN
H. 1874. ( "s'&,..'2
William e. Curtis Writes of His Ex-
periences in the EARLY Days and Of
the Custer Expedition to the Black
Hills. $500.

William E. Curtis, the we'll known
newspaper correspondent is now
visiting the Black Hills region and
may swing around Bismarck way, to
look over some of his old haunts.
Mr.. Curtis has been in Bismarck sew
eral times-was with the Custer ex-
petition from old Fort Abraham Lin
coin, across the Missouri from Bis
marck in 1874; later, in 1878 came
out on buffalo hunt and was also
present at the laying of the corner
stone of the capitol building with
the Willard party in 1885. In re-
; cent issue of the Chicago Record
Herald Mr.. Curtis writes as follows
on the Black Hills region, the dis
covery of gold, and the personal ex-
periences of some of the pioneers in
this region:
The mines of the Black Hills have
produced not less than $180,000,000
VI PlSClOuS uSLd1S ctAu pAOUdU1y
more. The output has. increased
steadily from $1,2Oo,ooo in 1876 to
about 100000 in 1909. The in
crease has been gradual as different
properties have been developed and
new reduction plants have been in
PRODUCED to extract the metal from
refractory ores. But there has been
no falling off, and, judging from the
ore in sight, the future promises a
permanent annual production about
as large as, if not larger than, that
of the current year. The storehouse
in which nature has concealed these
treasures seems to be inexhaustible.
The Black Hills furnish about one
seventh of all the gold produced in
the United States, about one-thir-
tieth of that produced in the entire
world, and district five miles
square makes South Dakota the
third among the gold states and first
among the states of the Union in the
annual production of wealth per cap
tia Of population.
But we cannot help remembering
that this treasure was purchased at
an awful cost. Pah-sap-pah, as the
Indians called the Black Hills, was
sacred ground. It was the dwelling
Of Gitzhe Manitou, the Great Spirit
worshiped by the Sioux, and was the.
abode of the released souls of the
dead. Each tree, each rock, each
canyon had it's own special Manitou,
and where no Indian could go with
out offending his Jehovah the raw
ages of white prospectors were the
most fragrant sacrilege.
Until the early '70s treaty made
by General Harvey with the Indians
for the protection Of this sacred ter
ritory was Respected, but rumors Of
gold created such an agitation
among prospectors and other adven-
turers that the government Gent
General Custer, with an expedition
of 1900 men and a corps of scientists
from Fort Lincoln in. the summer OF
1874, to ascertain the truth. IS 4
1t is an extraordinary fact that the
geoogists and mineralogists who &C.
companied the expedition-and they
were men of the highest professional
standing, occupying chairs In the
faculties Of advertisements a: fin
al report to the Secretary of War
that they were unable to find any
traces Of gold or any other valuable
minerals in the Black Hills, and that
the character of the formation for
babe them to expect the presence OF
minerals. This profound expert
opinion may be found as an appen-
dix to the official report Of General
Custer to the Secretary of War, and
was printed as congressional doc
ument by Secretary Be1knap in his
annual report for the fiscal year end
ing June 80, 1875, where anyone who
chooses can find the names Of these
eminent explorers. General Custer,
however, dissented from the judy
ment Of his scientific corps. and mar
rates the experience Of three practi-
cal miners and experienced prospec-
tors who accompanied the expedition
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