The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-03-10
THE BLACK HILLS PIONEERS
Narrative of John Gordon Stockade
Party in 1874, Contributed I"
Custer Chronicle by David
AIKEN. Nona, Colorado.

Custer Chronicle by David
AIKEN. Nona, Colorado.
have since visited these bad
lands and spent nearly week within
their confines and close scrutiny
leaves the mind as greatly mystified
as it was before bewildered The
petritjed remains of various kinds
of animals and reptiles, fish and
>, turtles are found in great profuslon.'
Heads of some mammoth that weigh
more than a ton each have been
found at various times here while
one rib was found that but few men
could raise from the ground and put
on end, although considerable had
been broken off The country had
| been pretty thoroughly picked over
at the time our party was there, In
1890, yet we found some very inter-
esting specimens. The remains Of
one of these monster animals as
nearly as we could estimate or
measure was over 40 feet in length,
but the principal part of the skele
ton had already been taken away.
Carloads of these petriicatjons had
been taken out and sent east.
We spent a greater part Of the
next day at this camp, going to the
river after ice. Gordon had conclud-
ed to haul load of ice with us, for
we could see that our trail from this
point must necessarily leave the riv-
er and we fully expected to encount-
or the real bad lands where no wa
Il ter could be found. Mr.. Gordon
proposed to use the wagon belonging
to my mess, distributing the load
i among the other wagons, but when
he made this proposition Whit. posi-
lively and bluntly refused to allow
any such thing. Gordon then turned
on his heel with an oath and threat
ened to leave our mess to it's fate
Whit. had proposed taking load OF
Ice the day before, and our mess had
taken about 800 pounds. But the
proposition had not originated with
Mr.. Gordon and no notice was taken
of it, and now he was in a rage.
| Brockett's wagon was used-its
load being distributed among the
other messes. 1t was more than 8
mile direct to the river and over ter.
rible rough roads, but four good
, yoke of oxen were put on and about
10 o'clock they returned with 8
load of ice which made about 400
pounds of ice to the mess. AS ou1
mess was not included, Harry and
took his pony and a couple of buck.
cts and brought between 800 an6
400 pounds, returning about noon
We moved on about four miles ii
the afternoon and instead of findine
bad lands, as marked on the map
We found a smooth, rolling country
with good grass and ravines contain.
ing pools of water.
One night while in camp on the
bank of ravine or dry creek con.
tanning considerable small timber ]
was on camp guard the after part .ot
the night. The camp stood back
probably SO yards from the ravine
My beat was along the bank of this
creek which was smooth and covered
with short grass, while the bot
tom or large bend below me was
thickly covered with brush and small
ash timber and would have been an
excellent place for Indians to have
come upon US, only the rustic oil
leaves would have warned US against
them. AS was walking along near
the bank just before daybreak, ]
heard rustling in the leaves in the
bottom. 1t sounded as if there might
be two or three objects. It seemed
to go little ways then stop, &C
Iagain and stop for only half min.
ute or SO at time. 1 soon discov.
cred they were coming up the bank
on an angle and were evidently go.
ing to reach the top at a point near
where was standing. 1t was be.
coming quite interesting. Being
quite dark I could not discern an OBJ.
ject only as it showed up on the
horizon. AS it drew near l stepped
back a couple of rods from the bank
and rested my rifle on my knee an6
awaited developments. It came on il
the same hating manner. 1t die
not seem to be stealthy move, only
that it seemed to hesitate. Finally
an object showed itself above the
horizon and stopped. It might b.
listening or trying to locate the
: camp. glanced along the barrel O.
my gun and though could not SET
the sights was sure I could hit the
: object, but concluded to wait un
til it moved again, which it did afte1