The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-08-26

'ucLh oH W VIC ueilNeIcu dl .lS Hioutu
to Rapid Creek for a deposit out on
the prairie. Maybe that is why it is
make tito this creek and it's con-
tents | have looked forward all my
life. Casting in my hook yesterday
| pulled out for the first time brook
trout. Yes Rogers and l tool eighteen
in the afternoon in spite of Blighty,
the dog. He persisted in wading down
stream ahead of us-getting to that
little stream from the cabin was
something like the long years of get
ting out here A mile and three-quar-
tiers up around and over the hills and
then a drop at most perpendicular a
Quarter down to it. 1--WE liked to have
killed ourselves packing up and get
ting out here Monday after the Sunday
peak of the summer.)
Larger trout are to be caught right
here in Rapid Creek. a larger stream.
but they are harder to get. There are
rainbows and locklayens and salmon
trout in it too. / know. I caught our
locklaven in four hours work yester-
day from o a. m, and then we hik-
ed to Prairie Creek and got back at
six thirty.
Certainly nature did a tumultous
job here in the long ages past. Every
bit of the stone of larger formations is
either on edge or end. There are
places just above camp when it is piled
up on the hill sides like cord wood
piled out on end.
I suppose there vas a time when
this was a hunters paradise, and be-
fore that hat Of the Indian, and be-
lore that of the deer. Even now a
few rods west of here is the nimrod's
Mecca. I'ye seen the splendid antlers
of a buck a friend got with a rife
twelve miles west of Mystic, the end
If the railroad that run up this creek,
crossing it at every turn, and it is
beautifully crooked
The dog, as we came down the gulch
in the shadows of last evening, dis
covered for us beside the path i'm a
little clearing the skeleton of a new
born fawn. Here was a mystery and
another tragedy, so near to civilization
and SO nea the wilderness.
That brock over there is fascinating.
Mrs. Simons thinks she's going to see
it and fish in it. Perhaps she will,
bit she'll have to get a little train
ing for The climb first. Edward had
TO be threatened with dire punish
nient if he did not desist from follow
ing end Calvert vows he's going too
He'd bettcf get over that dose of ivey
poison he contracted so that he has
to sit on a pillow at meals or stand
up. But, rshaw, he'll do it. Liquid
sugar of lead does the work.
Here | am writing about the Black
Hills and people from all over the
country know about them. They are
here from as far as Long Island and
Mississippi, and still coming from doz-
ems of states.
The externals Of these ancient up
~neayals and outcropings are not the
p,11y ot - IN rtinnc Io-f NCnr tho Hnmn-
stake mines produced six million dol
lars of gold, yellow and green-but
:he ore is low grade. So much so
that since the price of all necessaries
for the mining has advanced with all
other things it is hardly worth the
expense. Would you believe it? Gold
is one of the cheapest things on the
market. Placer mining is as uncer-
tain as quartz. An old, as he called
himself, blue bellied yankey," pioneer
related today that "Mr. Larson in the
a0's got the fever" because n day
he found fifteen dollars and then
worked three weeks for seventy-iyc
cents" The fever abated.
This dissertation got its start in my
relating that on the divide between
Rapid and Prairie Creeks we came
across two horizonal drifts into it, one
on each side near the top. AS we
stood on re piles of Stag dumped OUT
on the hill side the odor of sulphur
came up from it strong. NO" said
kir. French. that fe'iow wasn't after
god. That's a copper mine he start
ed" His shovel, pick handle and cru
chile are lying just where he left them.
I suppose no one will To- them.
They are sacred to the hills. Presum-
ably the war prevented his plans to
form a company and sink a shaft.
I haven't intimated, have l, that this
part is being written on Sunday even
ing. The family got a good prelimin-
airy workout this afternoon for that
hike to Prairie creek. We, since noon,
rambled round and up to the crest of a
crag three miles and then down should