Part 46

The explorer was left alone, and concluded to investigate on his own account. There were the remains of the fires where the lead had been melted, and the number of them showed that a goodly amount of smelting had been done there. The mine must be near, and of course it ought to be easily found. He looked for a path which might lead to it, and here he found that the Indians’ cunning had baffled him. In no direction was there any track, and it was evident that the Indians had made it a rule never to follow the same course twice when entering or leaving the valley. They had brought the ore from somewhere, but there was no way of knowing whether that place was feet, yards, or miles away.

He spent a couple of days in a careful examination of the vicinity, but found nothing, and returned home very little wiser than he went out. He had a suspicion that he was watched from the time the Indian left him until he gave up the search, but could not say positively that such was the case. A few days after his return, the Indian made his appearance with a fresh lot of lead, for which he refused all compensation, though he did not decline to get drunk at the expense of his acquaintance. He would not talk freely, but solemnly declined to go on another expedition, and, furthermore, cautioned the white man not to undertake it.

The latter would not be advised; and, two or three weeks later, he set out with a friend, with the intention of spending a week or two in exploring the region around the Indian smelting-place.

They were absent one, two, three weeks, and finally their friends became alarmed for their safety, and started out to look for them. Their search was unrewarded, as no trace of the missing men could be found anywhere. No Indians were seen. The half-dozen came and went as usual, but to all questions they returned the most unsatisfactory and non-committal answers.

[Sidenote: MURDER OF THE EXPLORERS.]

One day a hunter found the remains of the two men. Wild beasts had devoured the bodies, but their weapons and scraps of clothing remained, and sufficed for their identification. In each skull there was a deep indentation, caused, undoubtedly, by a tomahawk in the hands of an Indian. But further than this the circumstances of their deaths were never known. After the discovery of the bodies, the Indians did not visit the settlement as often as before, and it was universally supposed that they committed the murder, or, at all events, knew to whom it should have been attributed.

Years afterwards a rich vein of lead ore was found two or three miles from the valley to which the Indian led the first explorer. There was a small cave, so carefully concealed by brushwood that it was only revealed by accident. There were indications that it had been visited by Indians, and that quantities of the ore had been carried away. All around the sides and roof of the cavern there were blocks of rich ore, and the discoverers made a comfortable fortune out of the deposit. It was supposed to be the cave whence the Indians obtained their supply, but whether so or not was never positively known.

In the bluff at Dubuque, lead mining was carried on in two ways—first, by entering the caverns and veins from the foot of the bluff; and, secondly, by sinking shafts from the surface. The shafts were not very deep, so that no elaborate machinery was required for hoisting purposes, a common windlass or a whim, worked by horse power, being all that was required. Where the mining was pushed from the foot of the bluff, levels were driven in until a cavern or seam was reached, and very often the seams in the bluff were taken as the starting-point. The lead was not found in continuous veins, like coal and iron, but in separate masses, that had little connection with each other, though frequently the chambers or caves communicated. Consequently a mine might be soon exhausted, and then the shaft or level would be abandoned, as it was no longer lucrative. The hills back of Dubuque, at the time of my visit, were full of abandoned shafts, and it was dangerous to walk there at night, as many of the shafts were entirely unprotected by fences or railings. Several accidents have occurred by persons falling into these shafts; and I was told that on one occasion two lovers, who were taking an afternoon promenade there, walked into a shaft, and were killed by the fall.

While the business of Dubuque was in the height of its prosperity, about 1857, some enterprising men constructed a shot tower on the low ground near the Mississippi River. It is well known that shot for ordinary hunting purposes is made by pouring melted lead through a sieve, where it can have a fall of a hundred feet or more. In falling it assumes a spherical shape, and at the same time is cooled and hardened. To save it from injury it is received in a tank of water. Afterwards it is polished and brightened by being rolled in plumbago and certain other substances, and is then ready for the bags in which it is offered for sale in the sporting stores.

[Sidenote: AN EDITOR’S DISCOVERY.]

Now, the shot tower costs considerable money, and in order to be profitable, the work of making shot must pay the interest of the cost of the tower, besides the wages of everybody concerned. The editor of a newspaper at Dubuque was one day rambling among the abandoned shafts back of the town, and endeavoring to hit upon some plan for making them once more useful.

Suddenly an idea occurred to him, and he hastened to lay it before a friend who was interested in the shot tower.

[Sidenote: A SURPRISING DISCOVERY.]

“Here is my idea,” said the editor. “The melted lead must fall from a certain height, and you have spent fifteen thousand dollars to build a tower to give that height to the dropping lead. Now, it makes no difference where the fall is; and why could you not get it in one of these abandoned shafts, which would cost nothing? And besides, you save the expense of hoisting the lead to the top of the tower. I can start a shot company that will undersell you in spite of all you could do.”

The tower man stood a full minute in a brown study. When he had collected his thoughts, he said,—

“I think you are right, and wonder nobody ever thought of it before. But don’t say a word about it for the present. The St. Louis Shot Company is now negotiating for our tower; it wants to have a monopoly of all the shot business on the river, and we shall sell out. When we have sold out, and have the money in our hands, you can start your theory, and anybody that wants to try it can do so. If you say anything now, you may spoil the whole arrangement.”

The editor promised to wait, and kept his promise. The Dubuque tower was bought by the St. Louis Company, which congratulated itself on having a monopoly of the shot business at Dubuque. But very soon the editor advanced his theory; somebody put it in practice, and found it was entirely correct. Abandoned shafts were occupied by shot-makers, and found to answer the purpose exactly, and the business of the tower came to an end. “Why did not somebody think of this before?” is a question that is often asked whenever a new and simple invention is brought to the attention of the public.

When the mines were operated at the base of the cliff by means of levels, and the chambers were stripped of their lead ore, the owners found themselves in possession of magnificent cellars, that could be used for storage purposes. As time rolled on, and Dubuque grew into importance, many Germans went there to live. The German is fond of beer, and wherever you find Germans in goodly numbers, there you will find the care-dispelling lager and the appetizing pretzel. Breweries rose and flourished at Dubuque, and the fame of the beer that flowed from them extended even to the mouth of the Mississippi. The abandoned caves of the lead workers were well suited to the wants of the brewers, as they made excellent cellars for storing the beer between the time of its manufacture and of its sale. They were of an even temperature throughout the year, and the temperature was exactly suited to the Teutonic beverage.

[Sidenote: BANQUET IN A BEER CELLAR.]

On several occasions the brewers gave entertainments in their cellars, and set the tables for their guests between the rows of beer casks. The guests were converted into casks of beer by the time the entertainments ended, and occasionally they needed assistance to find their way out to the open air. There is a novelty about an underground banquet, especially when you find your legs giving way beneath your weight, and you are led to believe that the earth above will come down at an inopportune moment, and crush you as flat as a sheet of paper, without giving you time to send word to your friends.

In our rambles about the bluffs, Mr. Pettit told me of an adventurous inhabitant of Dubuque who used to alternate regularly between wealth and poverty every few months. He was a lead miner, who spent most of his time in discovering fresh deposits of the valuable ore. When he found a deposit, he was rich, and lived at a rapid rate until the money obtained from it was gone. Then, without a dollar to call his own, and frequently burdened with debts he could not pay, he would shoulder his pick and start on a tour among the hills, where he hoped to find the material with which his fortune could be restored. Sometimes he would hunt for weeks without finding anything; and just as he had determined to abandon the search, and hire out as a laborer, he would find what he wanted. One of his adventures was narrated to me in his own words, which I will give as nearly as I can remember them.

“Once I was dead broke,” said he, “and owed a good deal of money. My creditors were pressing, but they knew I hadn’t the first cent to pay with, and so they didn’t press very hard. I hunted around a long time, but not a bit of ore could I find, and I seriously thought of going to the river and making cat-fish bait of myself, so as to get out of my misery.

[Sidenote: AN EXCITING MOMENT.]

“One day I got in among the chambers in the bluffs, and in one of them I found a small hole, which I thought might possibly lead to something rich. I enlarged it, and got through into a new chamber where there were blocks of lead; and then I knew there was more of it close by. These chambers often lie one above another, and there was evidently one just above where I stood. A blow or two of my pick in the ceiling above would open it, and when it was opened, there was a fortune ready for me.

“Well, no, it wasn’t a sure fortune. This business has its drawbacks, and sometimes there is a serious drawback in a place like that. Most of these chambers are dry, but now and then they are full of water, and sometimes you will find a dry chamber under one that is full. There I stood, wondering what to do. I was never more puzzled in my life.

“The hole where I entered was small and long. It was a hard place to get through, and it took time. The place was low; in fact, I couldn’t stand erect without butting my head. If I tapped the ceiling, and the chamber above was full of water, I should be drowned like a rat in a cage. One blow would loosen the whole bottom, and the water would come down like Niagara.

“If I went out and tried to enlarge the entrance before tapping the ceiling, some other fellow might get in there and take possession. If he opened the chamber before I did, he would be the owner, and I could not lay any claim on account of discovery.

“I thought it all over. I thought of my poverty and the fortune that lay before me. I thought of the chance of death if the cave was full of water. I threw down my pick, and almost determined to go away, and not take the risk. Then I looked at my ragged clothes, and remembered that they were all I had, and that I hadn’t money enough to buy a breakfast. Then I stooped and grasped the pick, and took a firm hold of the handle.

“‘Here goes,’ I said, ‘for one thing or the other.’ I set my teeth, swung the pick, and tapped the ceiling above me.

[Sidenote: A FORTUNE AT ONE BLOW.]

“The water came down; I dropped to the floor, and felt that I was lost. I must have fainted, for the next thing I remember, my candle, which was only half burned when I struck the blow, was nearly consumed, and I was lying there soaked in a small pool that surrounded me.

“I rose, rubbed my eyes, and looked around, and then I saw how it was. There had been a few buckets of water in the chamber above, where there might have been hogsheads. I was alive and safe, and the chamber was opened.

“I lighted another candle, and went to work enlarging the hole I had made. In a little while I was able to climb through it; and there, all around me, lay blocks of rich ore; and I felt that I was no longer the poor vagabond I had been a few hours before. But I don’t think I would go through that excitement again for all the lead mines that ever were known.”

XLII.

MINING IN THE BLACK HILLS. THE WONDERFUL MINE UNDER LAKE SUPERIOR.

FIRST REPORTS OF GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS—DISCOVERY OF PLACER DEPOSITS—THEIR EXTENT AND RICHNESS—DEADWOOD AND RAPID CREEK—SAD FATE OF AN EARLY EXPLORING PARTY—VALUABLE QUARTZ VEINS—MODE OF REACHING THE COUNTRY—OTHER RESOURCES OF THE BLACK HILLS REGION—BRILLIANT PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE—A REMARKABLE MINE UNDER LAKE SUPERIOR—CURIOSITIES OF SILVER ISLET—WORKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES—ORES OF UNEXAMPLED RICHNESS—MINING ADVENTURES UNDER THE LAKE—NEW ROUTE TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.

When the frontier newspapers first began publishing their exciting reports of rich gold discoveries in the Black Hills, some of their editors doubted its existence there in paying quantities. Gen. Custer had reported gold discoveries, but the scientific gentlemen accompanying his expedition had denied finding it in deposits of a remunerating richness. Doubt and uncertainty shadowed the prospect until the development of the rich claims of Deadwood and Whitewood gulches, and the encouraging indications found on Rapid Spring and French Creek, in the spring of 1876. But the richness and extent of the Black Hills gold mines may now be considered demonstrated. A great deal of money has already been realized from them, and as yet they have not been even thoroughly prospected. The fact that the Black Hills had so long been unexplored and unsettled by white men is not altogether attributable, as has been popularly supposed, to the strength and hostility of the Sioux Indians, who roamed over, and are still dangerously powerful to the west of that region. The principal reasons are that they were not immediately on the moving lines of transcontinental emigration, and that the country had no definite knowledge of their wealth in soil and mine, while the natural resources of other sections of the far West were advertised far and wide. That the Black Hills have been taken possession of by white men in the face of both government opposition and Indian hostilities, proves the correctness of this assumption.

Gold was discovered there by white men years before the lamented Custer entered the country at the head of an army. And it would undoubtedly have been settled and developed immediately after, had not these unknown first discoverers all been massacred by Indians, and therefore the reports of their discoveries were never published. Near Rapid Creek, and on Whitewood and Deadwood Creeks, old “prospect holes” have been found. There is an old shaft on a gold-bearing quartz vein which crosses Deadwood Gulch, and the trees near by bear the marks of bullets and arrows, whose appearance proves that they were made years ago. In one of the Deadwood claims old rusty nails were found, and on another there was an old pile of tailings. Of the conclusion arrived at from these evidences there can be no reasonable doubt: the unfortunate white men who sank the shaft on the gold vein were seized and tied to the missile-scarred trees and riddled with arrows and bullets. Those who excavated the old “prospect holes” likewise fell victims to the Sioux, and not one of these first discoverers was left to report the fate of the others.

[Sidenote: THE BLACK HILLS.]

The Black Hills are an isolated mass of elevations, about 120 miles in extent from northwest to southwest, with an average width of 50 miles; their area being not less than 6,000 square miles. They are so called from the somber aspect they present from a distant view, caused by the vast evergreen forests of pine with which they are generally clothed. According to the latitudinal lines they are about 60 miles north and a little over 800 miles west of the city of Chicago, and are situated between the two forks of the Cheyenne river, which surround them so completely that both these streams have their origin in the same locality, and their headwaters interlock. The north current is usually called the Belle Fourche, or beautiful Fork.

The Hills are reached by railroad to Sioux City and Yankton, or to Bismarck, on the upper Missouri, or to Cheyenne and other towns on the Union Pacific. They embrace all that is grand and beautiful in nature—cloud-piercing peaks, snow-crowned nine months out of the twelve; deep down cañons, gloomy and savage, with dense forests and craggy walls of slate, granite, or limestone; fairy fountains and crystal streams, and richly flowered plateaus and glades.

The highest peaks are from 5,600 to 8,000 feet high; not so great altitudes as are found among the perpetually snow-capped mountains of the Big Horn further west, but they appear as lofty when measured by the eye in comparison with the surrounding elevations.

[Sidenote: THE FIRST MINERS.]

As soon as the Custer expedition of 1874, which gave to the world its first authentic knowledge of the existence of gold in the Black Hills, had returned to Fort Lincoln, a party of adventurers organized at Sioux City and went thither. It consisted of twenty-eight men and one woman. They camped on French Creek, in the southern part of the Hills, where Custer City now stands, and erected stockades. They found encouraging gold prospects, but were soon forced to return from lack of supplies. The “gold fever” continued to spread, however, and soon got under such headway all along the frontiers that government opposition was of little avail. Hundreds flocked to the new El Dorado, their objective point being the stockades on the French Creek. In the spring of 1875 these pioneers organized themselves into a town company, and the site of Custer City was staked off into building lots, being at first christened Stonewall. The number rapidly increased, so that by the last of December, 1875, a provisional government was organized, and a few laws, simple in form, but comprehensive in their scope, were adopted, their execution being entrusted to a marshal and justice of the peace. Emigration continued to increase, the new comers first satisfying themselves that gold really existed on French Creek, and next securing a town lot and erecting a building thereon.

Soon a house of some kind was constructed on nearly all the lots contained in the town site of 640 acres, the hopeful owners believing they had a San Francisco in embryo. Notwithstanding that danger from hostile Indians existed everywhere, even in the very suburbs of the town, prospectors pushed their enterprise in all directions, and soon the auriferous deposits of Spring and Rapid Creeks, to the northward, were covered with miners’ claims and embraced in mining districts. During the winter of 1875-6, Deadwood and Whitewood gulches were reached 70 miles north of Custer City, and were also claimed throughout their extent.

[Sidenote: THE MINES.]

One claim in the former, No. 1 below discovery, was offered in February of 1876, for a sack of flour and corresponding amount of bacon, and a few months later had produced gold to the amount of $250,000. The number of mines in the Hills on the first of July, 1876, was estimated at 6,500, about half of which were settled in and about Deadwood City. Crook City, 10 miles below Deadwood, at the mouth of Whitewood, contained about 500 inhabitants; Hill City, on Spring Creek, had 150 houses and less than a score of inhabitants; and the mountains were pretty generally filled with prospectors.

An old placer miner, upon his first view of French Creek, would shrug his shoulders and say, “This don’t suit me.” The creek has a low, sluggish flow, the fall being very slight, and the natural advantages for mining are very bad. But there are millions in the auriferous deposits of French Creek, and the gold is the purest ever found on the American continent, the mint returns showing it to be worth $24 an ounce. The deposits are so flat, and the water supply so limited, that these diggings are not likely to be a successful field for the labor of the poor man. They can only be handled by company organizations controlling considerable capital. Steam hydraulics have been suggested; they would undoubtedly be successful on the adjacent hills and some of the higher bars, could an adequate supply of water be obtained.

The French Creek deposits are very extensive, the main gulch being miles in length, and having some promising tributaries, and they will give employment to several thousand men, when fully opened.

The quartz interests about Custer City are important. Many gold-bearing ledges have been discovered, some of which are being developed as vigorously as the limited means of their owners will permit. The mica deposits are worthy of note. Blocks of pure mica are obtained, which will shelve off in unfractured plates of from six to twelve inches square; it is found in inexhaustible quantities, and is pronounced of good commercial quality, being worth from four to six dollars a pound in the markets. This may become an important source of wealth.

[Sidenote: THE DEPOSITS.]

The Spring Creek deposits are 18 miles north of Custer, on the road to Deadwood. In their topography and geological formation, they look much more favorable for gold than French Creek district, being nearer and more directly connected with the eruptive portions of the Hills. Rich deposits are found in Creek Hill gulch, and bar ground, and they are extensive enough to give thousands employment. But the Spring Creek deposits, like those of French, demand capital for their development.

The creek ground lies more advantageously to be worked than that about Custer, but it is so very deep that much money must be expended in preliminary work before pay can be realized, and water can only be brought over the hills and higher bars by means of a great deal of costly fluming. Capitalists are now directing their attention to Spring Creek district, and, no doubt, several millions will be realized from it within a few years. The Spring Creek quartz interests are also important. Many very promising veins have been located, and crossing Spring Creek there is a quartz belt which is said to be 1,000 feet wide and over 30 miles long. Here, as along French Creek, there is an abundance of the finest wood for timbering shafts, fuel, building, etc. The formations are granite and slate, with lime often capping through the primitive rocks.

[Sidenote: RAPID CREEK.]