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 definiteknowledge 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.
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.
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 thelots 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.
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.
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.
RAPID CREEK.
Fifteen miles north of Spring Creek, following the Deadwood road from Custer, we reach Rapid Creek, just half way between Deadwood City and Custer, and in the very center ofthe Black Hills gold region. It is one of the most beautiful of the mountain streams, its water being as clear as crystal and delightfully cool in the hottest weather. It has an average width of about twelve feet, an average depth of fifteen inches, and is the only stream in the eastern part of the Hills which flows continuously the year through. It was on this stream, as credibly reported, that the Indians found and presented to Father De Smet many years ago a gold nugget worth several dollars, the Father being camped there with the Indians at the time. Here we have what the old miner would call “the regular old-fashioned gold wash.” In the pebbly bed of Rapid a great deal of water-worn quartz is found, and the contiguous hills, gulches, and bars prospect richly, as a rule. It is generally believed that Rapid Creek will prove the most productive portion of the Black Hills. When the necessary fluming shall have been made to cover this rich, high ground with water, so that a system of hydraulics can be carried, the yield must be enormous.
The Rapid diggings are many miles in extent, and will give employment, when fully developed, to many miners. Some very promising gold-bearing quartz veins have been discovered in Rapid Creek district, and silver discoveries have lately been reported from there.
I am indebted for much of my information concerning the Black Hills to Mr. H. N. Maguire, who has made a careful examination of the country. He is very enthusiastic about its future prospects, and in summing up the resources of the region, he says:
“I may be over-sanguine, but I believe all those vast regions drained by the southern tributaries of the Yellowstone, or the major portion of them, comprise the richest mineral fields on the continent—gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal; and perhaps platinum, quicksilver, and other metals. They have all the other natural elements of imperial wealth and expansion: good soil, illimitable pasturage, health-giving climate, and a temperature delightful in summer, and very endurable in winter. Now that the Indians are about whipped into submission, I have no doubt emigration will pour thither in unprecedentednumbers, soon resulting in an unbroken chain of industries, from the corn fields of Dakota to the stock ranges of the Yellowstone. The farmer and miner will sustain each other, while both will need and will be able to generously remunerate the artisan and tradesman. Honest industry in every field can not fail to be crowned with success.”
When perusing the estimates of the gold-yield of the Black Hills, we come to the conclusion that the total yield has been, for the year 1876, about $2,000,000.
YIELD OF GOLD-PRODUCING COUNTRIES.
Let us compare this with the yield of the other gold-producing countries:
These are the first three years of the California gold fever. It is difficult, at this late date, to calculate the exact amount of gold kept in the hands of miners, as specimens, and as a circulating medium, during the first year (1848), but suppose we place the amount at $173,770 (which is a liberal estimate), we have then $4,000,000 as the yield of gold in 1848. Taking into account all the amounts which usually escape the official returns, and also the amounts buried by the miners until their return to the states, the most liberal estimates of these, added to the official returns, can hardly place the yield of gold from this state in 1848 over $10,000,000.
Nevada produced from her placer mines from 1849, the year of the discovery, to 1859, when they ceased working them, both years inclusive, only $400,000. This was produced, however, mostly by Chinese miners, of whom there were only about 200 in the mines. It will be remembered, also, that the placers of Nevada were never very remunerative, and that they decreased in the amount of yield as we approach the final year, 1859.
It is impossible to give a correct estimate of the yield from Colorado for the year 1859, her first year, but the most liberal estimate would hardly place it above $800,000; the entire yield, including the quartz-mills, for nine years, from 1859 to 1868, as only $30,000,000. Of course there are several causes which it is not necessary to enumerate here, which operated fatally against any large yield from Colorado during these years.
The Black Hills proper has a superficial area of about 6,000 square miles. The bulk—we might almost say all—of the gold produced thus far from the Hills is from placer mines; the quartz interest has as yet hardly begun to be developed. By referring to the comparative figures, it will be seen that, considering her area, and the disadvantages which have surrounded her, the new El Dorado has done remarkably well this year, even if we confine her to the $2,000,000 which I have accounted for. She stands upon a very favorable footing with any of the auriferous districts during their early days. The quartz interest will give a large increase in the yield of bullion this year (1877), both in gold and silver and we may safely place the yield for 1877 at $7,000,000.
MINING UNDER LAKE SUPERIOR.
MINING UNDER LAKE SUPERIOR.
One of the most remarkable mines in America is the one known as Silver Islet in Lake Superior. It once was a small barren rock; its greatest width was seventy feet and its length eighty feet. It was only eight feet above the water, its position being about three-quarters of a mile from the main-land and exposed to a sweep of 200 miles of Lake Superior.
SILVET ISLET.
Operations were begun there on the first of September, 1870. On that date a party began the erection of cribs, and in thirty days there were put in place 460 feet of cribbing, thoroughly bolted together, filled with rock, and having an average depth of thirteen feet. Such an enormous extent of work was only accomplished by the force working unitedly, as one man, eighteen hours out of twenty-four. Inside of the crib-work a coffer-dam was constructed, enclosing seventy feet in length of the out-crop or back of the vein.
The water in the enclosed space was thrown out by steam siphons, and mining was commenced on October 5th. Everything worked successfully until October 26th, when 200 feet of breakwater was carried away by a heavy southeast gale. The coffer-dam also suffered considerable damage, and the pit excavated on the vein was completely filled with rock from the cribs. This breach was filled more substantially than at first by a double line of crib-work, having a base of twenty-six feet; the coffer-dam was repaired, the pit cleaned out, and mining resumed on November 18th, which was continued until November 26th, when the last shipment of ore was made for the season.
All through that season and the next the work was constantly interrupted by accidents. Whenever a severe storm arose the sea rolled in heavily and broke down portions of the dam, or crib-work, so that the mine would be flooded and the miners driven from their posts. But in spite of these delays, coupled with the small space in which the men could work, more than a million dollars worth of ore was taken out.
The mine is one of the richest ever opened in the country. The great deposit of ore occurs in a fissure vein having a bearing of N. 32° W., the dip or inclination being to the N. E. The vein is well defined at points, having good walls or clearages, but not uniform in width, opening out at points to 12 or 15 feet, and again closing up to a string of not more than six inches. The average width, however, might be put down from four to five feet. Still, aside from the vein proper, there are several strings or feeders, some of them at a distance of 30 feet, carrying rich packing ore.
The vein substance generally consists of calcareous spar and dolomitic spar, with quartz, in which are enclosed occasional masses of dioritic wall rock, slate, and plumbago. The contained minerals are galena, zinc, blende, iron pyrites, kupfer, nickel, cobalt ore, with small quantities of antimony, native silver, and silver glauce, or sulphuret of silver.
The deposit of silver is found at the intersection of the vein with an immense belt of diorite and plumbago. This dioriteis an intrusive mass, cutting nearly perpendicularly through the original more or less horizontal formation of slates and sedimentary or silicious sandstone. The ore varies in value from $400 to $7,000 per ton, the general average being not far from $1,500 per ton. This is known as packing ore, for the reason that it is packed in barrels for shipment. In addition to it there is a broad vein of stamp rock, valued at from $45 to $50 per ton.
The vein, taking a northwesterly and southwesterly direction, crosses Silver Islet, where it was discovered. On its course north from the Islet the vein goes out of sight, being covered by the lake for about 3,000 feet, and then makes its appearance on Burnt Island; submerged again by water for a distance of 350 to 400 feet, it reaches the mainland, on which it can be traced for a long distance.
ISLE ROYALE.
Going south from Silver Islet, the vein passes under Lake Superior, and is said to cross Isle Royale, some twenty miles off. Tesels have been run out from the shafts, so that the miners work far under the lake, and during heavy storms they can distinctly hear the roar of the waters. But although the vein is placed below the lake, its position, so far, has not put it at a great disadvantage, compared with other mines producing silver.
CHARACTER OF THE MINE.
There are features about this mine which actually make it a favorite as regards cost of working. The two great causes which increase so rapidly the cost, and delay the progress of mining everywhere, are influx of water and the meeting with what is termed soft ground. This mine, so far, has been opened nearly 700 feet. The longest level opens up the vein about 730 feet, and yet by pumping some 155 gallons per minute, the mine is kept dry. Most of this water enters from above, and is therefore not expected to increase in proportion to the depth obtained in the future. Many mines, although situated on high and dry land, have to pump far more water than this. The rock here being less pervious to water than elsewhere, can only be accounted for by the fact that a longer time has elapsed since this region has undergone any seriousvolcanic disturbance. Some narrow belts of slaty shale lying next to the vein are identical, except in age, with the clay found next the true veins in other places.
The vein rock itself is of a hard and firm nature, needing but little timbering for support. Three samples, taken from the vein yet remaining in the roof of the mine, showed, from concentrations and assays, as follows:
The concentrations of No. 1 had hardly more than a trace of galena in them, being native silver, etc.
No. 2 was mixed, consisting of galena and native silver.
No. 3 was pure galena.
The mineral is called McFarlanite, from the man who first brought it into notice, it being unlike any other silver ore, a mingling of nickel giving it a peculiar tinge and a beautiful arborescence.
The mine has ten levels or adits running north and south, besides several cross-cuts east and west. They have lately been boring with a diamond drill west of the main vein, thinking to find another feeder similar to the east vein, or to ascertain if the streak that is seen in the water west may be a deflection in the main vein.
They descend by ladders only, the shaft being used solely for hoisting rock. They have Burleigh compressors and all modern appliances. Occasionally they strike gas, which throws out a jet of great power—at one time of forty feet—and burns for a long time when lighted. A miner once came upon a natural cavity, where he felt sure he was to touch the bonanza; so he inserted his head with the candle in his hat. It came out quicker than it went in, but without hair, whiskers, eye-brows, and almost without scalp. Holes are encountered discharging water, or water and gas combined. Some of the miners are apprehensive that they will by and by reach the bottom of the lake and fall into an enormous cavity, which will take them, perhaps, to the center of the earth.