I had considerable ready cash on hand, and I was wondering what sort of an opportunity would present itself to take it from me, when John Herman, P. D. O'Brien and myself came to the conclusion that the quickest way to a big fortune in that country was by the construction of a ditch and the bringing in of water to work the placer mines in the Nigger Hill and Bear Gulch Districts. We had a survey made, and found that a ditch sixty miles in length would be required. It was a big undertaking, but we started the work, confident of success and future vast rewards from our sale of water to the placer miners. All worked well until we had about fifty miles of ditch completed, when one day there came a cloudburst, which ripped our work pretty nearly from one end to the other. We quit that enterprise just about as quickly as the cloudburst did, and I had found out one of the things which were to throw me down again, as I had confidently and superstitiously expected. The very next day after the cloudburst I chanced to meet a man named Rosenbaum, who had been a foreman for us, and he told me that in the spring of '76 when he came into the Black Hills by way of Harney's Peak he had one day found some gold quartz float of such marvelous richness that he had not dared to show it to any of his companions, and that he had been waiting some time for an opportunity to go back to the locality with some reliable person who had means enough to grubstake the outfit and make a thorough search for what he believed to be a great quartz gold ore discovery. He said he was sure he could return to the place where he found the rich float.
I wanted to get away from the ditch as far as possible, so I at once procured two outfits and Rosenbaum and I started on our prospecting trip. Arriving at a place which Rosenbaum declared to be "about the spot," we established a camp. The place was about seventy miles from Deadwood and near the foot of Harney's Peak. There was a hog-back foothill extending up toward the mountain, and Rosenbaum declared that the float he saw was upon the slope of the hill. We started in to prospect, Rosenbaum going to the further side of the hill and I keeping along the side nearest to our camp. I had gone but a few hundred feet up the incline when I came upon pieces of float that fairly dazzled me.
The quartz I saw was simply thick with gold. A little further I came upon bushels of the richest float I had ever seen, and far better than any I have ever seen since. I became greatly excited, and I actually piled the quartz into little mounds of golden ore and then kept on searching. Suddenly my eyes rested on a rich chunk of gold quartz half as large as my head with nuggets of gold that were standing out of it on every side. I made a grab for it as a miser clutches his gold in the realistic drama.
It was heavy. I trembled with exultation. I shouted, "Rosenbaum!" - but he was a mile away and did not hear me. Then I sat down, looked the specimen over carefully, saw that it was not much worn, and, of course, knew that I was near the lead from which it had come. I could imagine the croppings to be almost solid gold, and then I shook with fear lest we should be unable to realize all the millions we wanted before the value of gold would be cheapened by our great discovery. Heavy as the specimen was I packed it with me as I started again up the slope of the foothill. Pretty soon I could find no trace of mineralization and I knew that I was above the lead.
Then I began to descend, searching every inch of ground, but found no out croppings. Then I came upon the float again and I knew for a certainty about where we would have to dig to strike the vein. Then I tore my handkerchief into pieces, and tying the bits to sticks I marked the place so that I could not fail to find it again.
Returning to camp I found Rosenbaum had preceded me and that he had failed to find any float upon the side of the hill where he had prospected. When he saw my find (we afterward sold the piece for $600) he was absolutely wild. We both hurried back and made a careful study of the ground where the float began, concluded the vein must run at a certain angle and dip, and then proceeded to stake out our location. That night the two most excited and expectant miners in the world were camped in the shadow of Harney's Peak waiting for the sun to rise.
Before daylight the next morning we had cooked our breakfast, eaten it, and were on the way to discover the lead. Within a very few hours of hard but exciting work trenching the ground we had cross-cut the surface far enough to come upon the vein. It turned out to be very narrow, but the ore was of a very high grade. We sank down upon the vein a few feet, found that it widened out, but that the quartz was clearly of even grade. Then we were at least safe against the danger of depreciating gold values.
We packed up, carried more than a thousand dollars' worth of gold specimens with us, reached Deadwood and made preparations for putting up a five stamp mill as quickly as possible. We had named our mine the Golden Summit. We got the mill to running and from the surface dirt alone we cleared up over $8,000 in profits. Then we were offered $ 10,000 for the property and we sold it. The Golden Summit is still working, sometimes paying well and always, I think, yielding some profit on the work. That district has become famous because of the location thereon of one of the most sensational mines of history, the Holy Terror.
Return
to The South Dakota Page:
South Dakota Gold Rush History
