Closely embraced between the two principal forks of the Cheyenne river arises a magnificent group of mountains extending about one hundred miles north and south and about sixty miles east and west direction. To this group of mountains the great Dakota or Sioux nation gave the name of Pa-ha-sap-pah, or Black Hills. The first inhabitants of the Black Hills of whom we have any authentic information are the people of the Crow Nation. According to their tradition they formerly occupied the whole range of the Rocky Mountains with the beautiful valleys on both sides, from the Saskatchewan in the north and as far south as the mountains continue.
The discovery of gold here would change things forever. While exploring the area, on the 3d of August 1874, General Custer made a report in which he says: "It will be understood, that within the limits of the Black Hills in we were almost constantly marching, we have established the fact, that gold is distributed throughout the extensive area within the Black Hills. Gold was obtained in numerous localities in what are termed gulches. No discoveries, so far as I am aware, were made of gold deposits in quartz, although there is every reason to believe, that a more extended and thorough search would have discovered it. No large nuggets were found; the examination, however, showed that a very even, if not a very rich, distribution of gold is to be found throughout the entire valleys. In other words the "prospecting" showed that while the miner may not in one pan full of earth find nuggets of large size or deposits of astonishing richness, to be followed by days and weeks of unrewarded labor, he may reasonably expect in certain localities to realize from every pan full of earth a handsome return for his labor."

Below is a collection of 20 tales of adventure and history from South Dakota's early gold mining days:

1. Black Hills Gold Discoveries
2. The First City In the Black Hills Organized
3. Early Day Dakota Black Hills Mining Laws
4. Gold Bearing Streams and Rivers of the Black Hills
5. Deadwood City’s Early Gold Mining History
6. The Cost of Pioneer Living in Deadwood
7. The Deadwood Placers Yield Large Quantities of Gold
8. The Early History of Custer City and Nearby Towns
9. The Rich Gold Mines Of The Black Hills
10. The Famous Homestake Gold Mine

Custer's Report continued: "While I am satisfied that gold in satisfactory quantities can be obtained in the Black Hills, yet the hasty examination we were forced to make, did not enable us to determine in any satisfactory degree the richness or extent of the gold deposits in that region. Seeking for gold was not one of the objects of this expedition, consequently we were ill prepared to institute or successfully prosecute a search after it even after we became aware of its existence in the country." The expedition of General Custer was accompanied by H. N. Ross and William T. McKay, in the capacity of guides and miners. Before General Custer left the Hills he had expected to be ordered to make an expedition to the Yellowstone and Big-Horn country; where he subsequently lost his life; and Mr. Ross had agreed to accompany him. After waiting for some time and the orders not arrived he suggested to the General that the idea of an expedition had probably been abandoned, and he desired to be freed from the obligation to accompany him, telling the General at the same time that he was going to the Black Hills to look for more gold. The General admitted that the proposed expedition was probably off, and jocosely remarked that if Ross attempted to return to the Black Hills he would be obliged to capture him and bring him back. Ross with a sly twinkle in his eye replied: " General, I'll take good care you don't capture me." "Now, Ross," said Custer, "if I were goings to the Black Hills I would not fit out an expedition and start from the nearest military post, but I would go off ten or fifteen miles, cross the Missouri river, and instead of taking a well-known trail, strike out directly for the Bad Lands." Ross profited by this advice. When about twenty-five miles south of Bear Butte they struck Custer's exit trail. Their cattle were so worn out by forced driving day and night, to avoid Indians and soldiers, that it became necessary to lighten up the wagons by packing everything they could get on their ponies. After doing this they followed up the trail, and reached Custer's Park on the 24th of December, 1874.
Two hours after pitching camp in Custer's Park, Charley Cordero and little Bob Talent found one of the prospect holes made by McKay and Ross, of the Custer party, and obtained from it a good prospect. This was the first gold found by the party, and they all thought their fortunes were made; and the company were in consequence highly elated and full and overflowing with days work, and exuberant spirits. Christmas day was celebrated with every pomp that their limited resources would admit of. They settled in for the winter, but by April 6, 1875, the miners were forced to leave. They were carried to Cheyenne where they remained until the 19th of July, when a portion of them slipped quietly away at night and headed for the gold fields. The soldiers overtook them, arrested them and carried them back. They started again, and were again arrested and carried back. This was repeated the third time; but before getting back to Cheyenne they escaped, and finally reached the gold fields of the Black Hills in October, 1875. The presence of white people in the Hills contrary to the spirit of existing treaties with the Indians compelled the United States Government to take notice of the matter. The reports that had been brought in by the miners were now spread far and wide over the West, and great excitement prevailed in the frontier settlements bordering on the reservation and extended even into the thickly settled regions of the East. The great floating population of the frontier, miners and others, suffering from a dearth of mining discoveries, were now ready for a gold rush into this new El Dorado. It soon became evident that there was a large body of miners ready to enter the new field, many of whom expressed no wish to transgress the word of the Government given in the treaty, and there was a very general desire, that the right to prospect and mine should be acquired for them by the Government, either by purchasing the Black Hills or by obtaining a concession from the Indians as was endeavored in a subsequent council.
The mines of the Black Hills yield both gold and silver ore, though the silver deposits were not discovered till some time after active mining for gold had made the region widely known. The gold mines may be included in four classes: 1. Placers. 2. Quartz veins between slate walls. 3. Quartz veins between porphyry walls. 4. Cement deposits. "The placers in the Black Hills are of great extent, and some of them have yielded very large sums. Some of the dry places (that is, beds of clay or gravel, containing a considerable amount of free gold, but at such a distance from water are so rich that the dirt has been brought from some of them by wagon loads to the water. In traveling through the Black Hills one will notice along the numerous creeks vast piles of gravel. Through the midst of these heaps of pebbles, among which now and then there towers up the round back of a boulder, or rises a little grassy island, bearing some charred stump, one may often see remains of wooden machinery and the ruins of abandoned log cabins; or he may even meet with men at work, and learn how the hasty little stream is made to pause and pay toll in service as it rushes downward from the high cliffs where it was born. All these appearances are signs of gold mining by the method known as " placer-washing" or " gulch-digging." It is the simplest, and, in some respects, the most interesting of all the processes by which the precious metal is dug out of the earth.
According to some authorities Ed. Murphy and others from Montana visited Deadwood gulch in the late autumn of 1875, and were the first discoverers of gold. Murphy wrote to John Hildebrand, who in April, 1876, came on from Montana bringing a considerable party with him. On the 13th day of November Frank Bryant found gold in Deadwood while hunting deer, and on the 15th of the same month he, with one of his party, commenced to prospect Deadwood gulch. The thirst for gold overcame all difficulties, brought thousands of gold miners to these wilds, and in less than a year Deadwood grew from a few log cabins to a city of seven thousand inhabitants, with buildings and improvements that were valued at one million of dollars and business in proportion. Gold dust was the medium of exchange and everybody carried a sack or bottle to hold their change. Every place of business kept gold scales to weigh out the change required. Everything had two prices, one for gold and the other for greenbacks; the currency price being ten per cent less than the gold price. The placers yielded fabulously, and gold quartz brilliant with the yellow metal passed from hand to hand. Speculation in town lots amounted to a furor of the wildest kind. Lead, once the largest city west of the Missouri river, in South Dakota, began its history in the spring of 1876, when gold was discovered in the surrounding hills and gulches. At this time the immense lead now known as the Homestake property, was then unknown and covered with heavy timber. At first a few miners' cabins were built along Gold Run Gulch, and the occupants were engaged in placer mining. Soon after prospecting for quartz began, and the Emanuel Brothers, where the cut now is, discovered the Homestake gold mine. Soon after they found the Old Abe; then followed the discovery of the Highland by M. Cavanaugh, and the Golden Star by Smoky Jones. Little could be done with the gold ore until a mill was built, but some was reduced in an arastra in Pennington, by the Emanuel Brothers, being ore from the Homestake mines. The spring of 1877 gave birth to the first stamp mill, built by Messrs. George Beemer & Co., near where the D. C. depot now stands. Stamps began dropping April 15, 1877.

Above: Lead, South Dakota in the early gold rush days

Nevada Outback Gems