Custer
We go off to the left a few miles to the State Game Lodge. This is the
famous Summer White House of President Coolidge. Before we reach it we
see a fine group of elk along the road and another of deer. The latter
bound gracefully into a thicket when we stop to watch them. Along this
road are several tourist camps. Galena and the Game Lodge are the larger
ones.
[Illustration: The Switchback on the Needles Road
Rise Photo]
[Illustration: One of the Tunnels]
We will leave the game lodge and zoo, however, and take them in our
return from Hot Springs. Accordingly we take trail 36 back to Custer,
about twenty miles. A few miles before we come to Custer we find a tall
stone shaft rising beside the road. A bronze plate attached to it tells
us that this is a monument erected to the memory of Mrs. Anna D.
Tallent, the first white woman in the Hills. To the right, down a lane a
few rods is a reconstructed replica of the old Gordon Stockade. The
saplings are driven into the ground, spiked on top, just as the old fort
had been. Within the inclosure are a couple of buildings, one where the
Tallents lived and one where other folks of the party had lived. French
Creek flows just south of the stockade.
Just when gold was discovered in the Hills is a question. Probably it
was before 1850, or shortly thereafter. One tale runs that a party of
sixteen left the California Trail at Fort Laramie in 1852 because
friendly Indians reported gold in the Black Hills.
[Illustration: Restoration of the old Gordon Stockade built to protect
the people from the Indians]
[Illustration: Deer in the Forest Reserve in South Dakota]
[Illustration: Buffalo]
The men journeyed north, trying several places to mine for gold. They
got small quantities until they finally ended up near Deadwood. There
the quantity became greater, and the men were elated. Three of the men
started back to tell the people at Salt Lake City of their good fortune.
The remainder kept on prospecting. One day one of those remaining went
out to shoot a deer for meat. Upon his return the camp was in flames and
the scalps of his comrades dangled at the ends of poles carried by the
Indians. The man made sure that none of the party remained but himself,
and he started out for the trail to the south. After terrible hardships,
out of matches, with no ammunition left, living off berries and roots,
he arrived at the trail too late for the last train of the season. His
boots were soleless and his clothing in tatters. He hobbled on, and
finally came almost at death’s door to a Mormon hunting party. They
brought him slowly back to life and strength and he told them his story.
[Illustration: Record of early gold seekers in Black Hills,
1833-34—forty years before Custer’s expedition to the Hills. Stone
found near Spearfish in 1887 and now in possession of State Historical
Society, Pierre, South Dakota]
The story of Ezra Kind is probably true. His Sandstone Carved with a
jack-knife was found hidden among some rocks on Lookout Mountain. Indian
traditions bear out the story. Much gold was taken by the Indians when
the men were killed.
The Gordon Stockade party, however, was the party that started the rush
to the Hills. One of General Custer’s mining engineers Horatio N. Ross
found gold along French Creek near the present city of Custer, on July
27, 1874. William T. McKay shares honors with Ross. As soon as Custer’s
report came out the government issued orders that no white people would
be permitted to enter the Black Hills until a treaty could be made with
the Indians, for this was guaranteed a hunting ground for them when the
eastern land was wrested from them.
[Illustration: The first cabin built in the Black Hills
Now standing in Custer, S.D.]
The Gordon party like many others decided to try to break through the
troops and start mining gold. The party consisted of twenty-six men, one
woman, and her son. They left Sioux City in October of 1874. They
suffered many hardships in the trip, crossing the Badlands, swimming the
Cheyenne River, and overcoming innumerable difficulties. They kept ever
on, confident that they would all become millionaires as a result of the
expedition. They met Indians to whom they had to give much of their
food. They finally struck the Hills near Sturgis and from there took
General Custer’s trail south to Custer City. They arrived on French
Creek December 23, built the stockade, and began panning for gold. They
found paying quantities. In the meantime the government troops were
trying in vain to follow the complicated trail that the party had
purposely planned to lead them astray. A blizzard set in, finally,
obliterating the trail. The party got together enough gold and on
February 6, 1875 Gordon and one of the other men started for Sioux City
with it on horseback. Sioux City went wild upon the arrival of the men
with the bag of gold tied on a saddle horn. They immediately sent
another expedition to the Hills. This party, however, was taken by
government troops and their property was confiscated.
[Illustration: Museum, Custer
O’Neill Photo]
The Indians reported to the military authorities the presence of the
white people in the Hills, and on April 4, 1875, the troops found the
settlers, and gave them 24 hours to get ready to leave as prisoners for
Fort Laramie, Wyoming.
Three times parts of the expedition tried to escape and go back to the
stockade, but each time they were rearrested and brought back. The third
time, however, they escaped while being brought back and succeeded in
reaching the stockade. Mrs. Tallent, herself, finally, the next year
succeeded in returning to Custer, later going to Deadwood and Rapid
City. There she became County Superintendent of Schools.
Miners found their way into Custer from all directions in 1875 in spite
of the government troops. Mining in the Black Hills had come to stay.
Thus runs the story of the Gordon Stockade and Tallent monument, and
their significance in the early life in the Hills. Their principals
started Black Hills History.
[Illustration: The expedition camped in a valley
Courtesy of South Dakota Historical Society]
We proceed to the municipal camp upon the hill past the town, and there
pitch our tent. A storm is brewing. We hurry along, getting dinner over
early. Then we go into the fine community building to get acquainted.
There we meet a young man who has just graduated from the School of
Mines and has accepted a position in the deserts of California where he
is to develop certain mineral deposits owned by a large corporation of
Oakland.
[Illustration: Placer Mining—Deadwood Gulch
Mining gold in the Black Hills in 1876]
[Illustration: A Custer street in the Early Days]
This young man shows us a case containing 205 minerals. They include
practically all of the world’s minerals except some of the valuable ones
such as diamonds and radium. He proceeds to tell us the story of the
formation of the Hills. He tells us that in eons past there was a
terrific granite upheaval. The layers were higher than they now are.
Gradually they eroded and mineral bearing ores washed down between the
crevices of granite. This left the great sloping layers of granite and
minerals that we now find.
[Illustration: A Typical Log Cabin]
After an interesting evening we retire, just before the storm breaks. It
rains, while we sleep on.
The next morning having heard that log summer cabins could be built upon
land leased from the government, we proceeded to the offices of the
Harney National Forest Service Supervisor to learn the details. He tells
us that the United States has surveyed sites along several streams, and
South Dakota has done the same in the State Park. These sites are in the
more desirable parts of the Hills, readily accessible from main roads.
The government surveys the land and stakes out a group of plots in a
line. These are leased to those desiring summer home sites at ten
dollars a year, or fifteen if the site is to be sublet. The forest
service marks certain trees which may be cut and used for making log
cabins. These trees, used for building are sold to the lessee at 2½ to 3
cents per lineal foot, depending upon the size. Thus a cabin amounts to
a comparatively few dollars, and the annual fee is but few more.
[Illustration: General Custer’s camp in 1874
Photo by Illinworth, official photographer on the expedition
Courtesy of South Dakota Historical Society]
The supervisor shows us maps which are made of the sites surveyed.
Several fine sites are available on Rapid Creek, Spring Creek, French
Creek, Battle Creek, Sunday Gulch, Sunday Creek, Chinaman’s Gulch, St.
Elmo, and Balser Gulch. They are close to Custer, Hill City, Rapid City,
the Game Lodge, and Sylvan Lake. Other sites, he informs us, are
available at Spearfish through the Black Hills National Forest Service’s
office.
[Illustration: Custer Enroute
Courtesy of South Dakota Historical Society]
Cabins have been built on many such sites. They are made of logs
interlocked at the corners and chinked with oakum or filled with
concrete, reinforced with barbed wire. One cannot help “falling for”
them with their rustic construction, beautiful stone fireplaces, and
attractive sites. We cannot help determining to come back to build a
cabin for summer and for hunting season. Rustic furniture may be built
for equipment and other features to suit the fancy of the occupant.
[Illustration: The Expedition in Formation
Courtesy of South Dakota Historical Society]
We leave the office filled with inspiration and wend our way toward the
old museum cabin. On the way we pass a cabin built of Black Hills stone
mounted in concrete with a beautiful fireplace of rose quartz, crystals,
petrified wood, petrified moss, mica and tourmaline extending clear to
the ceiling. The effect is really one of splendor. Within the house are
souvenirs of all kinds made of Black Hills stones, set in concrete. The
place is one that should not be passed up. The Rose Quartz Soda Fountain
is another rare sight. The whole town is filled with these beautiful
mounted stones, even to the bridge lamp posts.
We reach the little cabin for which we have started and see the date
1875 on its gable.
Outside the door is a sluice box or pan used in the early days to pan
gold. This is quite a curio. The gold, after going through a screen made
of copper filled with nail holes, was supposed to stick on the sloping
canvas bottom and let the water on through.
[Illustration: Camp on French Creek
Courtesy of South Dakota Historical Society]
Within the house is a great collection of early weapons, seats,
pictures, an old wooden tombstone, saddles, implements, an ox yoke,
rocks, horns, stuffed birds and beasts of that region and on the wall
newspaper clippings of the early days. These relics are worth much time
and thought. The newspaper clippings are colorful accounts of early
shootings, hangings, holdups and gold discoveries. Interesting? Say,
just start on them and try to tear yourself away.
[Illustration: A camp scene
Courtesy of South Dakota Historical Society]
One placard reads in part as follows: “This cabin, the oldest in the
Black Hills, was built by the U. S. troops under General Crook in 1875.
Visitors to the Black Hills were not welcomed here in those days. The
Indians, who then owned the land, did their best to discourage them from
coming and removed the scalps of such of them as fell into their hands
to mark their disapproval of their presence here. The U. S. Army, when
they caught any gold seekers attempting to enter the Hills, burned their
wagons and outfits and escorted them to Fort Laramie as prisoners.
[Illustration: What the Black Hills looked like to Custer’s Expedition]
“In spite of all efforts to keep miners from entering the Hills, many,
in less than a year from the time that the discovery of gold on French
Creek had been made by General Custer’s expedition, had reached Custer
city and were busy prospecting the country in all directions.
“Then came General Crook with troops and ordered all the miners who were
in the Hills to vacate the country by August 10, 1875. While the troops
were here they built this cabin, etc., etc., etc.”
We leave the cabin and saunter over to the gold discovery monument just
west of it. This is a beautiful thing of Black Hills rocks and cement,
with a bronze plate upon it denoting its significance.
[Illustration: Community Cabin, Custer]
North of Main Street is the huge log community house, probably the
largest in the Black Hills. It is a gigantic thing and very impressive.
We strike camp at noon and leave town by the west road. We are taking 85
to Minnekahta and U. S. 18 from there on to Edgemont. Possibly this is
an ill-advised trip, but we make it nevertheless, hoping to see the
petrified forest. In this we are not altogether successful.
We pass the state tuberculosis sanitarium composed of many pure white
buildings. The place is very impressive, but we do not stop.
[Illustration: Sawdust Pile, Custer]
[Illustration: Petrified Log, Edgemont]
Our next point of interest is the large sawmill beside the road. The
huge blower and sawdust pile seen in the picture give us some idea of
its size. The main rip saws are in gangs of three cutting boards one and
two inches in thickness. Cross cut blades cut boards into the longest
possible sizes. The bark and refuse slabs are fed into the fire to make
steam to run the plant. We do not see any fine work or finishing here.
We pass on through Pringle. A short distance from here we find some
interesting specimens which look like petrified acorns or small nuts
embedded in limestone. But the next is the most peculiar specimen of
all. As we cross the railroad well on the way from Pringle to
Minnekahta, there stands, west of the track, in a pasture, a peculiar
beast. It is made up of a log, with four prongs (branches) resembling
legs. Another log is attached for a head and two root systems attached
for horns. The result, with the addition of a little paint resembles
very much a grotesque elk.
In Edgemont we see huge specimens from the petrified forest, one tree of
solid rock weight 14,370 pounds. The specimens are remarkable, but we
are not destined to see the petrified forest itself. In Hot Springs
later we are to find all the petrified wood we care to carry home,
however. We will speed back to Minnekahta and thence over U. S. 18 to
Hot Springs.
[Illustration: Gray Rocks, Custer, S. D.]
[Illustration: Battle Mountain Sanitarium for Old Soldiers]