Winter prospecting...

It’s a beautiful time of year here in the Black Hills. We’ve had two weeks of very mild weather, with temps in the 40s and 50s most days.

It’s hard to stay inside during weather like that… so we didn’t!

We headed for the Rochford area, checking on our claims as we went. Alex had to throw some rocks in Rapid Creek, but we kept him well back. The creek gurgled as it ran from exposed water back under the ice. It kindof sounded like spring here in December! I showed Alex what we call honeycomb ice, dangerous because it has been weakened by freezing, thawing and re-freezing.

Another thing we couldn’t help but notice were huge swaths of bug trees, their red tops scarring the beautiful scenery. They are working hard trying to harvest as much timber as they can salvage from these areas, and we were pleased to see that whomever is cutting on our claim had taken care to preserve our claim post!

We will caution all those venturing into the forest that these bug tree areas are extremely dangerous. Underfoot are downed trees, limbs and stumps. Overhead loom black skeletons of post years’ kill, surrounded by the red tops that fell victim this past year. A quirky gust of wind might bring any one of them down!

On the positive side of things… despite the fact that the ground is frozen, the creek temp is frigid and snow makes navigation a little treacherous, we saw something made visible due to lack of foliage and a slight snow cover. An old trail led us on a little hike to some old workings on the lower part of our Rapid Creek claim! You might be able to discern what we’re talking about… in the grassed area you can just see the Mickelson Trail going across the photo, and above it the snow highlights an access we didn’t know we had!

So if we throw December out of the winter mix, that leaves us with January and February before the longer days of March give us a taste of spring. We might make it yet!

Happy New Year everyone!

That time of year...

Every year claimholders have two deadlines… maintenance waiver by August 31 and affidavit of assessment due December 30.

The end of the year is near and we want to remind everyone to get the affidavit of labor/assessment filed at the county and also the Bureau of Land Management.

This document proclaims you are working on your claim. Some of the items which qualify for work performed include sampling, mapping and maintenance of boundaries, picking up trash and controlling noxious weeds. Each claimholder is responsible for $100 of work for each claim, which in this day and age doesn’t take long! You can perform the work yourself or pay someone else to do it.

If you are a new claimholder, you will notice that part of the filing fee when you register your claim goes toward the first year’s assessment. Therefore, the assessment form does not have to be filed. The BLM LR2000 site will show your claim as having assessment filed.

A lot of people drop the ball here… we see a lot of claims every year that assessment was not filed. The claim does not show as inactive until April because BLM gives you 90 days to appeal the decision. We’ve never heard of anyone winning that appeal… you may as well re-locate and pay BLM another $189, but at least they give you 90 days to do that before the claim is declared invalid.

I continue to transcribe and edit the Keets mine story. The Black Hills Pioneer newspaper has graciously allowed me to use their copyrighted material, so it will be as complete and accurate as possible.
So I’m going to keep this short… let me know if there are any other historic Deadwood stories you want to see. I would like to focus on early Deadwood so if you have a request I would prefer it pre-date 1900.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and for reasons of our own we are hoping for a prosperous New Year!

As old as the Hills... mining story

     We have several friends who love stories of the old west, particularly in the Black Hills. A lot of positive comment we receive on both the blog and website are related to historic content.

     Luckily, we have researched a lot of the history which is redolent with stories of every shape and form, all entertaining in one repect or another. The toughest thing to do is choose one… in bringing up this particular saga I ran across two others that captured my attention and diverted me temporarily from my mission!

     This is a story about miners and mining, guns and blasting powder, Seth Bullock and ways of the old west. The irony is that miners’ attitudes aren’t much different today. Gun play isn’t quite so prevalent but we still hear stories…

     I wanted to give you the whole story, as reported, but there was a tremendous amount of newspaper coverage of this event. It is lengthy but very interesting reading. I will shorten the story, but do my best to preserve the original. Mostly I want to present the story without bias and only the facts as reported in early Deadwood history.

     I also want you to experience the era, how the reporters wrote, how the legal process worked, how some things are different but most things don’t change!

     Thanks to the generosity of the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper, I have received permission to quote copyrighted material, giving you a view that otherwise would have cost you hours (days!) of research!

© Black Hills Pioneer (1887)
Black Hills Times

Shooting of Mr. J.D. Tuttle     About noon today, news was received here that a man had been shot in the Hidden Treasure gulch in consequence of the difficulties arising from the dispute to the title of the Keets mine. Immediately our reporter jumped one of Travis Bros.’ best horses and started for the scene of the affray, arriving there, he discovered that Mr. J.C. Tuttle was lying at the point of death, having been wounded by a bullet which passed through his body, entering the lower portion of the back. The trouble, as nearly as we can ascertain, arose from the fact that last night about forty armed men in the interest of the Keets Company, took possession of the tunnel in the Aurora mine, which connects with the Keets, and filled up a shaft on the Aurora ground. 
     This morning Mr. Tuttle, who owns a one third interest in the Aurora, warned the Keets’ men that he was going to blow out the shaft, and inserted giant powder for that purpose in this shaft, which is on Aurora ground… After blowing it out he proceeded to a wheel-barrow also on Aurora ground, and in direct range with a port hole in the rear of the cabin occupied by the Keets’ men. We are also informed that while Mr. Tuttle was at the shaft two men stepped out the the Keets’ cabin and fired a number of shots, apparently at random, some of which, however, were returned from the Aurora cabin by an employee of that company.
     With regard to the shooting of Tuttle, we give his dying declaration as follows: “I was greasing a wheel-barrow on Aurora mining ground when shot. I don’t know where the shot came from that hit me. I was not resisting anyone. I had a revolver in my pocket but did not show any firearms. I don’t know how many shots were fired. I told one of the Keets’ men that if he was badly off for shooting to get a pistol and come out and I would atisfy him alone. This as all that passed between me and the Keets men. It was about fifteen minutes from the time of my telling the man to get a pistol before the shooting commenced.”
     One of the attorneys for the Aurora company arriving soon after the shot was fired at Tuttle, posted a posse of men to guard the cabin and mine occupied by the Keets’ men, until the Sheriff arrived at which time the inmates surrendered, and were conducted to jail.
     The shot which struck Tuttle was fired, as we are reliably informed, from the port-hole in the rear of the Keets’ cabin, without any previous warning having been given the victim.

 © Black Hills Pioneer (1887)
     And so the story begins… a continuation will appear on our website in the near future. I know that’s kindof awnry… a word I remember my mom using… hmmm! Joel from Minnesota might even call it paybacks! This is just the beginning of the story and its gets better or worse depending on your point of view!

     I will take you through the news reports, then on to the ensuing trial…

     Meanwhile… back to the present and wishing you “Merry Christmas” from our house to yours!

Prospecting 101

We often talk about lessons we’ve learned through the years.



Castle Creek looking chilly!

 Before we go there, I want to extend Seasons Greetings for gold in your stocking (ouch!) and nuggets in your pan!

I will share with you some stories. I often say that the only place to talk about how much you drink is with the bar crowd! Likewise, the only people to appreciate our prospecting stories would be prospectors!

Bob had done some prospecting when we started dating so I was the real greenhorn, but he had not started working in the mines so we both had a lot to learn. We had my two girls, ages six and three. During the summer months we had his boy and girl, ages six and four respectively. Yeah… we ended up raising four teenagers all at once!

We were both working, so we started taking drives through the Black Hills when we had time. Bob always had his trusty metal gold pan.

The first lesson we learned is that no matter how cold it might be, no matter how cold the water might be, kids will find a way to get wet! Here in the Black Hills we might get snow in June and the creek water may be frigid to the touch until July 1. I knew this well because childhood summers at Iron Creek Lake had taught me, after repeated tries, not to swim until after the Fourth of July. Bob’s family had a cabin in Spearfish Canyon so he learned a similar lesson.

We did manage to forget the “repeated tries” part… within ½ hour of being within ½ mile of any water, the kids were wet and cold. We started taking an extra outfit, which took another ½ hour to get wet! Grandma then contributed her coat/jacket while she shivered, and of course they got wet also.

Needless to say, before the Fourth of July, we never got much more than an hour or two of digging before the kids were ready to go home.

We had a good claim in those early years, close-by the Iron Creek claim we have now. Gold was good and there was usually enough water to sluice.

I hadn’t started panning yet, so we would set up the sluice and start running material. Everything went through the sluice box, from the grass roots down. What that boiled down to was about the time the kids got wet and cold we were getting to a nugget or two!

Now this particular creek had a layer of reddish clay, gravel-like material followed by some very slimy (ask any mom of a newborn and you’ll catch the concept of consistency) yellow clay. We scrubbed every rock until our fingers were pincushions from the quartz in the creek.

We still have a couple of the nice-sized nuggets recovered on that claim.

Hindsight is 20/20… what we would have given for the deep-V ribbed matting we use today! Those pretty little nuggets would be displayed spectacularly!

I would have saved a few items of clothing… a metal gold pan is no good unless it’s weathered and it takes some real coordination to hike in, juggle a gold pan, buckets and shovel without getting rush on something. A wet rusty pan is even worse! The newer plastic pans are also a lot lighter and the size I use tucks nicely inside the concentrator for carrying.

Further, we would have panned layers and quickly identified the zone between the two clay layers as the pay zone and not worked two-four feet of overburden! In retrospect though, I was too busy hauling wet kids out of the creek and changing their clothes!

We would know that the gold settled on top of the yellow clay zone and not run the risk of putting the clay through the sluice to rob our gold! If we did want to run clay, we’d clean the matting first, then go for it!

If the material was dry, we would have used a concentrator to screen and clean bigger rock and saved a few fingers from scarring!

Once you poke through that clay layer, do you know what happens? Water in the hole, then we’re all wet, muddy and ready to go home!

We’ve prospected a lot with kids and grandkids. I know to take extra clothes and not let them change until we’re almost ready to go home. Kids’ boots are a waste… they will find water deeper than any boot! We always have a blanket they can wrap up in… until it gets wet. Plenty of refreshments and snacks are necessary for all. I love those small shovels when we find a pay zone. Get more than one… kids can dig too!

Last but certainly not least… Every kid and probably every adult you ever take on your claim will kick over a gold pan at least once! Patience is a learned trait.

We usually make about four-five hours on a claim now and can’t say we’ve been “skunked” (no gold) for quite some time. We’re older and wiser (less labor, more gold), but we’re still driving the Hills and scouting out new prospects!

T.G.I.Friday gulch...

Abandoned cabin on private property.

        We’re contemplating a new (additional) permit project on recently acquired claims in what we can now disclose as the California and Friday Gulch area north of Hill City.

        You might want to kick yourself a little… we offered claims in the area last winter!  The story is classic, though.

        Way back in 1992, Bob and a friend did a little prospecting on California and Friday Gulch.  They found good gold, staked a claim and filed it, but subsequently the “friend” disappear and the claim was dropped.

        Around 2004, Bob recommended the claim to another “friend.” He didn’t follow through and probably won’t because he now resides in Sioux Falls for the next 35 years J.

Late last fall we corralled the grandkids and got to California Gulch about dusk, couldn't do much that trip except see the potential and listen to kids complain!  We located a claim  for a group of friends on California Gulch. They followed through! We wanted to locate in Friday Gulch ourselves, but also offered opportunities to our followers. It was a chance in a lifetime, since no one but us had discovered that a 40-acre patented placer claim had been re-conveyed to the U.S. Forest Service.

April of 2011 rolls around and we prepared a new 60-acre location certificate for ourselves and a friend.  In exchange for us doing all the research, he would pay to have the claim filed.

That didn’t happen.

We headed out for Friday Gulch on three occasions this spring/summer.  The first time we tried the access Bob had originally used in 2004.  It was round-about and we spent most of the time trying to figure out where we were, or weren’t as the story goes!

The second trip was on a hot day, Rusty overheated at least five times.  We did get almost where we wanted to be but another overheat was just too much and we headed home.

Three’s a charm, so they say.  A rainy day in the area got us to California Gulch to look over our friends’ claim and venture into Friday Gulch. 

A mineral trespass sign informed us there was already a claim. This definitely dampened our spirits, literally and figuratively!



Pits and diggings cloaked in Aspen groves.



        Like good prospectors we came home, ran the area on LR2000 (again!), saw no active claims.  We drove to Rapid City, pulled claims and found one claim filed in January 2011(therefore expired) and another July 2011. Luckily for us, that locator wasn’t aware of the re-conveyed placer claim.

        We worked around his locations and dates, claiming an adjacent area and returning to post location certificates. We then received an angry phone call accusing us of claimjunping – par for the course! 

        Around came October, the previous locator didn’t follow through and file with BLM.  We staked the remaining claims for friends. They then received angry phone calls, which of course trickled down to us! We ran everything on LR2000, made another trip to Rapid City and declared our friends’ claim valid.

        Sorry to make a long story long, but we have now procured the area and will start pursuit of an exploration permit soon.  An exploration permit differs from a small placer mining permit in several ways.  The main reason we’re seeking an exploration permit would be that we don’t know that area as well as Iron Creek, where we have ten years of experience as recreational miners!  Bob has sound theories, but we need exploration to give us definite direction.

        Just a few teasers on what y’all missed out on and what we’ll be looking for…



There's still very little water... an isolated water hole.



1902 -- “There are a number of people working in a small way working the placer in this vicinity (Hawk-Wright Friday Gulch) and quite a little gold dust is being recovered at the bank.  Some of the men are compelled to haul their dirt quite a distance to water, but the clean-ups they make seems to justify them in doing so.  Nothing very big is being made, but all who are at work are taking out good wages and doing better than thought they would working for somebody else.  Friday Gulch, which has been worked for 25 years, continues to contribute not a little placer gold still.”

1903 – “From the Lucky Baldwin’s property which adjoins the Sunbeam in Friday Gulch some excellent ore is taken out and free gold specimens are numerously found.  Many openings have been made on the ledge and in all of them ore containing values have been found.  The deepest shaft is 65 feet, on which a day and night shift are employed.”

        Just a note… here in the next few months we’ll fill you in on the Mystic area and what we’ve found there!

Millions of years later...

        We’ve been here before, explaining a lode claim versus a placer claim, but we continue to get questions about what is lode, what is placer?

        Lode (pronounced load) gold, or primary gold, is gold still in place in the host rock.  Take a look at this rock… if a ton of it were crushed, there could be ¼ ounce of minute pieces of gold.  That’s what mining companies go after; they crush tons and tons of ore to create ounces of gold. 

        Nature does the same thing, it just takes millions of years!  The same host rock in a primary vein eroded out through a million years or so and was deposited in the Cmabrian sea, and thus became cemented gravel which concentrated the gold.  Another few million years pass and this cement ore decomposes and becomes high bench gravels. Some of these gravels erode and concentrate again as mid-level gravel benches. Further erosion brings them to the creeks, where they concentrate again in today’s modern streams.

        Therefore, gold concentrates can be found in high bench gravel, mid-level bench gravel, and the creek. Examples of all can be seen in the Black Hills… if you’re walking down a Forest Service road and the road gravel is well-rounded, not crushed limestone, those might be native gravel benches.

A nugget, obviously, would have come from quartz and/or schist, Pre-cambrian primary veins of visible gold.  This is probably a more recent event; the rock is more intact and erosion breaks it open to release larger pieces of gold.

You can judge the distance to the source somewhat by the characteristics of gold flakes or nuggets.  The “rougher” the nugget, the closer to the lode. The longer distance it travels, it becomes rounded and bears the color and characteristics of the gravels which surround it. 

Happy gold hunting, and don’t overlook gravels where it seems gravels shouldn’t be!

            Speaking of gravels, high bench and mid-level, we just staked a new claim which I of course had to be harangued about from a phone call… you’re claim jumping!  It is a simple matter of a location certificate stating one section staked in another section, plus numerous other “errors” which don’t add up in any situation! There is a “good faith” clause, but there’s way too much misinformation to give the benefit of doubt.  Even if the claim was valid on that property, a failure to file an Affidavit of Assessment in the year following location resulted in a closed claim. We feel it was a fraudulent attempt to claim ground without paying the piper (BLM) and we feel strongly that at least a good faith effort must be made!

We were nice enough to leave a good-sized parcel unclaimed… do you suppose they’ll follow up and pay the fees to file now?