In memory...

Memorial Day… a day of remembrance for those who have died in service to our country first widely observed in 1868.

We want to take a moment to honor those veterans.

Black Hills history, in a way, was built on the backs of civil war veterans. We don’t see a lot of indications in our local history of the politics of the war, meaning on which side they fought. We do, however, see the respect given in that many of the old timers were never addressed by their given name but were called Captain, Colonel, General. It takes a little research to identify soldiers that were stationed at Ft. Meade during that era. When they visited Deadwood, invariably they were identified by rank, not first name.

And anyone who has studied Black Hills history knows the name Seth Bullock, who later served as one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, taking his troop to Texas.

So the Black Hills has a rich history based on the toil of the many veterans who came here to seek their fortune.

We also want to recognize some veteran prospectors we have known, regardless of their military history.

Bob had the rare opportunity to talk to a few of the last generation of old timers… men who worked the mines, alongside their fathers and grandfathers. There’s a lot of lost history buried with these veteran miners.

We find Fred Mosley listed in an old directory from 1933 -- Mosley, Frederick H. student, School of Mines. That would have been the beginning of a career culminating with a excerpt from Nuggets to Neutrinos, which credited Mosley as foreman of the Homestake Refinery.

Let me reinforce something a friend said recently… “I keep my mouth shut because I’m listening.”

Fred Mosley was “old Fred” by the time Bob got to know him in the late 1980’s. Bob listened to the old timer, and therefore he learned.

Bob’s memory of Fred goes like this: Fred liked to tell stories. One of the stories was that his father was working at the Astoria mine. The cage operator was drunk all the time and they would convince the operator to let them go to the bottom of the mine to play in the workings. Fred was 11-12 years old at the time.

Bob said one thing that was fun about Fred, he would pick a favored employee and teach them lab work and refining, telling them how to refine black slag, how many thousands of ounces of gold were there, how he had figured out how to get the gold out. Occasionally he’d come out with a pan full of rocks, pass them around and ask “ore or waste?” Then he’d turn around and walk away… He’d tell stories of assaying gold in the thousands of ounces per ton in the Homestake.

Fred was always willing to teach a willing pupil. A lot of the assayers in the Black Hills mines were taught by Fred.

Fred owned the Monarch Mine and would tell stories of taking samples and leaching, using simple sponge and battery technology to leach the material. He would tell stories of clays that you could smear on your hand and find gold.

The last time Bob saw Fred (before his death) was the Fourth of July. The 80s boom was over but Fred thought he would live forever!

This is just a sample of the lost history we hope to keep alive for future generations.

And we finish with a question to our readers. Above Mystic, as you wind down the mountain into that town, there is a gravesite marked by flowers.

We’ve asked a few people who should know… a local historian who indexes cemeteries online… have consulted local history books. We’ve found no reference. Someone knows and keeps the memory alive with flowers. Our only indication of the era is wooden markers worn to illegible near some old workings which might point to a mining associated death. It was also very common in that era for disease to sweep a community, so it can’t be ruled out that typhoid or the measles took the lives of several in a camp. Does anyone know the story?

As always, email us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com if you know this story or any other you are interested in sharing.


　

Our first outing!

　
It couldn’t have been a nicer week… Mother’s Day in the Black Hills followed by a week of June-like weather including some really great rain the latter part of the week!

We invited friends and family to join us at the Iron Creek claim to enjoy the limited season of water and preview the claim before it is permitted for small scale mining.

It’s fun to be able to show exposed gravels and use it as an educational tool to portray how gravels are deposited through hundreds of years of erosion.

The modern-day prospector, we are finding out, is as varied as the geology of the Black Hills. The majority are there for two reasons… to enjoy the outdoors and hopefully find a little gold! To enjoy with friends, we have found, adds a rare social element of exchanging ideas and learning from each other.

So our widely diverse group consisted of a publisher, a laundry owner and her two adult sons, an equipment contractor, our trusty mechanic, a geologist, a couple of our more mature friends, two grandkids… all in all a nice representation of ages and trades!

Some feedback from our friend Pat:
“This past mother’s day was fun and different, no usual restaurant dinner with crowds of people packed in the restaurant foyer waiting for a table, kids crying and racing around bored with all the waiting… instead we were invited by our friends Bob & Teresa to share digging and sluicing at their Iron Creek claim with their family and other newbie prospectors like ourselves. We threw a few sandwiches and drinks in the cooler, gassed up the jeep and headed out for the fun. After greeting the others that were there ahead of us (we were late getting there due to the boys and I having a difference of opinion on which way to turn and back tracking a little), the boys met Teresa & Bob’s grandson and they went off exploring, looking at long dead deer bones and stuff like boys will do, while I visited with Teresa and others.
“Then it was time to get into the dirt, my youngest took over from me and said he wanted to dig, so he and my older son filled a few buckets wherever a good hole or hill was pointed out to them and I asked Teresa for a few lessons in how to set up the sluice and the correct way to pan. It’s s good thing she showed me how since I would not have known how to fill in by the head of the sluice to make it flow like it should, and I need to be more patient with my panning I learned. I can see I was rushing the process too much. Hands on learning is always better than going by the books or the internet! And so as far as ‘mothers days holidays’ go, it was definitely one of the most memorable ones! Thanks, Teresa & Bob for the invite and for sharing your digs and lessons! “

We also spent two days prospecting… one at Little Deer Creek, the other in the Mystic area and doing some mapping at Friday Gulch. A few sprinkles lifted our mood… nothing like the smell of rain mixed with pine to gladden the heart!

This weekend included locating a 20- and 40-acre claim west of Custer. One is purely recreational, the other with a permit in mind.

The upcoming week includes an on-site inspection at Friday Gulch with the hope that no scenic or unique characteristics surface! We always enjoy talking with state and federal representatives… and never fail to learn something!

We’ve also found some very interesting properties to further check out… might be able to add up to 100 acres of prime prospecting to our holdings!

Where would you dig?

This photo is so classic… a beautiful Black Hills creek highlighted by a large boulder!  I'd buy this claim is it was advertised on the internet (which is isn't!).

Both a recreational and more experienced prospector would appreciate this scene, but where would you dig?

We’ve talked about this before… what all the handbooks say to look for before digging. But this photo is so perfect to represent what we have tried to portray verbally!

Before you sink a shovel, take a closer look and I hope it is visible enough for you to see! There’s a great sluicing spot here with enough drop to make setup a breeze!

There’s a huge boulder in the creek, right? Are you going to start there, like the handbook prompts?

Closer inspection shows a deeper “pond” behind the boulder. Now you can dig there and find a lot of silty material and if you dig deep enough, probably some gold! But the pond tells you a story that you need to listen to closely. Others have seen that boulder and commenced digging behind it. That’s why the pond is there! It’s several feet wide and stepping into it with boots you sink into the silt another 3-4 inches. That means you would muck out probably a foot of accumulation before you might encounter a layer dense enough to retain even a fleck.

It does, however, make an ideal panning spot below but close to the sluice box!

So you look to the inside of the bend, which in this case the photographer is standing on. Pretty little wildflowers (wild irises about now) decorate a small landing area perfect, we have found, for lawn chairs, lunch supplies and drinks! Why do we place our camp here instead of digging? It’s tailings, washed down the creek throughout the years! Again, a fleck might be found, but that would destroy the camp area!

So directly in front of you, on the far bank, would be a hillside digging site. Not unique in the Black Hills, this stream was worked commercially at one point in time. Everything that was ejected from that commercial venture lines the creek on that side! Again, a fleck or two for several hours of digging!

So we are again encouraging you to “think outside the box,” or in this case the creek!

We’ve spent 10 years on this claim. We’ve tried every classic approach… now I’m going to show you what we discovered!

Up over the bank from the creek about 30-40 feet is a large pile of overgrown material. Early in the years when we acquired this claim, Bob said, “Try digging here!”

It’s been our sluicing “stockpile” for 10 years. We think the historic claim ended about here because the stockpile was pushed up and never worked. Pushed up from where? A pit dug directly adjacent to it! We can usually count on a decent “picker” in a few buckets of material.

So we work the stockpile on lazy days, shaking out a little gold.

Not nearly as pretty
but that's where the gold is!

One last addition to this conversation that I think only the more experienced prospector would think about… the pit under the stockpile! It takes a little work, removing a foot of topsoil, digging down into gravels that sport everything from rounded rock to clay to boulders that take a bar and two men to move.

Eventually, though, a fine layer of reddish cemented gravel is reached and then, then I can reasonably expect a show in every pan!

If you’re an experienced Black Hills prospector, that’s a good pan!

So it’s your choice… a panful of discouragement or a panful of satisfaction!

　

the new prospector... a woman?

We haven’t talked about female prospectors much, and being the weekend before Mother’s Day I thought it a good time to discuss an email from Pat about the subject:

The reason I ask about female prospectors is that I do get a rather amused look by people when they find out I like to pan. Some though, don't think it odd, but I have yet to meet another woman other than yourself who actually does any panning/prospecting. I have had a few who wanted me to bring them along, but I doubt they would want to get wet or muddy, or dirty their hands.

Men seem less surprised then women friends I know.

I had done a little looking into how many female miners were out there, and apparently there are not that many now or historically.

I ran across several references that mentioned women were considered bad luck around mines until the 1970's, but also that occasionally women often worked beside their husbands on placer mines but it was considered a bit odd.

I did not find reference to any women miners in South Dakota except for Sarah Campbell "Aunt Sallie", who you are probably familiar with since she lived up in your neck of the woods.

Pat attached this quote: :"During Custer's Black Hills Expedition, she (Aunt Sally) and 20 other Bismarck residents formed the Custer Park Mining Company and staked placer claims on French Creek, now part of Custer State Park. When the Black Hills Gold Rush began in 1876, Campbell joined the second outfit from Bismarck to head for the region. She lived in Crook City and Galena, both mining towns on the western border of modern-day South Dakota, and continued to work as cook and midwife while she prospected. She searched for both gold and silver and filed five claims, although the Alice Lode silver mine in the Black Hills was the only one that proved valuable. Fifteen months before her death, she sold it for $500.."

I also found some interesting stories about woman miners in Alaska, California and Nevada and Oregon who defied cultural limitations to mine for gold. So it looks like we are a rare breed! TTYL--Pat

A rare breed indeed! My (Teresa) experience is just as Pat explains it… a lot of enthusiasm until it’s time to get dirty!

Pat has two sons who help her out. Bob and I have raised our first generation of three girls and one boy prospecting along side us. Ironically, two of those girls still show a lot of interest in prospecting. Our grandkids, three in residence, are two boys and one girl. One boy and one girl have a real interest… one would rather climb rocks!

Another email friend, Joel, has told me repeatedly that his daughter really loves prospecting!

So I think the future of prospecting includes at least four more women, not to mention several email inquirites I have addressed from female prospectors!

Research...

      We’ve talked before about how we go about researching an area… past experience, historical reference, LR2000 and BLM Glo, just to mention a few steps we take.

         Conversations invariably turn to, “but how do you find a claim!”

         Bob knows the history, the geology, and we’ve prospected just about every gold-bearing stream in the Black Hills.

         But… there’s a lot of terrain out there!  That was reinforced recently by a geologist who knows the Hills, but doesn’t have the time to pull information on each area he is interested in!

The "perfect" placer... even
conveniently marked boundaries as indicated
by Forest Service marker upper right!

         One prime claim we recently obtained is credited solely to Bob’s research.  The Keets Mine incident, if I properly recall, prompted him to look again at areas surrounding Lead and Deadwood.

         Bob reads me a “someone in that upper Deadwood Creek area finally found a good gravel bench and cleaned up a large amount of gold… considered ‘hitting it big’.”

         Then he recalls some U.S. Forest Service “gaps” among the private property.  The search is on!

        By the way, we staked a lode claim on this property and are contemplating sale to rights for a placer.  Fair warning… this will not be cheap and we may resort to a bidding-type situation.  We could search our lifetime and possibly not find a comparable placer claim.

        That is one way to find a claim, but unless we stab a finger at the map and start research, it would be a 24/7 job to research just the gold-bearing streams!

        That’s why we encourage those contacting us to procure a claim to isolate the area they are interested in.  We let them do the map stabbing and we go from there.

         We’ll use a recent experience to let you know how it works.  We were contacted by someone who likes to do a little fishing and told us about some recent expeditions, wondering if any claims were available in the area.

        In the past, we’ve been contacted for like information “where I hunted,” or “where I hiked”.  That’s the map stabbing that gets us researching.

        Each time, without fail, something shows up!  This time it was some claims that are about to be declared invalid by the Bureau of Land Management.

         So if you want a claim, it’s probably out there.  The one area we eliminate from most requests right off the bat is Iron Creek.  We have a claim there, why shouldn’t others?  Our claim pre-dates huge blocks of lode claims.  Contrary to how this appears, you can’t stake a placer over existing lodes… even though they staked lodes over our existing placers!

        On the agenda this week is further exploration of the upper Deadwood Creek claim.  I’ve already panned out flour gold my first test pan; we’ve identified lode deposits; now we want to spend some real time exploring!  Sounds kindof silly, but we don’t have that many claims with good quantities of flour gold and find it just as exciting to see a “rim” of gold when we pan as to find flakes, pickers and nuggets!