This dissertation has been 65-9756 microfilmed exactly as received PARKER, Watson, 1924- THE BLACK HILLS GOLD RUSH, 1874-1879. The University of Oklahoma, Ph. D ., 1965 History, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by Watson Parker 1965 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE BLACK HILLS GOLD RUSH, 1874-1879 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for the degree of DDCTOR DF PHILOSOPHY BY WATSON PARKER Norman, Oklahoma 1965 THE BLACK H ILLS GOLD RUSH, 1874-1879 APPROVED BY A } ^ t ^ ..... DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PREFACE There is no lack of books about the Black H ills . A glance at the attached bibliography will show that there is available much firsthand information about even the earliest settlements, and that from this primary material many useful and entertaining histories have been constructed. Yet none of these books has dealt with the central factor of early sett 1ement--the Black Hills gold rush of l874-1879--as a unified historical phenomenon. The many writings have ob­ scured rather than c la rifie d this movement, and have frag­ mented rather than united the factors which produced its distinctive character. This work, therefore, attempts to weave from the delightful chaos of Black Hills history the story of the rush and the men who made it . If it has a lesson, beyond the te llin g of a ta le not told before, it is that no historical event is as simple as it seems, and that it takes more than gold to make a gold rush. First among those without whose kind assistance this work could not have been carried forward are the members of my dissertation committee at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. W. Eugene Hoi Ion, the committee's chairman, has been i i i ever helpful with encouragement and emendation. Dr. Gilbert C. Fite, Dr. Donald J. Berthrong, Dr. A rrell M. Gibson, and Dr. William E. BIttle have also contributed their comments and many of the merits of the paper are due to their suggestions. The faults and errors which It em­ bodies, however, must be considered a ll my own. The assistance of libraries and learned societies has been of Inestimable aid In assembling the materials for this work. Miss Opal Carr, of the BIzzell Memorial Library at the University of Oklahoma, was most helpful. Mrs. Boyce Timmons, of the University Library's Phillips Collection, suggested many original sources. Mrs. Nan C. Gamble, of the In te r-lib ra ry loan service, found Innumerable rare books and brought them to Norman for me, where Sarah Rinehart, of the University's copying service, reproduced them. Rodney Reed drew the maps. Josephine Soukup typed the final copy with speed and judgment. Miss Helen Hoyt, of the Rapid City Free Public Li­ brary, has assembled a truly superior collection of Black Hills materials and greatly assisted me In their use. Mrs. Elmer Pontius, of the Deadwood Public Library, not only gave me a free hand among that Institution's many rarities, but also secured many rare materials from private hands. The Adams Memorial Museum, also at Deadwood, was very helpful. Miss Dorette Darling, of the Homestake Library at Lead, made available without stint the large resources of Black Hills IV history In that collection. Mr. Gene M. Gressley, of the Western History Research Center at the University of Wyoming Library, pointed the way to much interesting material. The Coe Library of Yale University was generous in providing microfilm copies of rare books and documents. Mr. Carl Wiehe, of the Frontier Museum in Custer, provided access to documents and artifacts not otherwise available. The Uni­ versity of Nebraska Press at Lincoln kindly granted permis­ sion to use many quotations from Martha Ferguson McKeown's Them Was the Davs. which illustrate firsthand the way the rushers fe lt about the H ills . Miss Ruby Mauch, of the library of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, was especially helpful in making available geological materials pertaining to the Hills. Mr. Don Howe, of the Public Relations Office of the Homestake Mining Company in Lead, gave me not only much printed mate­ ria l but many suggestions about finding more information on that famous mine. Mrs. Leo Ashland, of the Society of Min- nelusa Pioneers at Rapid City, guided me to the Leedy Collec­ tion at that institution and kindly made its resources available. Colonel W ill G. Robinson, Secretary of the South Dakota Historical Society at Pierre, was of special assistance in my research among the many documents assembled there. J. Leonard Jennewein, at the Museum of the Friends of the Middle Border, Dakota Wesleyan University, M itchell, South Dakota, was particularly helpful in providing access to rare books, V maps, and documents from the Jennewein Western Collection. Among those individuals whose help has made my work a pleasure are Associate Professor C. Albert Grimm, of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology at Rapid City, whose knowledge of the H ills is encyclopedic; Hugh Lambert and Jacqueline Lambert, of Wayne, Illin o is , who aided with researches in the fie ld and unearthed many forgotten mines and towns ; my sister and her husband. Dr. and Mrs. Roland E. Schmidt, whose moral support and penetrating insight have c la rifie d many perplexing problems; my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Troy Parker, of H ill City, whose library and encouragement have long sustained me; and my wife Olga, without whose help this work could never have been completed. I thank them a ll. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE ...................................................................................................... ii i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...................................................................... vil i Chapter I. THE GEOGRAPHY AND EARLY EXPLORATION OF THE BLACK HILLS ........................................................ 1 I I . EARLY PROMOTERS, THE CUSTER EXPEDITION, AND THE GORDON PARTY ................................................... 27 I I I . BOOMING THE BLACK HILLS ................................................. 55 IV. THE GOLD RUSH IN THE SUMMER OF 1875 ..................... 75 V. THE RUSH TO THE CENTRAL HILLS .................................... 98 VI. THE RUSH TO THE NORTHERN HILLS .................................... 126 V II. THE ROAD TO THE MINES ...................................................... 151 V III. THE BLACK HILLS AND THE INDIANS .................................. 177 IX. LIFE IN A GOLD RUSH TOWN ................................................... 203 X. BADMEN OF THE HILLS ......................................................... 233 XI. THE HARDROCK MINES .............................................................. 266 X II. THE HAPPIEST GOLD RUSH ..................................................... 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 294 APPENDIX I ................................................................................................ 326 APPENDIX II ............................................................................................. 329 APPENDIX III ........................................................................................... 330 vi I LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. The Black H ills of Dakota and Surrounding Settlements .......................................................................... 2 2. The Black H ills of South Dakota ................................ 99 VI I I THE BLACK HILLS GOLD RUSH, 1874-1879 CHAPTER I THE GEOGRAPHY AND EARLY EXPLORATION OF THE BLACK HILLS Dakota comes 1 What varied wealth of mount and plains she brings! How vast a golden light athwart the coming years she f 1 ings! Her mines exhaust less, soil the richest, healthful, balmy a ir. She holds to give and gives to b1ess--her bounties a11 may share.1 No manifestation of the westward surge of American settlement was more sudden, more dramatic, or more closely followed than the pursuit of gold. Thrusting out into the unexplored, blazing a trail for future settlement, sparkling with promised wealth, and doomed to frequent disappointment, gold rushes brought adventure to many, death to some, and population to the wilderness. Among gold rushes, that to the Black H ills from 1874 to 1879 is not only the most ty p i­ cal but the least known. Its progress and success, its ^H. N. Maguire, Rochford Black H ills Centra1. 15 December 1878. n o r th DAKOTA BISMARCK NORTHERN PACIFIC FT. ABRAHAM UNCOLN SOUTH DAKOTA CHEYENNE AGENCY FT. SULLY MTNS. PIERRE ^ BL ACK SPOTTED TAIL AGENCY YANKTON RED CLOUD AGENCY SIOUX CITY F T LARAMIE NEBRASKA CHEYENNE f SIDNEY-#- UNION PACIFIC COLORADO THE BLACK HILLS OF DAKOTA AND SURROUNDING SETTLEM ENTS, 1875 Figure 1 3 failures and frustrations follow a familiar pattern, but the actors and their motives are not the same. The rush to the Black H ills was the result, not of the lure of gold alone, but of a tangled confusion of conflicting hopes, grievances, and ambitions. The role of the Indian, of the Army, of the farmer, and the merchant here blends with that of the pros­ pector and miner, for it took them all to open the Black H ills . Let us look at this land, and the men who found it in the West. Out of the sea of grass which waves from the Missouri to the Rockies rises an island of mystery, promise, and ad­ venture, the Black H ills of Dakota and Wyoming. Embraced between the northern and southern forks of the Cheyenne River, they rise some four thousand feet above the surround­ ing plains, to tower nearly