Settling the West – Mining in the Black Hills ** Write down the following: (1) Describe Tinton, SD and the Black Hills ghost towns … (2) How many ghost towns in the Black Hills? (3) Black Hills towns in 1876 compared to four years later … (4) 90% of the prospectors that arrived to the Black Hills … (5) Why the majority of these prospectors went to the Black Hills? From SDPB (0:00 to 10:25): http://listen.sdpb.org/post/exploring-black-hills-ghost-towns

- How did the Custer Expedition of 1874 change forever the history of the Black Hills? Discovery of Gold Custer Expedition found flakes – in Hill City, Sheridan, and Pactola, but never a “bonanza.” 1874 and 1875, settlers flood the Black Hills General Crook & U.S. Army kicks them out. 1875, maybe 1,500 settlers throughout Black Hills.

Black Hills Gold Rush, 1874-77 Jenney-Newton Expedition … 1875, Negotiations for the Black Hills … 1875, President Grant does not enforce securing Black Hills. July, 1876, an estimated 15,000 settlers in the Hills.

Great Sioux Reservation of 1868 By Jan. 31, 1876: All Lakotas ordered to report to Agency head-quarters … “Custer Minute Men …”

Settling the West – Mining “Boom and bust cycles” Vigilance committees ** Importance of mining to establishment of the American West … Boomtowns Ghost towns

Placer Mining Early prospectors utilized placer mining, getting at the shallow deposits close to the soil using picks, shovels, and pans.

Sluice Mining Water is diverted from a riverbed to a box with metal “riffle” bars and a screen, built to cause heavier materials (minerals) to settle at the bottom of box, which allowed water and sediment to escape.

Hydraulic Mining When deposits at the surface ran out, hydraulic mining, was used, using high pressure water to remove large quantities of earth against a hill or mountainside, exposing the hard minerals beneath.

Quartz Mining Mine shafts are dug and people go underground to extract the materials

Open-pit Mining A surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by removal from an open pit. Rock quarries Copper mines Coal Marble Uranium

Black Hills Gold Rush, 1874-77 Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks in the northern Black Hills … “… each spade of earth revealed a veritable fortune in gold.” The discovery of the northern deposits … The establishment at Deadwood …

Homestake Mine … Would eventually produce 10% of the world’s gold supply over the next 125 years.

Black Hills Gold Rush, 1874-77 Establishment of Rockerville … Establishment of Rapid City …

Settling the West – Mining in the Black Hills ** Write down the following: (1) Describe Tinton, SD and the Black Hills ghost towns … (2) How many ghost towns in the Black Hills? (3) Black Hills towns in 1876 compared to four years later … (4) 90% of the prospectors that arrived to the Black Hills … (5) Why the majority of these prospectors went to the Black Hills? From SDPB (0:00 to 10:25): http://listen.sdpb.org/post/exploring-black-hills-ghost-towns