Black Hills

“ Camp Crook, nestling down in one of the wildest gulch pockets of the Black Hills region—basking and sleeping in the flood of moonlight that emanates from the glowing ball up afar in heaven's blue vault, is suddenly and rudely aroused from her dreams. ”

“ The night was closing in, and the vast peaks of the Black Hills, that had loomed up white and grand in the distance, were gradually fading from view until they merged into the thickly gathering gloom, while the blasts that whirled the snow in blinding drifts about their tops, came moaning and sweeping over the bleak prairie, as if searching for some one to inclose in its icy grasp, and to strangle out of life. ”

“ They will lift up your hair on the dreary Black Hills.
The round-house in Cheyenne is filled every night
With loafers and bummers of most every plight;
On their backs is no clothes, in their pockets no bills,
Each day they keep starting for the dreary Black Hills. ”

“ The Black Hills occupy a rectangular realm which is roughly one hundred miles long, north to south, and fifty miles across its east-west 4 axis. The White River Badlands, which are customarily visited on any Black Hills trip, form a depression in the high prairies some forty miles long and fifteen miles across the widest part. ”

“ I used to lie languid and dreamy before our tent and muse on the past and the future, and when most overcome with lassitude, my eyes turned always toward the distant Black Hills. There is a spirit of energy in mountains, and they impart it to all who approach their presence. ”

“ The influx of "pilgrims" into the Black Hills for the last few days has been something more than wonderful, every stage coming in overcharged with feverish passengers, and from two to a dozen trains arriving daily.
Of course Deadwood receives a larger share of all this immigration—nothing is more natural, for the young metropolis of the hills is the miner's rendezvous, being in the center of the best yielding locates. ”

“ Night, serenely beautiful, with its silver moon lighting up the bold scenery upon every hand, came again to the Black Hills, and the shadow of the mountains fell upon the miners’ fort, where all seemed lost in deep repose. But the silence resting there was a treacherous one, for within those stockade walls were half a hundred brave men resting upon their arms and awaiting the coming of their foes, who, all knew, were to hurl themselves against them that night. ”

“ Collecting his brother Fred, who was fruitlessly panning the sands of the Last Chance Gulch in the high border country of Montana, Moses started east, passing of course through the Black Hills, to scout down this one last ray of rumor—that a new strike was in the making. Setting out their camp in Bobtail Gulch, a mere pistol shot from certain placer claims in Deadwood Gulch, they went to work in midwinter, hoping to find, the legend has it, just enough blossom rock to give them a stake for their homeward journey. ”

“ Detailed information on the various other scenic features is easily to be had at any of the hotels and tourist courts in the Hills, and brochures covering practically every landmark are available gratis, thanks to the enthusiasm of the local chambers of commerce, the Black Hills and Badlands Association, and the state of South Dakota. The area is crisscrossed with good roads, and no matter which route one takes to his eventual destination, every mile will be marked by breath-taking views and natural wonders. ”

“ For those entering the region from the north, U.S. 12 from Miles City, Montana, is in all probability the best route.
The gateways to the Black Hills are the towns of Hot Springs in the south, Rapid City on the eastern edge, Spearfish or Belle Fourche at the north, and Custer in the west. All these towns offer entirely acceptable accommodations for a touring family; in fact, no one need drive more than twenty or thirty miles from any point in the area to find suitable lodgings at a desired rate. ”

“ They were well up toward the Black Hills, in a country broken with forest, hill and prairie, and interspersed with streams of every size, from the rivulet and foaming cañon to the broad, serenely-flowing river.
They were in a region infested with grizzly bears and the [17] fiercest of wild animals, and above all with the daring and treacherous Blackfeet—those dreaded red-skins of the North-West, with whom the hunters and trappers are compelled to wage unceasing warfare, and who are more feared than any tribe that the white men encounter. ”

“ BLACK HILLS, an isolated group of mountains, covering an area of about 6000 sq. m. in the adjoining corners of South Dakota and Wyoming, U.S.A. They rise on an average some 2000 ft. above their base, the highest peak, Harney, having an altitude above the sea of 7216 ft. ”

“ The Black Hills have an area of five-thousand square miles of a rudely elliptical form with its major axis, approximately, north-northwest.104 Most of this area lies within our state. The true limit of the Hills is quite distinctly marked by a sharp ridge of sandstone, three hundred to six hundred feet in relative height, which becomes broader and more plateau-like towards the north and south ends. ”

“ On the border-line of Dakota and Wyoming, and therefore within the Indian reservation, stand the Black Hills, a rugged mountain group rising nearly 8,000 feet above the sea level, an insight into whose wild and romantic fastnesses we have already given. ”

“ We again follow a beautiful mountain stream, Spring Creek, through Sheridan and down to Hill City. Along the road we find some real rock cliffs running up several hundred feet and we can here see the plan of the rock layers, thrown in, tilted on edge, the formation which is general throughout the Black Hills. At Sheridan there is a good looking tourist camp, including cabins. ”

“ The wild recesses of these hills, like those of the Rocky Mountains, are retreats and lurking-places for broken and predatory tribes, and it was among them that the remnant of the Cheyenne tribe took refuge, as has been stated, from their conquering enemies, the Sioux.
The Black Hills are chiefly composed of sandstone, and in many places are broken into savage cliffs and precipices, and present the most singular and fantastic forms ”

“ Early California, for example, is today known less as the scene of the accomplishments of James Fair, Charles Crocker, and Leland Stanford than as the arena for the armed forays of Joaquin Murietta, Black Bart, Dick 79 Fellows, and various other gunmen. Since this is the accepted practice, it is entirely appropriate to introduce the gold-rush days of the Black Hills with a brief account of the banditry and thuggery which accompanied the early growth of that last frontier. ”

“ The United States agreed to close the Bozeman Trail and to abandon the forts. The Black Hills were utterly forbidden to the white man, and except for an agreement to let the Northern Pacific rails cross the upper prairies unmolested, the high plains from the Missouri to the Big Horn were returned by federal order to their historic isolation. ”

“ No tourist should leave the Black Hills until this trip has been taken either by automobile or rail. In either case he should go as far east as the towns of Interior or Kadoka, and actually go through Cedar Pass which is five miles northeast of Interior. ”

“ These the tourist will frequently encounter in the regions contiguous to the Black Hills.
Below him yawned an abrupt channel, a score or more of feet in depth, at the bottom of which was a dense chaparral thicket. The little valley thus nestled in the earth was about forty rods in width, and one would never have dreamed it existed, unless they chanced to ride to the brink, above.
Fearless Frank took in the situation at a glance, and not hearing the cries, he rightly conjectured that the one in distress had again become exhausted. ”

“ Not dead, nor even sleeping, is this headquarters of the Black Hills population at midnight, twenty-four hours subsequent to the rush of the daring road-agents through Camp Crook.
Deadwood is just as lively and hilarious a place during the interval between sunset and sunrise as during the day. Saloons, dance-houses, and gambling dens keep open all night, and stores do not close until a late hour. At one, two and three o'clock in the morning the streets present as lively an appearance as at any period earlier in the evening. ”

“ True to the spirit of the Black Hills, Rapid City Municipal Camp has its neat log cabin, with reading table, fireplace, electric lights, and other conveniences for its guests. Tourists are welcomed there at any and all times. These log cabins are a decided thrill to the traveler who is not familiar with them. ”

“ While the generally level plateau surface about the Black Hills is treeless, except for the scattered groves of wide-spreading cottonwoods along the immediate banks of the larger streams, the central and higher portions of the elevation itself is clothed with an open but abundant forest, consisting principally of pines. The evergreen forests give to the hills a nearly black colour when seen from a distance, and have gained for them the name they bear. ”

“ Almost daily some miner would creep back from the Hills with exaggerated stories of the wealth of the diggings. Every one was sure that the treaty for the opening of the Black Hills would be made at once, when there would be wealth for everybody. ”

“ While delayed by the mules and their masters, we may amuse ourselves and divert our thoughts from the battle, and, perhaps, murder and sudden death, which may happen this evening, by studying the geography of the Black Hills. The range forms nearly a right angle, the larger limb—ninety miles—running east to west with a little southing along the Platte, the shorter leg—sixty miles—trending from north to south with a few degrees of easting and westing. ”

“ With a mean breadth of 28, and a total length of 90 miles, it develops itself in a westerly direction, at the foot of the sombre mountain-chain known as the Black Hills. On issuing from the immense, uniform, and monotonous prairie, the traveller finds himself suddenly transported, after a descent of 100 to 200 feet, into a depression of the soil where rise a myriad of abrupt rocks, irregular or prismatic, or like columns dressed with enormous pyramids, and from 110 to 220 feet in height. ”

“ There are no tourist facilities at the site of the Memorial. Like every other place in the Black Hills, however, Rushmore can be reached in a few minutes’ drive from any one of a number of near-by points where a tourist might be stopping. ”