Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1878 — Deadwood City. [ARTICLE]

Deadwood City.

Deadwood now has a population of 4,000, and is the commercial center of the Black Hills region. It has rude theaters, dance houses, gambling hells, and uncounted bar-rooms; yet a recent visitor says there is far less ruffianism than might fairly be expected in a new mining place. There are banks, churches, a school house, a newspaper, and good hotels. Many lawyers get a good income out of the excessive litigation over the titles to mines. Deadwood is in an irregular gulch, has already outgrown its space, and begins to climb the precipitous sides of the hills by which it is inclosed. White cottages, approached by winding paths and steps, stand hundreds of feet above the level of the town. Under Deadwood proper there is another city—the city of the miners. Openings to the tunnels and shafts are seen at various places throughout the upper town. In the tunnels and shafts the placer miner digs out the yellow earth, and sluices it for the crumbs of gold that, during the long ages, have been slowly escaping from the quartz lodes in the hills. But capitalists have taken hold of the mining business of the Black Hills, and many quartz mills of the best class are running. The truth about the yield of gold it is hard to find out, because the owners of rich mines seek to depreciate values, and the owners of worthless mines have a contrary intention.