The Boom and Bust of Central City
Kenneth Stewart
South Dakota History, volume 2 number 3 (1972)
South Dakota History is the quarterly journal published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. Membership in the South Dakota State Historical Society includes a subscription to the journal. Members support the Society's important mission of interpreting, preserving and transmitting the unique heritage of South Dakota. Learn more here: https://history.sd.gov/Membership.aspx. Download PDFs of articles from the first 43 years and obtain recent issues of South Dakota History at sdhspress.com/journal.
When gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1874, a small, partially unexplored region became the focal point for a new American adventure. Men, money, and supplies entered the region as fast as transportation facilities would allow. Deadwood Gulch, which had succeeded Custer as the center of gold mining, hummed with activity. The foreboding canyons and ice-cold streams did not hinder the quest for gold, and for the next thirty years, Americans heard tales of dreams fulfilled, hopes destroyed, and sometimes, lives lost. The Black Hills gold rush story has been told by many men, but not the story of Central City—a boom town that was the center of early placer and lode mining in the northern Black Hills.The first mining claims in Deadwood Gulch were located on 9 November 1875 by William Gay, Alfred Gay, John B. Pearson, Daniel Muckle, William Lardner, Ed McKay, Joseph Englesby, James Hicks, and John Haggard. Soon after, Deadwood Gulch became filled with men working the placer ground in every direction. With winter approaching Lardner and McKay, not having much luck in the placers, bought two cabins for protection against the winter winds and snow. These crude structures were the first buildings erected in what was later to become Central City. Alfred Gay also bunt a cabin about one-half mile below the Lardner-McKay cabins in an area that became Gayville, at that time a separate community from Central City. Deadwood Gulch prospered in 1876. Gold production reached 1.5 million dollars and the population peaked at five thousand. Most miners made about ten dollars a day and gold ran from twenty to forty cents a pan. The majority of the men making profits in the early years were experienced miners, and many had been mining previously in California or Montana. A tenderfoot stood little chance of reaping the riches from the earth without some practical mining experience. If he happened to make a strike, he usually left most of his treasure in the gambling houses, saloons, and supply stores along the sides of Deadwood and Whitewood gulches.
On 20 January 1877 a public meeting was held in a mining camp in Deadwood Gulch to formally incorporate the cluster of settlements into a town. Wilham Lardner, the "pioneer citizen," was appointed chairman. A.H. Loudon was elected secretary, George Williams, recorder, and a town site committee consisting of Edward McKay, Frank S. Bryant, and George Williams was elected to lay out the new town. I.V. Skidmore, a former resident of Central City, Colorado, officially christened the new town Central City. Some of the other camps along the gulches-Gayville, South Bend, Anchor City, Golden Gate, Blacktail, and Go To Hell Gulch-were later incorporated into Central City for legal purposes, though each retained its name for some time.
By the summer of 1877, Central City and its environs had about three thousand people. Along the narrow gulches, every kind of business enterprise had been constructed, including long lines of saloons and gambling houses, and bordellos. Tents, lean-tos, and log cabins comprised most of the structures. A wild and wicked city, gunfights, and street brawls were common occurrences. Central City was not, however, slow to bring law and order and the rudiments of civilization to Deadwood Gulch. Education and religion were not neglected and in the fall of 1877, a school opened with Dolph Edwards as the schoolmaster. Judge David B. Ogden conducted a religious revival in the schoolhouse in 1878 and after the schoolhouse was sold, the services were conducted in the opera house. In 1879 the Congregationalists formed a church society and erected a building with the Reverend B.F. Mñls as their pastor. The Catholics built their first church soon after.
Thus, almost overnight Central City had changed its face from a camp of crowded tents and log shacks to a town of frame buildings, some two or more stories with an occasional "fireproof" or brick building. Four lawyers and six doctors began practicing as early as 1877, and five newspapers were published for brief periods during the boom days. James S. Bartholomew began the Central City Herald in 1877 and boasted the first steam press in the Black Hills. In December 1877 one creditor tried to collect on his account by seizing the printing machinery by force and an enraged Bartholomew ran him off with a double-barreled shotgun. The paper finally went out of business in 1881. The Central City Champion, published in 1877-78 by the Sioux City newspaperman Charles Colhns, was a weekly newspaper and the Central City Enterprise, like the Herald, was a daily published in 1881-82. The Black Hills Index began printing in 1882 but lasted less than a year. The Black Hills Miners' Union published the Black Hills Register from 1885 until the early 1900s when the newspaper was moved to Lead. Unfortunately, the only known surviving copies of Central City newspapers are a few copies of the Black Hills Register from 1906 and 1907.
Placer mining was the major method of locating gold in Deadwood Gulch in the late 1870s, but some lode mining was also used. Although placering was easier and cheaper, many miners knew that the placers could not last forever because hundreds of operations were rapidly depleting the gravel in the streams. Many miners combed the huls and the gulches searching for the source of the ore and then built small one or two-men lode mines. With the need for milling machinery imminent, many mining concerns had milling plants and mine hoists shipped in over the torturous trails from Cheyenne, Fort Pierre, and Sydney before 1880. Although these mills were expensive, they could be operated profitably because there were hundreds of small mines that could not afford to erect their own mills. Custom milling became a rewarding occupation, and each mill had enough business to keep it operating for a time, but by the end of the century, only two mills would be operating in Central City. By 1877-78 some of the mills operating near Central City were: Sheldon Edwards Mill (20 stamps), McLaughlin and Cassell Mill (25 stamps), A.P. Moore and Company Mill (20 stamps), John P. Pearson Mill (20 stamps). Brown and Thums Custom Mill (30 stamps), Thompson Mill (30 stamps). Central Gold Mining and Milling Company Mill (20 stamps). Union Mill (25 stamps), Cunningham, Dorrington and Company Mill (20 stamps). Alpha Mill (20 stamps), Elliot Lumber Company Gold Mill (20 stamps), Chicago Mill at Anchor City (10 stamps). Badger Mill (20 stamps), Harlan Mill (20 stamps), Girdler and Orr Mill (10 stamps), Wolsmuth and Goeway Mill (10 stamps). Black Hills Gold Mining Company Mill (20 stamps), and the Lancaster Mill, Ledwich Brothers Mill, A.P. Moon and Company Mill, Lower Central Mill, and several others no doubt hidden away in the gulches.
The 1880s was a decade of change in Central City. Railroads and oxen teams brought in heavy mining and milling machinery. The worked-out placer claims and small lode mines were being replaced by large-scale, well-financed mining operations. Many miners, tired of the tedious task of placering with its uncertain rewards, turned to working the lode mines where a guaranteed daily wage would supply the necessities of Ufe. Placering had been profitable for some. Over four million dollars in gold had been taken out of Deadwood Gulch between 1875 and 1880 and between six and eight million had been recovered from the entire Black Hills region. Though replaced by lode mining, placer mining continues today, in a small way, in various creeks of the hills.
By the end of 1880 lode mining was the main source of gold ore. The large DeSmet Mine followed by lesser producers like the Fairview, Goldfinch, Chief of the Hills, Bessie, Esmeralda, Hidden Treasure, and Great Eastern, were busy with extensive programs of exploration and development. By the end of 1881, the DeSmet had paid $310,000 in dividends and the Great Eastern, a more typical mine of that era, had paid $15,000. Some of the smaller mines were operating on a grand scale, even if dividends were small or nonexistent. The Esmeralda was operating a 60 stamp mill and owned 40 lode mines in 1881. The Bessie had 2 stamp mills with a total of 50 stamps running 24 hours a day. It was an era when great fortunes were made and lost overnight and large amounts of capital were spent erecting large mills and mine plants, often with no vein of gold to pay for them. It was a time of the-tongued speculators and eminent mining engineers and hard-rock miners and slippery-fingered gamblers. Mining became big business in Central City in the 1880s and the progress reports of the Hidden Treasure Mine were considered far more important than the tales of murders told in the gambling houses.
Besides the DeSmet Mine, the Hidden Treasure Mine was undoubtedly the best-known Central City mining operation. In 1876 the Black Hills Gold Mining Company was organized in Cheyenne and managed by Captain C.V. Gardner. The company bought a three-quarter interest in the Hidden Treasure property for $25,000 and became the first organized mining firm in the northern hills. While consisting of 194 acres of patented claims, the Hidden Treasure was not a big operation in production or tonnage of ore, but the mine was unusual because it was a fossilized placer. The ore ranged from 2 to 12 feet thick and small veins of fluorite were found during the early years, but they were not developed. A Blake Crusher and a Bolthoff Ball Pulverizer were ordered from a Denver company and the first quartz crushing mill in the hills was erected by 15 August 1876 and Jabez Chase managed its operation. The pulverizer proved to be inadequate for the amount of tonnage and it was dismantled by the end of 1876 after $20,000 in gold had been recovered. The company soon ordered a 20 stamp mill of its own, but before it could be installed, the Black Hills Gold Mining Company was forced into litigation with the Aurora Mine. The legal difficulties lasted for several years, but the Hidden Treasure reopened until 1890.
The Aurora Mine received publicity as eariy as 1877. Cleaphus Tuttle, the manager of the Aurora, located his claim on the ground held by Henry Keets, and a bitter feud between the two men led to a tragic accident. In August 1877 Tuttle and his partners pushed a wheelbarrow loaded with explosives up to the Aurora Mine to blow it up. The Keets and the Aurora mines were connected by one underground tunnel, each having their own shafts to lower men and supplies. Keets hurried to his mine and ordered his men out and all but one came out, a man named Norris who was permanently deafened by the mine blast. After the Aurora was blown up, a gun battle ensued between the Keets and the Aurora men. The only casualty was Tuttle, shot through the heart. An armed guard was stationed around the Keets property, a posse was sent for, and several Keets men were charged with murder. The jury could not decide which, if any, of the Keets men were guilty and charges were dropped against them all.
A few months later the Keets Mine was in difficulty again, Keets had sold the mine to James M. Whitney. In November 1877 Whitney hired Conly to remove ore from the mine. Conly drew up a contract with a large group of miners and the work began. After a short time, Conly, short of funds, could not pay his men. The men decided to strike, stocked the mine with provisions, set up fortifications, and waited for Whitney to appear. When Whitney came, he assured the men that he owed them nothing and that Conly was at fault because he had overdrawn his account by several thousand dollars. Conly claimed that Whitney had fixed the books and was lying. Miners from the neighboring camps joined the strikers and rioting broke out in the nearby mines in support of the Keets men. Sheriff Seth Bullock and a posse were brought in from Deadwood but could do little to appease the strikers. Eventually, troops were called in from Fort Meade. Lieutenant Edgerly and ten soldiers arrived at the Keets Mine on 21 November. Although Whitney promised to pay the men, the strike continued. Finally, Sheriff Bullock ordered all the entrances to the mine closed except the main shaft, and when sulfur torches were lit and dropped into the shaft, all of the striking miners were out of the mine by 10:00 P.M. on 22 November. In spite of all the publicity it received, the Keets Mine was an unimportant property. It never had a mill of its own but shipped ore to neighboring custom mills. It yielded fifty tons per day and had thirty-five employees at the height of its production. Today its location is a mystery to most people in Central City.
The largest and most important mining operation in Central City was the Father DeSmet Mining and Milling Company. The original locators are not known; however, Fred and Moses Manual, the discoverers of the Homestake Mine, claim the honor. The Father DeSmet Mine set about doing things in a big way after it was purchased by Archie Borland. Borland, a rival of George Hearst, the California financier, had outbid the Hearst interests for the DeSmet. In September 1877 the company ordered a 60 stamp mill from the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. The mill, along with an 80 stamp mill ordered by Homestake, was shipped by rail to Sydney, Nebraska, and then hauled by bull team to the Black Hills. The two mills arrived early in 1878 with a freight bul of $33,000 from the Bull team alone. By 1879 the DeSmet had 80 stamps operating and 3 additional mills were ordered. The mine was yielding $60,000 per month and processing ore valued as high as $12,000 per ton. Gus Bowie, a German mining engineer educated at the Freiburg Mining University and author of the Hydraulic Miners' Manual, managed the DeSmet for a salary of $1,500 per month and a two-year contract. Reflecting Bowie's skill, the DeSmet was a marvel in efficient and safe mining and
drilling methods. He hired only the skilled, including a former hotel chef. Aunt Louise Marshbanks, who cooked for the company table.
Almost as soon as the Homestake Mining Company was organized, the new owners, the Hearsts of Califomia, sought to gain control of most of the productive mines in the area. The Homestake was able to obtain almost immediate control over the Caledonia, the Deadwood Terra, and the Golden Star. George Hearst, the Homestake "Baron," tried unsuccessfully to buy the DeSmet as early as 1877, but the DeSmet owners wanted far too much money and refused an offer of $700,000 during their first year of production. Hearst had said that the DeSmet "is the greatest gold mine yet discovered in the world. The DeSmet pay streak is over 400 feet wide." Consequently, Homestake resorted to buying shares of the DeSmet when they became available on the market. The DeSmet-Homestake feud culminated in the Boulder Gulch-Foster Gulch water fight in 1879. Both placer and lode mines need plenty of water. Placers depend on water to wash the gold out of the sand and gravel, and lode mines maintain extensive milling operations that require constant supplies of water for crushers and washers. Thus, control of the water rights was important.
The Foster Gulch Water Company and the Boulder Gulch Water Company were important holders of water rights in and along Deadwood Gulch. The Foster Company was anxious to sell its ditch to the DeSmet since part of the ditch flowed on DeSmet property. Bowie was not, however, anxious to purchase the water ditch and so Foster promptly sold the ditch to the Homestake, which had no use for it. Then, Bowie bought the Boulder ditch, which was important to the Homestake operations. The Homestake went to court and tried to obtain the Boulder ditch, reasoning that the DeSmet could not use the Boulder ditch in its operations and was holding it illegally. The DeSmet then offered free water for one year to the city of Deadwood. The city commissioners, after much debate, placed the matter before the people, and they voted against using the free water from the DeSmet. The Homestake won the water rights to Boulder Gulch, paid $30,000 to the DeSmet, and returned Foster ditch. By 1881 the Homestake had bought enough stock in the DeSmet to take a controlling interest. Archie Borland and Gus Bowie left the Black Hills and the Homestake appointed J.C. McDonald as manager of the DeSmet, who was soon replaced by Harry M. Gregg.
Along with the mining operations. Central City was also the scene of two unique business enterprises in the 1880s—Black Hills gold jewelry and Gold Nugget beer. The Frank L. Thorpe Company, originators and manufacturers of the now famous Black Hills gold jewelry was founded in Central City. In 1876 John B. LeBeau and Joseph King came to Central City from California's mining country and set up a small jewelry store. They brought with them the patterns that are now world renowned. Two years later Charles Barclay and S.T. Butler came from Virginia City, Montana, with additional patterns to continue and further develop the manufacturing process. Butler has passed the process down to the present generation and Black Hills gold jewelry is still a family-owned operation. Barclay continued his operation in Central City until 1886, then he moved to Lead. The jewelry is now manufactured in Deadwood.
Henry Rosenkranz and Sam Kaiser founded the Black Hills Brewing Company in the 1880s and their Gold Nugget beer was successful for many years. Around the turn of the century, Rosenkranz bought a saloon in Central City and sold the brewery to the Minneapolis Brewing Company. Henry B. Schlichting was appointed the general manager. He was an extremely popular man and the citizens of Central City were frequent visitors to the brewery where the jovial brewers dispensed as much of the sparkling refreshment as the visitors could drink. The company also distributed slugs to its employees that could be dropped into a dispenser at the plant and one glass of beer would pour out.
South Dakota voted in prohibition in 1916. Schlichting was forced to discontinue a long-favored Black Hills product. The company then brought out a soft drink named Cherry Blossom, but because of its unpopular taste, a few hops were added. The state officials found that the soft drink was too close to a genuine beer and ordered it destroyed. Schlichting sent out an invitation to all the citizens of Central City and neighboring towns to come to the brewery. There, he and his employees invited them all to drink as much of the soft drink as they could. It was a big event in Central City. Everyone most certainly imbibed until they could not hold another drop, and still, there were barrels of refreshment left in the storehouse. At last, Schlichting ordered his employees to roll the barrels down to Deadwood Creek and pour the contents into the stream. It is said that there was not a dry eye among those who witnessed this event, and people in Central City still talk about the day that Deadwood Creek had a head on it.
The Black Hills Brewing Company continued to operate for several years after that somber day and it produced a line of genuine soft drinks. Schlichting resigned soon after the Deadwood Creek event and moved to California where he died in 1920. Armin Neubert replaced him as manager. Later, the company introduced a drink called Byro, which was too close to real beer, and again state officials ordered its production stopped. This time, the company closed. The old brewery was torn down and the Black Hills Brewing Company and its Gold Nugget beer became just a memory.
The water rights question was settled, the mines and mills were operating, and Central City was prospering. Then disaster struck in 1883. On 11 May the Ten Mile Ranch sent word down to Deadwood that everyone should be on the lookout for a flood. Flood watchers soon reported that Whitewood Creek was rapidly rising. Goods were removed from buildings that were close to the stream and houses were evacuated in Central City, Gayville, and Deadwood. Hard snows and heavy spring rains had precipitated a wall of water that came from the Bald Mountain district, northwest of Central City, through Nevada Gulch; from the Elk and Bear Butte creeks through Grizzly Gulch; and from the divide between Deadwood and Whitewood creeks through Gold Run and other tributaries into Whitewood Gulch.
Central City, up the gulch from Deadwood, was hit first by the swirling flood waters. The damage was extensive. The mills along the gulches were uprooted and turned into kindling by the boiling waters. The Caledonia Mill vanished and the loss was estimated at two thousand dollars and the Cassell Custom Mill was badly damaged. Mrs. Pat Early's boarding house was swept away and eight to ten buildings were blown up with "giant powder" to make room for the rushing torrent. Many small miners' homes were washed away. The Henry Rosenkranz home was destroyed and the building was later found in the creek. Mrs. Rosenkranz, the wife of the Central City brewer, personally went up to the brewery and supervised the task of pumping the nine feet of water from the cellars. The brewery's ice house was lost, resulting in warm beer that summer. Central City's finest hotel, the Occidental, was destroyed along with ten cabins nearby. In South Bend the E.G. Phillips Store was completely turned around on its foundation.
Central City was not the only city hit by the flood waters; nearly every community from Belle Fourche to Keystone suffered losses. The lower portion of Spearfish along the Spearfish Creek was entirely flooded by 18 May and many houses, fences, and crops in Spearfish Valley were also destroyed. A portion of Fort Meade was inundated, but no great damage was reported. Several houses in Crook City were carried away. Galena, the little silver mining town southeast of Lead City, suffered heavy damage as business places and homes were washed away along with great piles of lumber. Damage at Galena was estimated between five and ten thousand dollars. Lead City, high above the flood level, suffered severe damage to all of its mines from the flooding. Ten levels of the Terra Mine in Terraville collapsed due to water pressure. No injuries were reported in the mine, however. Rochford, Castle Creek, Spring Creek, Pactola, Rockerville, and Pennington sustained moderate damage to flumes, croplands, and small buildings. Dangers from unsatisfactory sanitary conditions threatened the camps. Scarlatina was reported in Lead City, but no major epidemic arose.
Shortages of materials and supplies made recovery a slow process in the northern Black Hills. The loss of bridges and roads took many months to repair. The important Deadwood-Gayville toll road was completely destroyed and was repaired at a cost of over four thousand dollars. Thirty-six bridges were washed-out in a ten-mile stretch of Whitewood Creek. For a time many considered abandoning both Central City and Deadwood and building a new town on higher ground. Azby A. Choteau from Minnesela, three miles southeast of Belle Fourche, offered the citizens of the crippled towns 160 acres if they would remove the standing buildings to Minneseia and rename the town Deadwood. Because this would inconvenience the miners, the plan was dropped. The mines were reopened, the Cassell Mill reported that it was operating on ores from the Minerva and the High Lode mines on 27 May, and the Homestake sponsored a grand ball on 15 June to aid the victims of the flood.
The remaining placer mines suffered heavy damage. Thousands of tons of gold-bearing gravel were stripped from the streambeds and sent on down to the Cheyenne River. From Pemlicao to the mouth of Poorman Gulch the Deadwood Creek was ground-sluiced to bedrock. Typical of the damage was that done to the claims of Allen and Thompson. One hundred feet of the lower end of their flume were washed away and some three hundred feet of the ñume were filled with rock and sediment. The repairs required the labors of many men and considerable time. The loss of the placer gold, however, could never be replaced and a contemporary mining man stated that the flood of 1883 brought the demise of placer mining in Central City years earlier than it would have come.
After recovering from the flood of 1883, another disaster struck Central City in 1888. Lawrence Belliveau operated a successful restaurant in Central City. He had operated a similar business in another gold camp but had lost it in a fire. Because of the fire danger in the city, he had impressed upon his employees the importance of watching for hot embers in the stove and of being extra careful with the ashes. According to a local legend, Belliveau was returning from a business trip and noticed flames leaping from his restaurant. He supposedly turned tail and ran from Central City and was never heard from again. The fire began about 5:30 A.M. on Wednesday, 25 April 1888 in Belliveau and Jensen's restaurant in the heart of Central City's business district. How it started has never been exactly determined; however, it was supposed that the stove, still warm from the previous evening's culinary service, was the culprit. When discovered, the building was entirely ablaze. The fire spread quickly from one tinder-box frame building to another, helped by a strong breeze. When the astonished citizens came to the rescue, they found that the water mains were almost completely dry. And, by the time a bucket brigade was organized, the entire block was livid with the flickering tongues of fire. A call was placed to Deadwood and Lead City for equipment and men. Mayor Sol Starr of Deadwood arrived with hose carts and the hook and ladder companies. The Lead City fire brigade arrived soon after. The lack of a competent fire department in Central City, coupled with the severe water problem, hampered efforts to save the town. All structures in the path of the fire were blown up and many supplies and store fixtures were rapidly moved into the streets, cellars, or fire-proof vaults, which were built into the sides of the hills that ring the town.
However, all efforts proved futile, and within one-half hour, one-quarter mile of the city's business district was a massive ball of flames. Firemen from the neighboring communities set up fire posts along the edge of the city to protect the nearby towns and to watch in horror as an important town of the Black Hills disappeared in a fiery furnace. Four fifty-pound barrels of powder were reportedly used to blow up one of the buildings and the explosion supposedly could not be heard over the roar of the fire. One hundred and forty buildings were destroyed in the fire and the damage was estimated at over two-hundred thousand dollars. Luckily, no lives were lost. Most of the owners announced that they would rebuild, including Belliveau—which destroys a fine legend. Central City was never the same again.
The 1890s was a period of speculative mining. New mining companies were organized and promoted throughout the entire Black Hills region. Promoters and investors rushed to Ragged Top, Balmoral, Dacey, Terry, Carbonate, and Maitland. But, the magic of the 1870s and 1880s was gone. No longer was the mining activity centered in Central City but in Deadwood and Lead City. By 1899 only the Mineral Point (DeSmet) Mill and the Deadbroke Mill were operating in Central City.
During the early 1900s several mines were reopened in the Central City area. The Columbus-Consolidated Mining Company took control of 645 acres north of Deadwood Creek in 1902. The property included the old Columbus Mine and the Ruth and Lardner 10 stamp mill. The company also purchased a 20 stamp cyanide mill from the defunct Baltimore and Deadwood Company, located at Gayville. The Columbus Mill operated on Deadwood ores from Rossiter, Dalton, and L and F claims. The Columbus shaft was deepened to a three compartment 500 foot shaft. The Columbus Mill ceased operations in 1904, but the company spent considerable time and money exploring the bottom of the shaft. Not discovering a vein of gold, the company ceased operations in 1906 and the Homestake Mining Company purchased it in 1912. They have not operated it since. The Imperial Gold Mining and Milling Company operated a group of claims in Blacktail Gulch between 1902 and 1912. The company owned a 200 ton cyanide mill in Deadwood, which operated between 1902 and 1908. The Carroll group of 12 claims owned by the Beltram Mining Company were producing ore in the early 1900s. The Carroll had produced $50,000 in gold and silver in 1897. The Deadbroke Mine was operated until 1905 by the Phoenix Mining Company. The Kicking Horse group produced about one hundred thousand dollars in gold and silver before it was shut down in 1916. The Gladiator, or Cutting Mine, operated from 1900 to 1916 and again from 1921 to 1925. The firm built a 50-ton-per-day oil-notation mill in 1925, but it operated only for a few months. The Gustin and the Redemption claims were operated by the Jupiter Gold Mining Company about 1902. The mine was located about one-half mile north of Central City and produced $15,000 in gold in 1903, when the company suspended its operation. The Minerva, which produced $16,000 in gold from 5,143 tons of ore in 1893, was operating in 1903 and was later leased to the Jupiter Company. Even the famous old Hidden Treasure was reopened in 1913 by the Hoosier Mining Company, headed by Banks Stewart of Deadwood. The company confined its work to the development of the mine, and a new shaft was put down to the depth of 200 feet with crosscuts running 100 feet east and west. The mine was left to fill with water in 1916 when no new vein of ore was located. It was eventually acquired by Homestake. Some exploration on the small veins of fluorite was done during World War II, but nothing further has been done. The most important mine, the DeSmet, renamed the Mineral Point by Homestake, ceased operations in October 1918 because of the rising costs of production and the shortage of workers due to the war. In 1902 the construction of a sand-tailings plant was completed by the Homestake at Gayville. The plant, known locally as Cyanide No. 2, operated until 1934 and provided jobs for some of Central City's residents. After it closed, it was used for a number of years as a skating rink. It was razed in May 1965.
A small revival in mining activities occurred throughout the entire Black Hills in the 1930s. In the late 1920s several mining companies had begun exploring the hundreds of nonoperative mines. As late as 1926 only the Homestake was in actual mineral production. By 1935, however, 15 lode mines and 199 placers were producing gold and silver. Several of these operations had a direct effect on Central City. Because of the depression, many men were willing to rework the placers and reopen once worthless lode mines believing that perhaps a placer pocket, or vein of ore, would be found that had been overlooked by previous operations. This brought some measure of prosperity. The Bald Mountain Mining Company, which reopened its properties at Trojan southwest of Central City in 1928, and the Canyon Corporation at Maitland northwest of Central City gave added employment to the miners living in Central City and the surrounding communities. Only the placer operations in Deadwood and Sheeptail creeks were operated by Central City people. The period of prosperity was short lived and by 1939 the number of mining operations had dwindled to 6 lode mines and 2 placers. Today, the only mining operation at Central City is the Bobtail Placer, which operates solely for the tourist.
Today, looking at the conglomeration of buildings in Central City, it is hard to visualize that this is where the story of gold mining in the northern Black Hills began. Few monuments to past glories remain—the Black Hills Brewery, the Father DeSmet Mill, the rows of saloons and stores are but memories the old Central, Golden, and Terraville Hose House is still standing, but it has been replaced by a modern firehouse on main street. From a booming town of 3,000 in the 1870s to 648 in 1905, 262 in 1915, 189 in 1925, and 188 in 1970, Central City has declined in population, except for the brief boom in the 1930s, when, in 1935 the population was 268. And, when the post office closed on 12 November 1971, Central City officially became a ghost town.
South Dakota History is the quarterly journal published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. Membership in the South Dakota State Historical Society includes a subscription to the journal. Members support the Society's important mission of interpreting, preserving and transmitting the unique heritage of South Dakota. Learn more here: https://history.sd.gov/Membership.aspx. Download PDFs of articles from the first 43 years and obtain recent issues of South Dakota History at sdhspress.com/journal.
