Tales of Gold 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dakota Territory

Originally the northernmost part of the Louisiana Purchase and the southernmost part of Rupert's Land, the Dakota Territory was named for the Native Americans who lived in the region. The Territory of Dakota was organized on March 2, 1861, and was dissolved in 1889 when North (39th state) and South Dakota (40th state) both were admitted into the United States.

Originally it was the fur trade and the growth of the Northern Pacific Railroad that attracted settlers to the area; in 1874 it was the discovery of gold.

Answer: Black Hills

A small mountain range that is located in parts of South Dakota and Wyoming today, the Black Hills gained its name because, covered with tress, the hills did appear to be dark. Modern scientists believe that the area has been occupied by Native Americans for hundreds of years - perhaps as far back as 11,500 BC.

The stories of gold in the Black Hills had been told since the 1860s, when Father De Smet, a Catholic missionary, said that he saw the native peoples with gold; they told him that it had come from the Black Hills.

Answer: Lakota Sioux

It appears that the Arikara tribe moved into the modern regions of North and South Dakota about 1500, and they were followed by other tribes, such as the Cheyenne and Crow. The Lakota Sioux, for which the Dakotas were named, came from Minnesota and pushed the other groups out of the region in the late 1700s, causing them to move further west.

They were the ones who called the land "Ȟe Sápa", or Black Mountains. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was the agreement that ceded the land to the Sioux and exempted white settlement "forever".

When gold was discovered in the area, the U.S. government took back the land, and reassigned the Sioux to another area in western South Dakota.

Answer: Thoen Stone

Dated 1834, the Thoen Stone, found by Louis Thoen in 1887, gave credence to the fact that gold was actually discovered in South Dakota much earlier than previously thought. The stone tells a story, written by Ezra Kind, of seven people who found gold in South Dakota, "all the gold they could carry", but were attacked by Native Americans. Kind finishes his engraving by saying that he lost his gun, had nothing to eat, and was being hunted by Indians.

Many have questioned the authenticity of the stone. If his life was in such peril, why was Kind take the time to engrave a stone? Louis Theon was a stone mason. Did he make the engraving? The questions may never be answered, however, in the 2000s a handwriting expert studied the stone and said that it had not been inscribed by Thoen.

Answer: George Armstrong Custer

In 1874 the 7th Cavalry, a group of approximately 1000 men who were led by George Armstrong Custer, was sent to the area of South Dakota to find a good location for a new fort, find a trail to the southwest, and look into the possibility of finding gold in the region.

Called the Black Hills Expedition, the group set up a camp at present-day Custer, South Dakota, and attempted to follow their orders. While it is still unknown how much gold they really found, the reports by the unit are what precipitated the gold rush.

Their presence, viewed by the Native Americans as an intrusion on their sacred land, and a violation of the treaty that had been signed in 1868, caused the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. One of the battles of the war was the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which is also called Custer's Last Stand.

Answer: Homestake

Fred and Moses Manuel, Hank Harney and Alex Engh discovered gold in present-day Lead, South Dakota, on April 9, 1876; they named their claim Homestake. Their mine, however, was sold for $70,000 the following year to the Homestake Mining Company, who sold shares.

It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1879 and became one of the longest-listed stocks in history. Even though the gold found at Homestake was considered to be a low grade, less than one ounce per ton, there was a huge amount there. For 125 years it produced 10% of the world's gold supply; at the time it was closed in 2002, it was the largest and deepest mine in North America.

Answer: Deadwood

A canyon, which was lined with dead trees, was discovered in South Dakota in 1875. It became known as Deadwood Gulch. The new settlement, simply called Deadwood, was founded in 1876 and was illegal because the land had already been given to the Native Americans in the area. Nevertheless, within a year of its settlement, Deadwood had a population of 5,000 people. Apparently it was a pretty lawless place for a time.

This is where Wild Bill Hickok, who had come into the town on a wagon train, hoping to find his fortune in the gold field. Hickok was gunned down by Jack McCall in 1876 while he was playing poker, holding a hand of aces and eights, commonly called a "dead man's hand", at the Nuttal & Mann's Saloon.

Answer: Placer Mining

Placer mining is done in a stream bed where deposits of precious metals are usually carried by water from another source. Basically, the bits of precious metal are "placed" in the stream bed as the water flows. Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly where the vein of gold is located, however, gold tends to gather at the base of placer deposits since it is heavier than most of the other sediments, like rock and soil, in a stream. The discovery of gold by placer mining can bring on a gold rush, as evidenced in California, South Dakota, the Klondike. Those with a sharp eye can see flakes of gold in the water at a glance, but there typically is more mining work that must be done after the initial discovery by prospectors who were lucky enough to make the "easy" find.

Placer gold is eroded from rock deposits.

Answer: Mercury

After the initial flakes of gold dust were discovered, it was necessary to crush rock in order to find the gold. After the gold is released during the crushing, it sinks to the bottom of the other sediments because it is heavier. Miners would then use mercury, which they called quicksilver, that would unite with metallic pieces of ore and then sink to the bottom.

The mixture would then be heated, separating the two elements and leaving behind the gold. This process can only be used when mining for gold or silver, as it requires an ore that is metallic, although there is more success when using the process with gold.

Answer: False

At the beginning of the gold rush when placer gold was easy to find, the average miner is believed to have made about $10 a day. Back then that was pretty good money! It is said that over 7,000 miners (some sources say 11,000) arrived in 1876, and the total gold production was $1.5 million.

As time when on, and gold became more difficult to find, however, the people who brought in goods to sell, the ones who could afford better mining equipment, and those businessmen who provided services for the miners were the ones who made the real money.