Custer (South Dakota)

Custer County

46-15140

Custer is a city in the Black Hills in the U.S. state of South Dakota. The city is the county seat of Custer County and has about 1900 inhabitants.

Emergence of the city

Origin of the oldest city in the Black Hills was a nearby bivouac of the 7th Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, after whom the city is named since 1876. Custer moved in 1874 with 1,000 soldiers to explore the Black Hills in the Indian Territory and was impressed by the beauty of the landscape. In a valley which he called " Golden Valley ", he built a tent camp, sent out scouting parties and himself went bear hunting. In a report to Washington he wrote, which he explored the valley was an incomparably beautiful and wonderful place. One of the geologists involved in the exploration of the " Golden Valley " where she discovered a gold deposits. The Custer to written reports to the federal government did not remain secret, so a few weeks later, the newspapers reported in big headlines about the new "Eldorado" across the border in Indian Territory. At the conclusion of his extraordinarily successful mission Custer ordered the expansion and securing the military camp with the goal of prospectors and adventurers kept away from Indian lands. Without reinforcements, but the soldiers could put up a poor fast acting rush of prospectors to the " Golden Valley ". The government in Washington officially condemned the breach of contract penetration of the gold seekers in the Indian Territory, but caused no measures to protect the " Black Hills ", which to this day are the Lakota holy.

Near the military camp until the end of 1874 flocked together several thousand lawless and built a wildly growing tents-and cottages city. It was complete anarchy. In a cave, a temporary postal service was set up similar to The Pony Express. Middle of 1875 summed up the majority of illegal gold prospectors and settlers to the decision to end the anarchy and rebuild the city as planned. The city should get the name "Stonewall" in commemoration of the Confederate general and Civil War hero Thomas Jonathan Jackson. In August 1875, the main road was inaugurated. At this time, the previously wild claims of the prospectors were defined and assigned unofficial but binding mining rights. As a point of reference for the numbering of the claims along the French Creek served the bears rock. In the spring of 1876 had the exuberant, new city multiples of today's population, when suddenly the news of richer gold discoveries in Deadwood was widespread. Within two weeks, most prospectors left the city and went to Deadwood. However, a parent, urban communities had until then been developed, the "Stonewall" in front of it preserved to become a ghost town.

The gold rush in the " Golden Valley " was over, but the city that had a sheriff, a court, a school, churches and shops, gradually recovered from the bloodletting. After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer fell in the city center in 1876 was renamed " Custer ".

Commercial and administrative center in Custer County

In the area of Custer precious metals and minerals are mined today. However, of greater economic importance to the timber industry, institutions of the district administration and tourism. In Custer, the Forestry Department for the Black Hills National Forest is for South Dakota and Wyoming. Special tourist attractions are the Jewel Cave National Monument, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Crazy Horse Memorial.