The Lost Cabin Mine of the Black Hills

[Oroblanco]

The Black Hills of South Dakota have their own version of the Lost Cabin mine; this one was seen by Kit Carson and has been found several times, found by hunters or hikers, but every time they have been unable to find it on returning.

The cabin was intact except for the roof according to those whom have seen it, and a mine is within sight of it. As to location, it has been placed anywhere from outside of Deadwood to outside of Custer city. It is not the same story as the lost cabin mine of the Bighorns, may well be directly related to the Thoen stone in fact.

Any thoughts, anyone ever hunt this lost mine? Thank you in advance, good luck and good hunting amigos I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

 

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[mr_rich]

I wonder if google earth maps cover that area? It looks like its exposed to the sky.

 

[Oroblanco]

I am pretty sure the Google maps do cover the area, it may be possible to spot the cabin from the satellite photos. I have not been able to spot it that way, and there are other old cabins dotting the hills that date to the gold rush days so it would require boots on the ground to check it out. Good idea though!
Oroblanco

 

[Oroblanco]

I wonder if google earth maps cover that area? It looks like its exposed to the sky.

I did not catch it when I read your post the first time, but this photo of an old cabin is not "the" lost cabin of the Black Hills. It is just an old cabin out there, yes open to the sky, but has nothing to do with the lost mine. The cabins in the Black Hills which were put up by the first prospectors are largely still standing, not because they were specially protected or treated etc just that logs do not deteriorate fast here. The one with the lost mine would very probably look very much like this one shown in the first post. No metal or shingles for roofing, they used logs and covered it with sod, which also helped to insulate against the cold.

Sorry if my use of that photo of an old cabin was the cause of some confusion, it was used only to illustrate about what that cabin should look like. Most of the Black Hills are fairly well timbered so the use of aerial photos or satellite imagery may not be much help.

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

 

[Maitland]

I read a second-edition copy of 'The Thoen Stone' by Frank Thomson a few years ago and I recall a couple of long-abandoned cabins being mentioned that were found by prospectors and explorers as the gold rush of the Black Hills first began. One of them "if I remember correctly" was somewhere around present-day Cliff Street in Deadwood and it seems to me those who found it described that it had fire damage. The other story I remember reading was about some guys that were exploring somewhere around Elk Creek Canyon sometime in the mid to late 1870's, they came upon the remains of an old log cabin, the roof was gone and there were trees growing inside of it. They measured the trees and assumed that the cabin had been abandoned for at least fifty years or better. Don't quote me word-for-word on these stories because it's been a while since I've read that book! I don't recall either story mentioning anything about a mine being in close proximity to the described cabins, however. I finally found myself a copy of 'Lost Gold' by Mildred Fielder (been looking for one for years as they're long out-of-print) and I can't wait to dig into it, maybe reading it will shed some light on some of these lost/abandoned cabin stories.

 

[Oroblanco]

Hola amigos - and congrats on finding a copy of Lost Gold by Mildred Fielder. She also included a chapter on the Lost Stone Cabin mine, which should probably have its own thread as it was in the Bear Lodge district, and the original owner himself could not find it again.

I recently posted my own short piece on the Lost Cabin at:
The Lost Cabin Mine -(s)- | Oroblanco's New Cabin

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

 

[Maitland]

Thanks! I am looking very much forward to finally having the opportunity to read it! I have a feeling it's going to be one of those books I'll read completely in full, and then go back and dissect it about a million times. I read your entry about the Lost Cabin Mine, but can I ask what your sources are, or how you found out about the story? It would be interesting to know if there's more material to read out there. I have always had a feeling there is much more history that happened in and around the Black Hills prior to the Custer Expedition, it's something that really intrigues me.

 

[Oroblanco]

Hola amigo Maitland,
I first heard of this story at a saloon we owned in Wyoming, over twenty years ago, and did not give it much credence due to the place I heard it. However later I found there is fact behind the legend, and Mildred Fielder's book is one of my sources. If you go to the Library of Congress newspaper archive (online, free) and enter the term "lost cabin" as a search, it will pull up hundreds of articles which were published over the last century. Then it is a matter of sifting out the other Lost Cabin mines for there are apparently quite a few including one in Colorado, two in Wyoming, one in SD, one in Montana, one in Idaho, one in Arizona, one in California, one in Nevada and also Washington state. I think there is one in the Yukon too for that matter. The library in Deadwood has microfilm reels of the local newspapers running back to 1875, and I am pretty sure I found two articles in there as well. Most have pretty much the same story, with slight differences (location being the worst) and there is one other source in a book that I am keeping to myself. Sorry for that bit of selfishness but it has a clue that is not in any other version I have seen, and my wife and I are planning to go check this spot out when we have a few days free to do it.

Also the Custer (city) SD historical society supposedly has quite an archive of their frontier period newspapers, as they also had a newspaper running in the same period. I have not yet checked that out.

Good luck and good hunting amigo, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

PS oops almost forgot, but the US State Treasure Atlas for SD, which I think is volume 7 (don't have it handy here but can check some time) has an entry on the lost cabin of the Black Hills as well.

PPS forgot to include the danged link to the LOC! I think I need more coffee!
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

 

[RockRaven]

One place I do know of, marked on Black Hills Forest map and surrounded by many different mines, is Cabin Springs. Once it was used to provide water to the mill of the Eleventh Hour mining site. From Spearfish Canyon park at Iron Creek, go up the creek and pretty much take the first passable opening valley to the right, go north about a mile to arrive at Cabin Springs. Parking is T5N R2E, center line between Sec 30 and 19. Cabin Springs is T5N R1E, NW quart of SE quart, Section 13. The little I know about the place indicates it was possibly named after some kind of pre-existing structure.

MW

 

[Tiredman]

The Black Hills of South Dakota have their own version of the Lost Cabin mine; this one was seen by Kit Carson and has been found several times, found by hunters or hikers, but every time they have been unable to find it on returning.

The cabin was intact except for the roof according to those whom have seen it, and a mine is within sight of it. As to location, it has been placed anywhere from outside of Deadwood to outside of Custer city. It is not the same story as the lost cabin mine of the Bighorns, may well be directly related to the Thoen stone in fact.

Any thoughts, anyone ever hunt this lost mine? Thank you in advance, good luck and good hunting amigos I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

This is also called the Lost Stone Cabin Mine of the Black Hills. It will be included in my up coming book. I recognize the words you used, just don't have the time to dig up where it came from.