While gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, rail connections to Deadwood were not completed until 1891. In that period of time, several communities were build as well as a large system of mining and logging camps throughout the hills. All those materials needed to be hauled in, and all the minerals and timber needed to be hauled out somehow. The only way into or out of the Black Hills was across 200 miles of prairie.
Unlike the comfort of travel today by highway, travel across the "Great American Desert" in the 1800's was difficult and often dangerous. South Dakota in the summer experiences intense heat of 100 plus degrees and cold winters with temperatures as low as -40 degrees. Winter storms presented impassible trails, deep snow drifts, and frigid temperatures that would kill anyone without adequate shelter. Thunderstorms in the summer could spawn high winds, micro bursts, and tornadoes. Spring and Fall weren't pleasant either since the weather could go either way, but most often those seasons produced large amounts of rain. The soft, sandy and clay soil surrounding the Black Hills was turned to a grimy mess by these rains.
Despite these obstacles, people did travel to the Black Hills and got materials out using a different sort of train, this one pulled by oxen and bulls.
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| Grabill, John C. H, photographer. The last large bull train on its way from the railroad to the Black Hills.
Black Hills South Dakota Wyoming, 1890. Photograph. Retrieved from the
Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/99613788/. (Accessed
October 23, 2017.) |
The capacity of the wagons depended on the manufacturer and size as well as the strength and number of the animals pulling the wagon. The benefit of these freight wagons is that they could be linked together in a train and many animals could be lashed to the front pulling yokes. This method was used all over the west to go where railroads could not, but few trails were as long as those between rail connections at Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ft. Pierre, South Dakota and Deadwood in the Black Hills. Each of these trails was over 200 miles in length running through some of the toughest terrain on the Great Plains.
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| Grabill, John C. H, photographer. Freighting in "The Black Hills". Photographed between Sturgis and Deadwood.
Black Hills South Dakota Wyoming, 1891. Photograph. Retrieved from the
Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/99613789/. (Accessed
October 23, 2017.) | |
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| Grabill, John C. H, photographer. Freighting in the Black Hills.
Black Hills South Dakota Wyoming, None. [Between 1887 and 1892]
Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
https://www.loc.gov/item/99613790/. (Accessed October 23, 2017.) | |
Grabill was a photographer in Deadwood who generously donated his images to the Library of Congress between the years of 1887 and 1892, meaning that his entire collection of Black Hills photographs (193) are now public domain. The link to the Copyright regulations for this collection can be found here:
https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/122_grab.html
Images taken from the Library of Congress Digital Collections:
Grabill Collection
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