Gordon, Neb., and Black Hills gold have something in common

When General Custer announced the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, controversial events unfolded in Nebraska. An Iowan who later had a Sheridan County town named in his honor ended up in jail, and questions arose of exactly who owns the Black Hills region, which is still argued today.

Although reports of gold in the Dakota Territory appeared in 1861, the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie specifically gave the Black Hills to the Lakota. The possibility of gold persisted. When then-Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was sent to the area to seek a possible fort location, geologists who accompanied him confirmed the gold deposits. Word quickly spread across the United States.

Although, in fact, pursuing the Black Hills gold, Charles Collins of Sioux City, Iowa, established an exploratory group to the Dakota Territory headed by Thomas Russell and later John Gordon in the winter of 1874-75. The party consisted of 26 men, one woman and a boy variously pegged at both 6 and 10 years old.

On Oct. 6, the group headed directly west through Nebraska then north out of the Panhandle. On reaching the Black Hills, they established a camp, built a stockade and began searching for gold. A small but significant amount of the metal was recovered and reported on their return to Sioux City.

On the strength of their report, a group of Iowa investors raised $10,000 to finance a freighting company. With strenuous objections from the U.S. military, John Gordon was chosen to lead 150 men and 30 wagons to the gold fields. The group left in April, and on May 12 Gordon’s wagon train was intercepted by Capt. Fergus Walker, who ordered them to go no farther. The train stopped, and on May 20 a second contingent of troops under Capt. Anson Mills arrived to support Walker.

When Gordon refused to leave or promise not to attempt to enter the Dakota Territory, on May 21, about 15 miles southeast of the present city of Gordon, Neb., the army piled the freighting company’s munitions, mining equipment and six of the wagons in a heap and set them on fire. While the other men in the freighting outfit returned to Sioux City, Gordon was arrested and taken to Camp Sheridan. There he claimed he had been falsely incarcerated and private property had been destroyed even though he had not entered Indian territory or even left Nebraska. He further claimed he did not intend to enter Indian territory, was only planning to establish a sort of trading post in Nebraska and would not swear he would stay out of the Black Hills in the future.

Gordon then was moved to Omaha for a federal court hearing, while it was reported that well over 1,000 gold seekers were already working mines and panning in the Black Hills. Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled that Gordon was not guilty, and after three months of detention he was released; the officer who destroyed the wagons was given a discharge by the Army. Basically this signaled that white incursions could be removed from Indian territory but not punished.

When the Rev. John Amos Scamahorn and his wife, Mary, were visiting an Indiana exposition in 1883 they chanced to meet a man named Tucker from Valentine, who waxed eloquent over his corner of the state. Several months later, Scamahorn and a number of friends visited Valentine and were so taken by the area that in March of 1884, Scamahorn headed a colony of 104. They first took a train to Valentine, then the end of the railroad’s tracks.

Transferring to ox carts, the group camped near a point termed “Lone Willow.” Having previously been appointed by the postmaster general, Scamahorn opened a small tin box of stamps in his tent and established a post office on March 3, 1884, with himself as postmaster. On May 12, Scamahorn preached a sermon and established a Methodist church at Lone Willow.

When the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad arrived a mile west of the colony in 1885, the settlement picked up and moved to the railroad. That November the city of Gordon was incorporated by the county, named for John Gordon whose wagons were burned by the U.S. Army a few miles away. Joined by a second Illinois colony, headed by John Crowder, the new city had a population estimated at 500 and opened its first school with 27 students. Within months, Gordon claimed to have two banks, two hotels, two lumberyards and numerous small businesses. In 1920, Gordon was incorporated as a “city” and had become the host of the Sheridan County Fair.

Although not the county seat, Gordon today is the largest city in the county, with a population of about 1,800, and it boasts three museums. In 1980, the federal government offered to pay Lakota tribes for their lands in adjacent South Dakota, but the offer was refused, leaving the ownership of the Black Hills still in question.