Ho! for the Black Hills : Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills… (edition 2012)

Any one that's a fan of the early west history will enjoy this book. This is a group of articles combined by Captain Jack Crawford and his experiences in the Black Hills. The time is 1875 during the Gold Rush and in the time of the famous Battle of the Little Big Horn. The life of the early frontier mining towns along with the issues of dealin g with the local indians like the Sioux and Cheyenne make for interesting reading. Crawford himself was quite a character as a contempory of Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Cody. This is a very interesting read of a short-lived time in the western frontier.The South Dakota State Historical Society Press along with author Paul L. Hedren’s Book “Ho! For the Black Hills.” is worth the time spent reading. ( )

Very interesting compilation of articles by "Captain Jack" Crawford, one of the first settlers in the Black Hills. Crawford traveled there in 1875 during the gold rush, later becoming a scout for Gen. George Crook and participating in the Battle of Slim Buttes, just a few months after the Little Bighorn. In his articles, Crawford shamelessly promotes the Black Hills, especially his adopted home town of Custer, but paints a fascinating portrait of early life in this rapidly growing (and technically illegal) community. His writing style takes a little getting used to, but his articles are an interesting glimpse into a unique and short-lived scene of American history.

Paul Hedren, the editor, adds a lengthy introduction to each chapter, which does a good job of providing context and background to Crawford's letters. ( )

Newspapers are said to be the “rough draft of history” and Paul Hedren has done fans of the Old West a favor in collecting several dozen very lengthy and very detailed accounts by Capt. Jack Crawford published in the Omaha Daily Bee 1875-6, during the height of the Black Hills Gold Rush and ensuing Sioux War. Crawford was one of the rough and tumble characters of the post-Civil War West; a contemporary of Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok yet never achieving their fame and recognition.

Writing from the gold fields of the Black Hills, Crawford reported on life at the frontier mining towns as well as the attempts by the U.S. Army to remove the Sioux and Cheyenne from the Black Hills. He was witness to the Battle of Slim Buttes and provides a very detailed account.

Hedren does a commendable job of putting Crawford’s correspondence in context, providing sufficient background for anyone not familiar with the gold rush or the Indian War to appreciate and understand Crawford’s commentary, and several maps of the region (with Crawford's travels indicated) are included. ( )

When I was younger I read Louis L'Amour and developed a taste for anything having to do with the Old West.
"Ho! For the Black Hills", based on the correspondences of "Captain Jack" Crawford to the Omaha Daily Bee, enlarged the body of knowledge I have, and heightened my appreciation for the history of the great land in which I live.

Ho! for the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black HIlls... by Paul Hedren is a unique history book. It is a third commmentary by the author about the veracity of the letters sent to the Omaha Bee, the paper John Crawford wrote to about the gold rush to the Black HIlls of the Dakota territory. HIs commentary aids understanding what is the substance of the book, the letters themselves. The letters cover the actual gold rush and the building of communities in the enbattled area. The geographic area was in the boundaries of the Sioux reservation, but the lure of gold drew miners into the region despite Army attempts to remove them. Ultimately conflict had to come about between the Indians, who at the time had clear title to the lands, and the miners, who were setting up communities and political systems. The result was the Indian Wars of 1875 - 76. Crawford's letters cover those events and also describes adventures he had in the surrounding wilderness and with unique characters found only in a place like the Black Hills.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an easy read, made moreso by the author's commentary on Crawford and his letters. This is not a history of the Black Hills or that region's history, but rather a single view from one man living in the time. He has his prejudices, as we do today, but nonetheless the adventures and his depiction of them are worth reading. I give this book 4 stars. ( )

A note about these newly posted non-link reviews.

This was a “win” from the LibraryThing.com “Early Reviewers” program … and something of a surprise. First of all, it was a release from the South Dakota State Historical Society Press, which certainly is a “niche” publishing house, and I doubt that I would have come into contact with it had it not been a LTER book. The book, in hardcover, has been out since this summer, but this is quite “early” for the paperback, which isn't due out until next July. While I do, from time to time, read “histories”, the format of Paul L Hedren's Ho! For the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War is, I believe, quite unique in my reading, being about 2/3rds primary resources (letters reporting to the Omaha Bee and other newspapers) from Captain Jack Crawford, and about 1/3rd contextifying material from the editor/author.

The period of time dealt with in the book is primarily 1875-1876, the start of the gold rush into the Black Hills, in Nebraska and the Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota Territories. This region is still controversial, as the area is held as sacred to the Native American tribes, and there had (at that point) only fairly recently been established reservation lands for the Lakota and Cheyenne in the area. Where it must have seemed to the US government and many of the tribal leaders that they'd finally reached a territorial compromise, the discovery of gold brought in a large number of fortune-seekers. Initially the government made efforts to dissuade these miners … General George Crook had posted the following throughout the gold prospecting camps:

Whereas the President of the United States has directed that no miners, or other unauthorized citizens, be allowed to remain in the Indian reservation of the Black Hills, or in the unceded territory to the west, until some new treaty arrangements have been made with the Indians.
And Whereas, by the same authority, the undersigned is directed to occupy said reservation and territory with troops, and to remove all miners and other unauthorized citizens, who may be now, or may hereafter come into this country in violation of the treaty obligations: -
Therefore the undersigned hereby requires every miner and other unauthorized citizen to leave the territory known as the Black Hills, the Powder river, and Big Horn country by and before the 15th day of August next.
He hopes tha the good sense and law abiding disposition of the miners will prompt them to obey this order without compelling a resort to force. ...

Needless to say, the majority of the miners, etc., ignored these orders, and the military was very unwilling to “resort to force” to clear them out, especially as there was a constant stream of new folks coming into the region. This build-up, and infiltration into the lands set aside for the Sioux via the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 by the miners and speculators, was one of the main triggers of the “Great Sioux War of 1876”, famed for skirmishes such as Custer's demise at the Little Big Horn. However, with the US still reeling from the Civil War, economic stresses such as the “Panic of 1873” encouraged many men to head west to seek their fortunes.

Jack Crawford had been born in Northern Ireland and had immigrated to the US with his family. His father had been wounded in the early parts of the Civil War, and Jack followed him into the military, enlisting when his father re-entered the army in 1864. Jack was wounded, recuperated, rejoined his unit, was wounded again, and eventually mustered out at the end of the war in 1865. During his second, extensive, hospitalization, he was taught to read and write by the Sisters of Charity. By 1875 he was presenting himself to the editors of the Omaha Bee, gaining employment at first as a watchman, and eventually getting an assignment to cover the Black Hills gold rush for the paper.

Ho! For the Black Hills is mainly based on Hedren's research in the microfiche archives of the handful of newspapers that Crawford ended up “corresponding” for over those next couple of years. What is less clear here is how exactly Jack went from illiterate guy working in a series of jobs to the flamboyant “Scout” persona he affected in his journalistic career and beyond. The author tries to piece together the itineraries of various Wild West shows that Crawford might have encountered, and makes a good case of how these likely provided a template and impetus for his character and westward adventures. Again, most of the book is comprised of the materials that Hedren was able to dig up from the writings that “Captain Jack Crawford - Poet Scout” had submitted to the newspapers. These are largely rambling reports of what he saw, who he met, what was happening in assorted locales, what sort of gold was being produced where, how communities were developing, and even on-going reports on what basic supplies cost. This is a fascinating window into a different time and place, but it generally does not lend itself to excerpting here.

The last of the newspaper pieces comes from October of 1876, at which point Jack Crawford began moving into his new career as a Wild West show character. He had, essentially, resigned as a scout upon taking up the cause of a New York Herald reporter, and rushing back to civilization to get that story placed before others … netting him both the gratitude (and significant payment) of that paper, and the animosity of the US military. He had made contact with assorted notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, and eventually became part of that show, before setting out to produce his own. He died in New York in 1917.

If you're interested in “the wild west”, and the period of the Indian Wars, you will no doubt find this a very attractive book. The combination of “history” and original documents is quite enticing, and it provides a very interesting perspective on those conflicts. Again, the main part of Ho! For the Black Hills covers Crawford's reports over just about a year and a half, so is a very detailed look at his experiences in that time. As noted above, this is sort of between editions … the hardcover has been out for several months, and the paperback (which is what they sent out for review) doesn't come out till next summer. The on-line big boys have copies of the former, and are now taking pre-orders for the latter. Because of it coming from a small press, I don't know how much luck you'd have finding this at your local brick-and-mortar, but you could, I suppose, order it through them, or from the publisher at http://sdshspress.com/. I rather enjoyed reading this, and I'd suppose anybody with an interest in any of the basic themes here would find it worth picking up.

CMP.Ly/1

A link to my "real" review:
BTRIPP's review of Paul L Hedren's Ho! For the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War (1170 words)

In Ho! For the Black Hills, author Paul Hedren presents us with the reports of John Wallace “Captain Jack” Crawford, field correspondent for the Omaha Daily Bee. Hedren has done an outstanding job. The organization of the content, the lively introductions, fascinating photos and unparalleled research combine to give us a tantalizing taste of the early development of the American West. Captain Jack’s letters are a true treasure and a fascinating glimpse into the rough-and-tumble times of the 1870s.

While reading the book, however, two things continued to bother me. One was that I was unfamiliar with many of the mining terms and wish the book had included definitions for them. And two, I often found myself annoyed by Captain Jack’s puritanical musings. His “holier-than-thou” attitude seemed at odds with his fanciful name and style of dress. I couldn’t help but wonder what his letters would have been like had he just once whooped it up at a dance hall or came down with a raging case of syphilis. Jack’s disgust with some of the things he wrote about was palpable and made me like his reports a little less. Not the fault of the author, but there just the same. ( )

The South Dakota State Historical Society Press has done another fine job in its release of Paul L. Hedren’s Book “Ho! For the Black Hills.”

This book is constructed around a number of reports that Captain Jack Crawford seen to the “Omaha Daily Bee “in 1876. These lightly edited primary documents are supported by Mr. Hedren’s commentary of the times and of the history of Captain Jack.

This book strongly reminded me of D.D. Martin’s book “Tombstone’s Epitaph” it had the same griping feeling of bringing you into the time of the work.

Captain Jack reported the Black Hills gold rush and a small part of the Sioux Indian war. His commentary reflects, of course, the current attitude toward Native Americans . That was, however, the majority view of the times.

This is a fine book and an exciting read. If you have not read much about mining and gold mining in particular the book will send you to Google a few times to look up some of the terms used. But this is a small effort to fully enjoy the work. I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

A free copy of this book was provided for the purpose of review. ( )

As both a history geek and lover of primary source material, this was a fantastic book. The combination of Crawford's articles and historical information was invaluable, as the background material helped the story come alive and put you in the Black Hills during the rough and wild times of the 19th Century. Hedren does a fine job of tracking Crawford and pull what is a footnote in history back into the limelight. ( )

Great book with several chapters of Histoy about the Black Hills Gold Rush. Nicely done work with the use of reprints by Historian Paul Hedren. I was very excited about visiting this area again and checking out South Dakota. This helped me to get a better review of a time and place that I so love. I enjoyed more detail of some great old people and times. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed "Ho! For the Black Hills", based on correspondence by "Captain Jack" Crawford to the Omaha Daily Bee. My maternal forebears were from the Rapid City area, and my grandfather worked at the Homestake Mine, so it shed some light on what they went through to settle the country.

Others have explained the book at great length. I'll just say it's definitely worth a read if you're interested in the settling of the Old West. ( )

My favorite uncle, who died six years ago at the age of 102, bought me a gold pan in my early teens, i.e., fifty-five years ago, so I could pan with him on his patented placer mine in Montana. Gold fever has been in my blood ever since. "Ho! For the Black Hills" by Paul L. Hedren has only stoked that fever!

The book has a narrow and specific objective: creating the historical foundation through the author's commentary for an appreciation of a series of newspaper articles written by "Captain" Jack Crawford about the gold rush in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1875-76 and published in the Omaha Bee. In addition, Jack Crawford became involved in and reported on the Sioux Indian wars that inevitably grew out of the gold rush and the resulting violation of the treaty between the United States Government and the Sioux. This narrow objective is admirably met by the author, allowing the reader to better understand and enjoy the writings of Captain Jack on their own.

The author shows great discipline in maintaining his focus on the main subject - the writings of Jack Crawford - in the face of many attractive sideshows: the Indian wars; the gold rush itself; the interesting characters who cross Crawford's path (Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill, General Crook, and various bad men of the Black Hills), all of which would be fun tangents to write about. But this is not a biography of Crawford or a history of the Black Hills or any other individual involved. Instead, the author keeps his eye on the prize - the writings of Crawford - and gives only enough well-written historical background to make Crawford's life, the gold rush, the Indian Wars, the newspaper business, etc., appropriate background coloration for the newspaper articles.

"Captain" Jack Crawford was a true character of the wild, wild west, a self-made and romantic image of what he wanted people to believe the wild west to have been. And, after gaining recognition in the self-created roles of a civilian scout for the cavalry, a reporter, a "Hiller", a Civil War veteran, a partner in Buffalo Bill's western show, he took his own show on the road and for years performed his poems, commentary and tall tales on the stage.

All of this is put together in fine fashion by the author. He gives insights into the Sioux Indian war, the workings of a gold rush, the interactions of individuals caught up in this historical period, and does so in an accessible and well presented manner.

This is an enjoyable and informative book, a happy addition to my library. ( )

What a surprising gem of a book! Paul Hedren has collected the writings of Jack Crawford, a correspondent for the Omaha Bee living in Custer City during the start of the Black Hills gold rush and the onset of the Great Souix War of 1876. Each chapter starts with Hedren summing up Crawford's exploits for a period of time, setting the stage and context for the actual letters Crawford sent which follow.

Crawford's writing is folksy and lively, giving the reader a unique view of life in the rugged mining towns. Crawford details town growth, disputes between miners and with natives, and even has several adventures himself. Jack comes to know most of those in Custer City, as well as miners, businessmen, and soldiers in the beautiful Black Hills area. His reporting set the tone for what other parts of the nation believed about the gold rush, and did much to both glorify and humanize the place and its people.

This book comes highly recommended for anyone interested in a bit of US history most of us have never known about. Crawford's letters are fantastic to read, and Hedren does an excellent job providing the context for Jack's writings. ( )

How often have you wondered what it was like to live in an early mining camp? With the help of Paul Hedren, Captain Jack Crawford paints a word picture of what it would have been like to live in the Black Hills at the beginning of the rush for gold in that region. Though sent by the Omaha Bee as a reporter, Jack becomes a miner, booster, lawmaker, lawman, military scout, and many other things in the Hills that he loved. Though he encouraged people to come to the Black Hills, he was also quick to inform them that it would take hard work for anyone to make money. It was not a place to come and pick gold up off of the ground.

In his letters, which have been hidden away for years, Jack gives his readers a view of what it was like to live in a new mining camp. He writes of the new construction going on and desires of the miners to have some form of law and order. As he writes of the "goings on" in the town of Custer, he mentions the new gold finds that occur throughout the region. He writes about the troubles with the Indians, upon whose land this gold rush was taking place. Hedren keeps the reader apprised of what is going on in the Indian War and the effects this had on the "Hillers". Jack's letters are fascinating and makes one wonder if there are more letters out there from others that are waiting to be published to give us a better understanding of what life was like for these early settlers and miners.

Jack Crawford is one of those characters of the Old West that is stepping forward for some recognition with the publication of his letters. He was a jack of all trades as the times called for and was willing to try anything. In one episode he lost his early writings from his Civil War days and we can only wonder what they must have been like. He was a young man of his time and has left behind his writings for us to read. His epic ride after the Battle of Slim Buttes will surely go down as one of the most daring and exciting during this period of American History and in the annuls of South Dakota.

Hedren does give the reader a look at Crawford's life after he left the Black Hills. First as an actor with Buffalo Bill, and then on his own, and finally as a lyceum speaker. He returned a few times to the Black Hills, though never for long. I think it would have been fitting to bury him there near Custer, in the Black Hills that he loved and admired. This work is excellent primary source material for anyone interested in the history of the Black Hills. It is well done and is an excellent addition to any collection of Western history. ( )

Nineteenth century US history is filled with stories of opportunity and the folk heroes who pursued them. Looking back at that time from our perspective in the early 21st century it is easy to be selective about our considerations of the past. We can view the exploits of those heroes with a fond longing, wondering what it would have been like to share in their experiences first-hand. We can also look more soberly at what happened, knowing that terrible acts of injustice that were often part-and-parcel of the “successes” of history. The “heroes” were often ordinary people living in somewhat extraordinary times and circumstances, taking advantage of the opportunities that arose and making choices that often had far-reaching consequences.

One of those people was Jack Crawford, a man who was both a participant in and a chronicler of the settlement of the Black Hills during the gold rush of 1876. Crawford’s story is told through a collection of letters he sent from the Hills as a correspondent for the Omaha Daily Bee, which have been collected and edited by Paul L. Hedren in Ho! For the Black Hills: Captain Jack Crawford reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War (Pierre, SD: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2012).

In 1874 George A. Custer led a military expedition that confirmed anecdotal reports of gold in the Black Hills. At that time the Hills were part of the lands belonging to the Sioux through treaties and they were strictly off-limits to exploration and settlement by non-Native Americans. Crawford accompanied a second expedition to the Hills, led by George Crook. Part of Crook’s task was to remove non-Native Americans from the Hills but the lure of gold continued to draw settlers in nonetheless.

The US government attempted to negotiate an arrangement that would allow exploration and development of the Hills but was unsuccessful in these efforts. As 1876 came along there was a de facto policy of ignoring the increasing amount of people and commerce streaming into the Hills. Crawford returned to the Hills in January and through September he wrote letters back to Omaha describing the situation first-hand. His letters present the realities of life among the gold camps and the towns quickly springing up as gold discoveries moved from the first finds in the south towards the northern Hills.

As winter turned to spring and then summer the increasing encroachment on the land that was to have been by treaty the perpetual property of the Sioux resulted in conflict that turned into the open warfare we know as the Great Sioux War. Among the conflicts of this war are the battles of the Little Bighorn and of Slim Buttes. Many of us have heard of the former while the latter is largely unknown. But both loom large in their effect on US policy, military and otherwise, towards non-Native Americans. Crawford, who was also serving as a US Army Scout in September, 1876, provides an eye-witness account of the fighting at Slim Buttes.

Hedren has taken the letters of Crawford, which were gathered from a study of the newspaper archives, and arranged them in chronological groups, based upon when they were written. Given the unstructured mail service in the Hills in 1876 a number of his letters arrived at the newspaper at irregular intervals. In each section he provides an overview of the situation at large in the Hills, as well as a more specific discussion of Crawford’s activities, concluding with Crawford’s letters.

Crawford’s reports vary in their detail but in sum they seem to portray an accurate picture of what life was like and what issues mattered to the people coming to the Hills in search of their future. His principal topic is the mining itself, its struggles as well as its riches, followed by a secondary, and essentially interrelated concern for relationships, or lack thereof, with the Native American population. In this latter issue he is very much a person of his time and place, both locally and in the broader sense of Manifest Destiny, essentially believing that the Native American population was not on par in a moral sense with the settlers of European descent. He wanted the Native Americans gone, and he didn’t seem to care how it happened or where they went.

I enjoyed reading this book, both Crawford’s first-person perspective on a small chapter of American history, as well as Hedren’s work of placing it into context. I have been to the Hills several times on vacation and now have a richer understanding of what happened in some of the places I’ve visited. Reading this book is giving me a yearning to travel there again and consider its history from a new vantage point.

Note: I have chosen to use the term “Native Americans” uniformly in this review, rather than the varied, occasionally pejorative, terms used by Crawford in his letters. ( )

In this book, Paul Hedron gathered together the correspondence of Jack Crawford who wrote letters to the Omaha Daily Bee, about his adventures in the Black Hills during the 1870s gold rush and the ensuing Indian wars. I found Crawford's writing to be both entertaining and descriptive. When I read some of his descriptions of the Black Hills, it was just as I remember seeing them many years ago as a child. It made me yearn to return to see them again.

Crawford's purpose in writing to the Bee was to inform people about the Black Hills and to encourage diligent, hard-working, honest people to move there. I was surprised at this because I guess I just assumed that miners would not want to share the gold they were finding with others. Crawford described the increased tension building up between the Indians and the miners, and the role he played in the Indian wars. I was somewhat disheartened by Crawford's attitude toward the Indians. He and the other miners would have liked to kill all of the Indians even though they were on Indian lands set aside by the US government, and the Indians had every right to defend their land. However, this was during the era of manifest destiny, and this was the prevailing attitude of the time.

Paul Hedren also tells of Crawford's relationship with better know persons such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, and Philip Sheridan. He recounts Crawford's involvement in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and his role as an actor, author, poet,and playwright. Crawford painted such a vivid picture of life in the Black Hills during the Gold Rush, and I am certainly glad that Hedren took the time to gather Crawford's correspondence together in order for us to learn more about this historical era from a wonderful primary source. ( )

For a history book, this was what Mark Twain would have called a rippin' good yarn. "Captain" Jack Crawford is a twenty-something who is seeking adventure and wants to tell you all about it. In 1875, he leaves Omaha in the employ of one of its newspapers, the "Omaha Bee," and goes up into the Black Hills to document the gold rush happening there. The Black Hills are part of Indian territory according to treaty but that is irrelevant to Jack and his friends the intrepid miners, because there is gold and they are sovereign citizens. I read about manifest destiny in history class but I think I never really got what it felt like to those who believed in it, until I read this book, which is largely a collection of the letters he wrote to the paper from the Black Hills documenting the gold rush's progress.

It is a funny style of writing, in which Jack occasionally uses the first person but usually writes with a kind of charming "royal we" alternating with the third person "your correspondent saw..." and I can only assume his spelling was as creative; but the newspaper, spoilsports that they are, probably cleaned it up for publication. He also loves doggerel and eventually added to his spurious "captain"-cy the title "Poet Scout of the Black Hills." Silly and sometimes rather clever verses pour from his pen. Suffice to say the Lakota do not come out too well. He was obviously on the other side.

After Custer is killed at Little Big Horn, Crawford is asked to join General Crook's army in the Great Sioux Wars. He serves as a scout and sends several interesting letters about the experience to the Bee. However, being a newspaperman first and a scout second, he sort of burns his bridges with the Army by racing Crook's designated dispatch carrier in order to get a friend's story about an Indian battle into the papers first. That's it for Crook, who dismisses him immediately.

After the time in which he wrote these letters, Captain Jack joined Buffalo Bill Cody's players for a while, before striking out on his own and being basically a performer mythologizing the West of his youth until his death at age 69.

The letters were surprisingly fun to read and Professor Hedren's commentary and context were also well-written and entertaining for a lay reader like myself. There are lots of photos including several of Jack in what can only be described as corny costumes, buckskin and rifles galore, and of course a broad brimmed cowboy hat.

Highly, highly recommended for anyone who has ever been the slightest bit interested in the American West and cowboy culture. ( )