The Story
In July 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led roughly 1,000-1,200 men into the Black Hills, partly to assess gold. Along French Creek, civilian prospectors Horatio Nelson Ross and William McKay panned the first traces — McKay's diary records the first pan held only "one and a half to two cents" of gold. Custer's report confirming the find, dated August 15, 1874, was telegraphed nationwide and set off the rush almost immediately, in violation of the 1868 treaty reserving the Black Hills for the Lakota — a major cause of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, in which Custer himself died at Little Bighorn.
Surprising Facts
→ Gold was found not by soldiers but by two civilian prospectors, Ross and McKay.
→ The very first pan of gold was worth only one and a half to two cents.
→ The find triggered a rush so fast that illegal parties were building stockades on French Creek within five months.