The Story
Custer was founded in 1875 by prospectors who pushed into the Black Hills ahead of any legal opening — the region was still reserved for the Lakota under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, but word of gold from Custer's 1874 expedition was impossible to contain. Settlers first named the camp "Stonewall" after Confederate general Stonewall Jackson before renaming it Custer. It's generally considered the oldest Euro-American town in the Black Hills. The boom was brief: richer strikes at Deadwood Gulch in 1876 nearly emptied it. It survived to become the seat of Custer County.
Surprising Facts
→ Custer's original name was "Stonewall," after Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.
→ It was founded by prospectors trespassing on land reserved for the Lakota by the 1868 treaty.
→ It was nearly emptied within a year when word of richer Deadwood strikes spread in 1876.