Here, in racy and fluent prose, Albert N. Williams has brought the full sweep of this story to life, from its beginning in the mighty geologic upheaval that, before the Alps had been formed, thrust the giant spire of Harney Peak up through the ancient shale, to the present quiet rest of man-made Sylvan Lake, where it lies peacefully reflecting its great granite shields for the delight of the traveler.

On the way he tells of the discovery of gold in this “mysterious and brooding dark mountain-land” just when gold-hungry men had decided that the bonanza days were gone forever; of the Indian fighting that reached its tragic climax at the Little Big Horn; of the development of the Homestake, one of earth’s greatest mines; of the hazardous stage-coach journeys on which “shotgun messengers” guarded chests of bullion; and, most fascinating of all, of the amazing personalities—Sam Bass and Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane and Preacher Smith—who inhabited the Hills in their gaudiest days or, like Deadwood Dick, lived a no less vivid life in the pages of dime novels.

If this were all, The Black Hills would be a book for any lover of our country’s natural glories and thrilling history to pick up and be unable to lay down again until he had finished it. But other chapters directed particularly to the tourist make it also a book for the traveler to keep always with him and to consult at every point in his journey through the Black Hills. All he needs to know is here—the highways to take into the Hills, the towns with their historic plays and celebrations, the peaks and lakes and caves he will find, the sports he may enjoy, the places where he may stay. A trip so guided cannot fail to be filled with the excitement the author himself has found in the Black Hills, of which he says that in his opinion “no other resort area in the United States possesses such a wealth of tourist attractions.”

Albert N. Williams was for many years a writer for NBC in New York, and for two years Editor-in-Chief of the English features section of the Voice of America. He is the author of Listening, Rocky Mountain Country, The Water and the Power, and numerous short fiction pieces in national magazines. He is at present Director of Development of the University of Denver.

Southern Methodist University Press
Dallas 5, Texas

Transcriber’s Notes