Observation by Army officer Thaddeus H. Stanton, about the Powder River Basin, in April 7, 1876, as published in The New York Tribune:
The country lying east of the Bighorn Mountains, along the Rosebud, Tongue and Powder Rivers, is extremely uninviting. It is generally a badlands country, with high buttes of indurate clay and sandstone, attaining almost the magnitude of mountains. But in this entire region there are no auriferous strata, and no rock harder than that above described. I feel compelled to make this statement in opposition to the statements of many maps of that country which are being scattered throughout the land, upon which gold is represented as among the minerals to be found in the Panther and Wolf Mountains (the highest badlands buttes above described), and where there is not only i no gold, but where the country has not a single gold-bearing strata or feature. The Bighorn range of mountains, one of the finest on the continent, doubtless is rich in precious metals and this region is large enough to give room for a large mining population. The Black Hills country does not compare with it in extent, and probably not in the amount of concealed treasure. But between the Black Hills and the Bighorn Mountains there is no gold, and no gold-bearing country. Neither is there any land that would bear the hardiest grain or vegetable. There is no timber worthy of the name; and water is scarce and of bad quality usually, and grass is poor and thing. Altogether, nearly the entire region lying south and east of the Yellowstone River, from the Bighorn range to the Black Hills, is utterly worthless.Major Stanton's opinion seems a bit harsh.
