Rick Mills has done fine work with his two books and the coverage goes well
into BN times but if you are going to acquire only one Black Hills book,
"Railroads of the Black Hills" by Mildred Fielder is the one to have.
This was published by Superior and there is also a Bonanza reprint (go with the
original - has a dust jacket & better photo reproduction). Mrs. Fielder, a
historian, won state & national awards for the book. She lived in
Lead/Deadwood for yrs as her husband was in upper mgt as an Engineer with
Homestake Mining - for yrs the largest gold mine in the USA and a prime CB&Q
customer*. Her credentials plus her husband's position, gave her access to a
lot of archives at the Homestake as well as state holdings.
The book (as do Mills'), covers both CB&Q and C&NW and their predecessors but
more than half the coverage is Q. Maps are excellent, the history of the area
is explained well and photos will provide you with everything you need to
railfan or model the Q's operations.
She also provided excellent coverage of the Q's Spearfish branch (abandoned in
the 30's). Warren Lamb Lumbering operations and the Rapid City, Black Hills &
Western which ran from the Q @ Mystic to the Milw in Rapid City til 1948.
(RCBH&W sked is shown in Q public TT's for many yrs along with the Deadwood
Central trolley between Lead & Deadwood)
I especially enjoyed her coverage of the gold mining throughout the Hills (I
used the book as a reference while railfanning the Q and the abandoned mines
while stationed at Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City in "73/74). The Fielder book is
very accurate.
*Homestake had mining equipment & other materials brought by the Q to Lead and
shipped gold bullion via REA on Q trains (this latter operation was covered in
a book published a few yrs ago. 'Six Turtles to Tumancari' by a former REA
official who worked as the Agt there way back when). The Q in at least 2
issues of the "Zephyr" remarked about special shipments to the Homestake - one
was a pump that was expedited in a one car train as due to failure of the unit
it was replacing, the mine was closed til the Burlington highballed the
replacement to Lead. Zephyrs were not the only expedited Burlington trains!
Another Black Hills tidbit - one of the BN Motive Power Annuals by BRHS mbr Hol
Wagner in the 70's has a cover painting of the Q swtr at the Black Hills Power
Plant and a feature article on the Black Hills op's. Also the late Bernie
Corbin, also a BRHS mbr, covered the op's (use of Mallets, etc) to some extent
in his 1st two Burlington books.
Lastly, CB&Q itself published a unique but scarce brochure for a few years
circa-1900 titled "Mines & Mining in the Black Hill's. If you plan to attend
the BRHS meet in Geneva, IL this fall, let me know & I will bring my copy along
for you to check out. There is also the much more common CB&Q "Black Hills"
brochures that went thru a half dozen reprintings & reformattings from the
teens into the 1950. They are common on eBay & I always have a couple
different ones @ BRHS meets at my swap table. Depending on the era you model,
the photo content varies so get the right edition. My article on CB&Q-issued
postcards in the last BRHS Zephyr lists a half dozen or more in at least 2
series that are of Black Hills scenes & structures.
Per a news item I saw recently, State &/or Federal money is being used to
refurbish the old B&MR aka Q roundhouse in Lead/Deadwood as a museum/visitor's
center. You can also ride the Black Hills Central tourist road from Hill City
nearly to Keystone (Mt. Rushmore area) on the Q's old Keystone branch. This,
like the Hot Springs and Spearfish branches, had regular as well as mixed
service for years.
Gerald
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