Ezra Kind

Quoting a paragraph in the Editor's Notebook  of the South Dakota Magazine, "The Thoen Stone located at the Adams Museum in Deadwood, is another prized museum piece with an interesting story. The stone is an 8 1/2 by 10 inch scrap of sandstone, purportedly found near Spearfish in 1887 by Louis Thoen. Inscribed on both sides is a message that is still the subject of controversy. The rough script describes how a band of seven men found “all the gold we could carry” in the northern Black Hills, and then were killed by Indian warriors — all except for the writer, Ezra Kind. Kind supposedly wrote that he was out of food, “without a gun and hiding for his life”. The inscription is dated 1834, 40 years before the Custer expedition into the Hills. The fate of Mr. Kind is unknown, as is the validity of the stone itself."  


In one of my memories of the treasured past is a graduate class through the Black Hills State University called "Ghost Towns and Gold Mines of the Northern Black Hills."  It was an on site experience which included a trip through the Adam's Museum in Deadwood, SD.  There we saw the last written words of Ezra Kind on a stone found near Spearfish by Louis Thoen in 1887.  A close and dear friend's father purchased the Thoen property which is now hers. One of her daughters lives in the Thoen home. It is located just across the Interstate from the place that the stone was found.  This is not the only history made real for me through that delicate entity called paying attention while living.  Below is another regarding shepherds.


The link to the Editor's Notebook above will show a photo of the Archer Gilfillan sheep wagon, a sheep wagon that my father incorporated into a couple of paintings of sheep.  Both my father and Gilfillan spent some years herding sheep in Harding County, SD for sheep ranchers.  The term "sheep herders" has a negative ring to it, I love the sound of "shepherd," however that was a term that was never used.  Too Biblical perhaps.


A little research came up with many links for the "Thoen Stone."  One of the more surprising is attributed to Black Hills Light and Power. Here one has a small history of the towns of the Black Hills.  The article midway down on Spearfish begins with the story of Ezra Kind's last legacy.