General Custer Mill

General Custer Mill. . In 1879, Col. William Birelie Hyde and William Grayson of San Francisco purchased the Custer Mining Company and constructed of a twenty stamp mill began. All of the heavy equipment for the mill was brought over the newly established Toll Road by Alexander Toponce in June 1880 and the mill was completed by December of that same year. The General Custer Mill crushed and processed 900 tons of ore each month which arrived from the mines atop Custer Mountain on a 3200 ft. gravity-operated tramway. , The fortunes of Custer's residents rose and fell with the success or failure of the mill. Low grade ore and failing machinery caused the mill to close in 1888 and brought a depression to Custer. Later the mill was renovated and opened again in late 1890s. In 1904, the mill closed of the last time, signaling the end of the glory days of gold mining on the Yankee Fork. An estimated eleven to twelve million dollars of gold was recovered. Mines furnishing ore to the mill included the General Custer, Luck Boy, Fourth of July, McFadden, Sunbeam, Dickens and Montana. , Side bar: , While the General Custer Mill was under construction, packers brought in a fly wheel for the Corliss steam engine that measured ten feet in diameter with a ten-inch rim. To preform this feat, the wheel was packed in two sections - each half being slung between six mules. On the trail, a storm came up, and lightning struck one-half of the wheel and killed all six mules. Six more mules were hurried to the scene, the wheel reslung, and the trip was made without further mishap. (photo of the fly wheel in the oval)