Tigerville or Tiger City (1878–1885) is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

in the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black ...

of Pennington County,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

, United States. The old

mining town A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historic mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Be ...

exemplifies the boom-and-bust fate of many Western towns.Parker, Watson, and Hugh K. Lambert. ''Black Hills Ghost Towns.'' First ed. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL: The Swallow Press Incorporated, 1974. 188. 1 vols. Print.

Naming

The town's name might have come from the Bengal Tiger Mine, located 2–3 miles away. Others say that the name came from the unpatented Lucky Tiger claims Numbers 1, 2, and 3; though these do not show up on maps, locals say that the claims were nearby the town.

History

Tigerville was founded in 1878 in the King Solomon Mine area, which was known for its

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...

placer deposit In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by gravity separation from a specific source rock during sedimentary processes. The name is from the Spanish word ''placer'', meaning "alluvial sand". Placer mi ...

s. It had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

, two stores, three saloons, blacksmith, school, and a stage barn, which was a stop on the Cheyenne-Custer-Deadwood line. The nearby Bengal Tiger Mine, despite reportedly having promising mineral deposits, was never successfully mined. In 1880, the town reached 200 residents, and was able to send six delegates to the South Dakota Republican Convention; seeing as

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western S ...

had only ten at the time, this was a notable accomplishment for the town. The town eventually grew to about 500 citizens. When the town hit its bust, and the mines closed in 1885, many of the miners settled on nearby

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...

es or moved to other towns."Tigerville 1878-1885."
HistoryQuest. AmericanHeritage.com, n.d. Web. 23 Aug. 2013. In 1974, only one house and the sawmill remained.

Geography

Tigerville is located in the

of western Pennington County. The old town site is located approximately 4.5 miles northwest of Hill City, at the junction of roads leading to Hill City, Deerfield Lake, and

Rochford Rochford is a town in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford, the county town. At the 2011 census, the civil parish, which includes the town and London Southend Airport, had a population of 8,471. History ...

References

{{Pennington County, South Dakota Ghost towns in South Dakota Populated places established in 1878 1878 establishments in Dakota Territory Former populated places in Pennington County, South Dakota