Thoen Stone facts for kids

The Thoen Stone is a special sandstone slab found in 1887 by Louis Thoen. It has a date carved on it: 1834. This stone was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Thoen Stone is important because it suggests that gold might have been found in the Black Hills much earlier than we thought. People usually believe gold was first discovered there during the Custer Expedition in 1874. If the Thoen Stone is true, it means gold was found 40 years before that! Today, you can see the Thoen Stone at the Adams Museum & House in Deadwood, South Dakota.

History of the Thoen Stone

The stone tells a story about a group of seven people who came to the Black Hills in 1833. They were looking for gold. At that time, a special agreement, called a treaty, meant they were not allowed to be in that area. Two of the people in the group were experienced miners: William King and Indian Crow.

The stone itself was carved in 1834 by one of the group, Ezra Kind. He carved it after everyone else in his group died in an attack by local tribes. Ezra Kind also died later, but we don't know how.

How the Stone Was Found

On March 14, 1887, two brothers, Louis and Ivan Thoen, found the stone. They were Norwegian immigrants and were collecting sandstone on Lookout Mountain, near their home in Spearfish. The stone was buried a few feet underground.

The brothers took the stone home. Louis showed it to Henry Keats, who later became the mayor of Spearfish. The stone was then taken to a local newspaper office. The next day, Louis decided to display it in a store owned by John Cashner. Cashner and Louis even sold pictures of the stone as postcards! In 1888, Cashner traveled to Michigan and shared the stone's story with a newspaper there.

Louis Thoen, who the stone is named after, passed away in 1919. In 1966, a historian named Frank Thomson wrote a book about the stone. Today, there's a monument with a copy of the stone on a hill above Spearfish City Park. There's even an annual seven-mile run named after the stone!

What the Thoen Stone Looks Like

The Thoen Stone is made of sandstone. It is about three inches thick and measures 10 inches long by eight inches wide.

Words on the Stone

The stone has writing carved into both sides of it. The words are written in a fancy, flowing style called cursive.

On the front, it says:

Came to these hills in 1833 seven of us
DeLacompt
Ezra Kind
G.W. Wood
T. Brown
R. Kent
Wm. King
Indian Crow
All dead but me, Ezra Kind. Killed by ind[ians] beyond the high hill. Got our gold June 1834.

The message continues on the back:

Got all the gold we could carry. Our ponies all got by the Indians. I have lost my gun and nothing to eat and Indians hunting me.