Metals - Silver and Gold, Plus Others

Black Hills Gold

The Legacy of Black Hills Gold was a resource I found and so appreciated that it spurred me to create this educational thread at this time, starting with Black Hills Gold (created 11/04/2022).  I'll build around it, above, about gold in general, and probably silver, as the single most often primary material metal used in the jewelry items I have to offer for consumers to purchase is sterling silver.  

Here's the link to the source: The Legacy of Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Coleman - Iron Trader News [1] and here's my synopsis.  

The history of the United States of America infamously includes the gold rush.  Often depicted in "westerns", movies and television shows have given people around the world a glimpse into some of this relatively young country's evolution. 

Pioneers of the 1870s headed west in droves after hearing of gold out west.  Searching for a better life, or riches in gold and money, they took covered wagons, if they were lucky, and it was rare that those fortunate ones with wagons didn't walk as well. 

I had the good fortune of meeting a 104 year old man in 2004, then recognizing him at the assisted living's great room before a musical performance activity just weeks before he died in 2006.  He had come west much later, I presume in the 1920s, give or take, and was consumed in his relating the story to me in his waning days about the cows that needed water, and how to find and transport water for the cows as they headed across the prairie -- further west than the Black Hills of South Dakota, to Colorado.  To actually meet someone who had done such a feat was amazing! (I was going to see a patient at the facility in what turned out to be the waning months of my making a living as a registered occupational therapist.) 

General Custer and the Custer Expedition and "Last Stand" had preceeded gold being discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota and a goldsmith from France, Henri LeBeau, a young American traveling west fell asleep beliving he was dying of thirst and starvation.  He dreamed of a mountain stream with grape vines growing on its banks, and when he awoke, he found the stream and grape vines of his dream just over a nearby rise.

Henri LeBeau thereafter devoted his goldsmith skills and talents to creating jewelry that featured the leaves, vines and grapes he found on the banks of the stream. Black Hills Gold jewelry is known for these features in signature rose, green and unique yellow gold tone. Up to 40 different manufacturing steps can be involved in the creation by skillfully trained artisans who have been producing a wide variety of traditional and contemporary styles carrying the world-renowned designation of Black Hills Gold ever since!  

I'd travel to the Black Hills on a motorcycle trip about 110 years later.  I'd pick out a dainty pair of post-style earrings that my then-husband wanted to purchase as a gift for me, and I recall later on the trip having my ears reacting to the metal, as well as an overall fatigue creep in -- it was 1987.  I'd had three profound and unexpected deaths occur in people close to me within the first two months of the year.  I'd recall attributing my symptoms (aside from the ears) to the psychological, not the physiological and obvious items I'd added to my ears on the trip.  

And that would not be how I'd see things later on down the road, once connecting with German auricular medicine information, a form of "energy medicine".  This, right here, is "the dovetail" for how I see the niche for jewelry on Lumigrate.com.  

If you read this and are interested, I can elaborate.  Just let me know.  It could have just been that batch of metal that had a trace or more of the elements to which I know I'm sensitive.  Another batch could have been no problem.   A learning moment / a teaching moment.  

I presume it is due to Harley Davidson owners' history with going to "Sturgis", South Dakota, every summer -- it's quite an event -- that they sell a ring that is Black Hills type, and I have one at the time of this writing in my inventory and is one I've put on Lumigrate in the Rings / things for fingers and toes area.   Incorporating green/yellow and rose leaf,l this Harley Davidson Black Hills gold ring is in like-new (but not obtained from Harley Davidson / not new), it's a beautiful and classy ring for a Harley fan.

It was not the Harley Davidson ring, however, that got me finding the history information that spurred me to produce this little education unit, but rather a vintage ring with a signature mark in it that I needed to figure out.   

It is stamped / signed WM but with c over the W and M under the o.  Artisans, such as "W.M.", I have learned, can have an evolving signature as they, like Henry LeBeau in the Black Hills in 1870, start out, then grow and perhaps go to work for someone who comes along fronting the money to take a fledgeling, solo operation to another level.  My favorites to find are etched signatures, from an artisan who wants to leave their mark, but have not yet had a stamp made to use. 

Others online, one identical but not in as good shape as the one I'm going to offer consumers, say it's WM for Wheeler manufacturing, but I've found the W.M. without the c and o, and wonder if these might pre-date his making jewelry from Wheeler Manufacturing.  I don't have it cleaned, polished, photographed, posted at this time.  But look for it over in the rings area, with the others.  

I hope you enjoyed this brief overview.  I've had a good time providing it! Grate ~ Fully, Mardy