Cheyenne-Deadwood Trail

The board's old buffalo hunter had a name and a household. Henry Mason came into this country in 1876 and by 1893 was hunting, prospecting and running a sawmill on Stockade Beaver Creek. That May, a Newcastle paper reported, he went after a very large bear and did not come home; his wife, Hannah, whom he had married the previous Thanksgiving, found his body three miles from the cabin, and he was buried beside it. The grave lies on private land, and one later photograph of the headstone reads its weathered date as 1898.

What the plaque says

Cheyenne-Deadwood Trail Beaver Creek Station - Hank Masons Grave The Cheyenne-Deadwood Trail, a heritage precious to state and nation, was used by gold seekers and Black Hills emigrants from 1876 to 1887. Crossing U.S. Highway 16 at this point, it followed Stockade Beaver Creek passing Beaver Creek Stage Station and winding on to Deadwood via Canyon Springs Stage Station near present Camp Mallo. From the Beaver Creek Stage Station, 13 miles north of here, searchers hunted for the treasure coach robbed at Canyon Springs in 1878. This robbery was the only successful raid on a Black Hills treasure coach. Between Beaver Creek and Canyon Springs Station, in a deep canyon, lies the grave of an old buffalo hunter. The headstone reads: "Hank Mason killed by a bear 1893."

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• The Jenney Stockade — 0.7 mi
• Camp Jenney — 0.7 mi
• Site of Field City — 1.7 mi
• Cambria — 8.0 mi