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While there never seemed to be any front page headlines about the silver strike, there were a number of articles buried elsewhere in the Argus Leader written by a gentleman named C.E. Cole, who offered himself up as an experienced miner from the American southwest. Mr. Cole’s descriptions would have a person believe there was abundant riches there for the taking. He wrote: “There is millions in it ... I made four assays from dirt and rock at various points along the lead and was agreeably surprised with the result ... I am convinced that silver exists in paying quantities upon the ground ... I am willing and ready at any time to show the ground and ledge and prove the above statement.”

In another report, he continued to extol the Palisade find. “The excitement began and hundreds rushed to the new find, and claim after claim was staked off ... I believe the time is not far distant when the waters that now flow idly by will drive the machinery of quartz mills and other industries ... capital will necessarily follow and open up the vast amount of hidden treasure that now lies concealed in the bosom of Mother Earth, waiting only for the pick and shovel to develop and bring to the surface her treasure of wealth.” Perhaps Mr. Cole was hired by someone for his excellence in boosterism? Hard to say, but an online search of newspapers in the era finds him promoting his patented clothes line stretcher, his patented hay stackers, a device for announcing stations on the railroad, amazing sweet potato yams, and a starter package of coffee beans guaranteed to grow in the north or south. A man named “C.E. Cole” also appears in Chicago newspapers in the 1890s tied to a murder and another shooting incident. Commentary in 1888 by the Argus Leader showed the newspaper’s depth of trust in the man. An unsigned letter in a Missouri newspaper disparaged the winters in Dakota Territory. An Argus Leader commentator responded that he knew C.E. Cole was now living in that part of Missouri, so the disparaging report “is undoubtedly one of his productions. If so, it was known to be false at the time written.” Despite the efforts of Mr. Cole, the silver rush quickly dissipated when assay results proved there was not enough silver in the ore to pay to have it processed. An affidavit in 1913 by eyewitness James Whealy said he “knew of mining claims located upon the land in 1886” but that all “were shortly thereafter abandoned and no work was ever done on them after 1886.”

The town of Palisade still seemed to have a future when it became a stop on the Willmar & Sioux Falls Railroad in 1888. But, in 1889, after the Sioux City and Northern Railroad came through a few miles away, Palisade businessmen pulled up their stakes when influential investor A.S. Garretson offered them free lots in his new town along the new railway. That apparently doomed the grist mill business, too. In

Excerpts from C.E. Cole’s report on the supposedly rich silver strike at Palisades. Sioux Falls Argus Leader, May 14, 1886.

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