Homestake Mining Company

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Lore & Background

The Homestake deposit was discovered in 1876 by settlers Fred and Moses Manuel, Alex Engh, and Hank Harney during the Black Hills Gold Rush. The Black Hills had been guaranteed to the Lakota Nation by the Fort Laramie Treaty, but the land was stolen for its gold. George Hearst reached Deadwood in October 1877 and took control of the mine property. Hearst consolidated and enlarged the property by fair and foul means. He bought out some adjacent claims, and secured others in the courts. A Hearst employee killed a man who refused to sell his claim, but was acquitted after all the witnesses disappeared. Hearst purchased newspapers in Deadwood to influence public opinion, and an opposing newspaper editor was physically attacked on a Deadwood street. By the time Hearst left the Black Hills in March 1879, he had added claims including Giant, Golden Star, Netty, May Booth, Golden Star No. 2, Crown Point, Sunrise, and General Ellison to the original two claims, totaling 30 acres. The ten-stamp mill had become 200, and 500 employees worked in the mine, mills, offices and shops.

In Their Own Story

In 1876, the Manuel brothers and their partners found gold in the Black Hills, land guaranteed to the Lakota by treaty but taken anyway. George Hearst arrived in Deadwood in October 1877 and bought their claim for $70,000. He hauled mining equipment by wagon from the nearest railhead in Sidney, Nebraska. An 80-stamp mill was built and began crushing ore by July 1878. Hearst's methods were ruthless: he bought out claims, secured others in court, and when a man refused to sell, a Hearst employee killed him—but was acquitted after witnesses vanished. Hearst bought Deadwood newspapers to sway opinion, and a rival editor was beaten in the street. Hearst wrote to his partners asking them to provide for his family should he be murdered. He walked out alive, and very rich. By 1900, Homestake owned 300 claims on 2,000 acres, worked by more than 2,000 employees. The mine produced 39,800,000 troy ounces of gold through 2001, and was the longest continually operating mine in U.S. history.

Reader's Guide

The Homestake Mining Company was the corporate entity that operated the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota. Key figures include George Hearst, who took control in 1877, and partners Lloyd Tevis and James Ben Ali Haggin. Arthur De Wint Foote worked as an engineer. The company's strategy involved consolidating claims through purchase, legal action, and intimidation. Hearst owned the Boulder Ditch and water rights to Whitewood Creek, monopolizing the region, and his railroad, the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad, gave him access to eastern Dakota Territory. The mine used compressed air locomotives by 1901, fully replacing mules and horses by the 1920s. Charles Washington Merrill introduced cyanidization to augment mercury-amalgamation, achieving 94 percent gold recovery. The gold was shipped to the Denver Mint. The mine ceased production at the end of 2001 due to low gold prices, poor ore quality, and high costs. The mine later became the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), hosting experiments like LUX, the Majorana Demonstrator, and DUNE.

Did You Know?

• The Homestake Mine was the site where the solar neutrino problem was first discovered, in what is known as the Homestake Experiment, conducted by Raymond Davis Jr. in the mid-1960s.
• The mine produced more than forty million troy ounces of gold during its lifetime, about 2,500 cubic feet or roughly 18,677 US gallons.
• A disastrous fire struck the mine on March 25, 1907, which took forty days to extinguish after the mine was flooded.
• The mine released arsenic into the Cheyenne River for decades, and although the area was designated a Superfund site, water was still contaminated in 2017.
• The Homestake Mining Company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1879 and became one of the longest-listed stocks in NYSE history.