After going through Deadwood in the morning, we drove a few miles to Lead (prounced with a long "e" sound) to see the Homestake mine.
At one point, this town had a population of over 10,000. Today, the population is only around 3,000 since the mine is now closed. In it's heyday, the mine more or less WAS the town of LEAD since it owned, built, and operated: all the roads (so employees could get to work), the hospitals (with full family medical and dental coverage), the library (the largest in the state in it's time), an opera house (seeting 1,000 people, the schools, and even the local power plant. The mine even gave discounts on the houses and sold them at cost of materials only and free land.
The mine claims it is the country's largest gold mine, but the company had to shut down in early 2002 when the cost of mining was more than the cost of gold recovered, refined, and sold. The primary factor that led to the shutdown was the sheer depth: 8000 ft. Most mines don't even reach 5000 ft.
Overal, the kids liked it pretty well, too.
The tour doesn't allow you to go down in the mine. You only get to see what's above ground. For more pictures, info, and history, you can access the Homestake Mine website.
The first picture is of the open dig (Again - no pictures of the mine underground). The second is of one of the 5000 ft cables used to access the mine shafts. (There is another room this size 5000 ft below ground so the mine could potentially go 10,000 feet down). We also had a little bit of hail as well...
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