For a chronological list of events and innovations concerning Homestake Mine, visit the Timeline page.
The Black Hills of Dakota Territory was an untrodden and untamed mountainous region of which civilization knew little when General George A. Custer's Military Expedition explored the area in 1874. Yet, within four years, one of the world's major gold deposits had been located, the Homestake Company organized, and machinery installed to mine and treat the ore from the hard ledges in the ancient rocks. Truly, the Homestake was a contemporary of the roving Sioux, the grizzled prospector, the plodding ox team and the hardy pioneer.
Those olden days may be gone, yet the adventursome spirit of the searching prospector remains. Today, it is revealed at Homestake where constantly improving mining and milling methods, skills and tolls have enabled this fixed-price-product industry to survive in an era of devastating inflation.From the initial achievements in overcoming the difficulties of exploration in remote and hostile country, and surmounting barriers imposed by distance and primitive transportation, mining at Homestake rapidity grew to economic importance in South Dakota — a position it retains today as it continues to pour healthy corpuscles into the blood stream of the entire State.
From the preface to the 1966 edition of The Homestake Story: A South Dakota Enterprise. (Find this book in our list of resources available at Rapid City Public Library.)
History
Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer was sent in 1874 to explore the economic possibilities of the Black Hills area. On August 1 of that year, Custer moved to the area that is now the Gordon Stockade near the town of Custer. There, the first mining company in the Hills was organized and called the Custer Peak Mining Company1.
As hopeful miners began to come to the area, General Philip Sheridan, whose command included the Black Hills, issued an order that was intended to yet ineffective in keeping trespassers from entering Native American lands. In December of 1974, the Gordon-Russell party made it through the army defenses, met at the stockade where Custer had stopped in August, and drafted their mining laws to guard their right to the property. On April 7, 1875, Sheridan's troops removed the party from the area, as the land belonged to the Sioux1.
Reports of gold in western South Dakota came as early as 1833, over fifty years before the Homestake Mine was established. A sandstone tabled found in 1887 by Louis Thoen near Spearfish was carved with the following words:
Came to these hills in 1883 seven of us DeLacompt, Ezra Kind, G. W. Wood, T. Brown, R. Kent, Wm. King, Indian Crow, all died but me Ezra King Killed by Ind behind high hilll Got our gold dust June 18343.
The reverse of the stone continues with the following;
Got all the gold we could carry Our ponies all got by the Indians I have lost my gun and nothing to eat The Indians hunting me3.
Miners continued to get past the army patrols with few getting caught and turned back, and the Cheyenne Mining District was established in June of 1875. The United States Government remained uncertain whether or not there was really gold in the Hills, and sent W.P. Jenney and Henry Newton into the area to search. In May of 1875, Jenney reported back with positive results. The land still belonged to the Sioux and those currently mining were trespassing, so the government anticipated trouble. An attempt was made to negotiate a treaty of sale in 1875, and when it failed, the army was removed from the Hills and the miners swarmed in. The Sioux war followed as an indirect result of these combined failures1.
The violence didn't dampen the spirits of the variety of people who swarmed to the region and became miners. Fred and Moses Manuel came to the area from Montana, and in the spring of 1876, Moses began looking for gold while the ground was still covered in snow. At the bottom of the draw, he found some exposed quartz and reportedly said to Hank Harney, "Hank, this is surely a homestake" - Homestake means "sufficient capital to establish one permanently in the states"1.
This was the beginning of the Homestake Mine. The Manuels discovery was called the Homestake Ledge (or Lead - produced "leed")3. That winter, the Manuels and their party took $5,000 out of the mine. In April of 1877, the Homestake was bonded to a California company for $40,000. A short while later, a representative of a syndicate that included Senator George Hearst got a bond of $70,000 for thirty days for the Homestake and Gold Star claims1.
On January 22, 1879, the New York Stock Exchange's Governing Committee accepted Homestake stock on the open market4.
Regional Impact
At it's peak, the Homestake Mine employed over 2,000 people. The Mine's workers produced 2.7 million tons of gold over the course of 125 years2. According to the economic impact study conducted by the Business Research Bureau of the University of South Dakota's School of Business, the Homestake Mining Company directly and/or indirectly accounted for $82 million of South Dakota's business volume in 19805:
- Direct expenditures by Homestake Mining Company, employees, and visitors: $59 Million
- Additional indirect expenditures: $23 Million
- Direct expenditures by Homestake Mining Company in South Dakota: $21.5 Million
- Indirect expenditures related to the above: $8+ Million
- Payroll to Homestake Mining Company Employees: $37.4 Million
- In-State Employee Payroll Expenditure (Estimate): $10.2 Million
Media
External Links
Homestake Gold Mine Visitor's Center
Homestake Mine on Legends of America (travel site)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs of the Homestake Mine
Further Reading
Homestake Mining Company. Homestake: a South Dakota Enterprise. Lead, SD: Homestake Mining Co., 1948.
South Dakota Collection (1st floor – South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 h767h, 1948
Homestake Mining Company. The Story of Homestake: a South Dakota Enterprise. Lead, SD: Homestake Mining Co., 1954.
South Dakota Collection (1st floor – South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 H767h, 1954
Homestake Mining Company. The Story of Homestake: a South Dakota Enterprise. Lead, SD: Homestake Mining Co., 1960.
South Dakota Collection (1st floor – South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 H767H, 1960
Homestake Mining Company. The Story of Homestake: a South Dakota Enterprise. Lead, SD: Homestake Mining Co., 1966.
South Dakota Collection (1st floor – South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 H767H, 1966
Fielder, Mildred. The Treasure of Homestake Gold. Aberdeen, SD: North Plains Press, 1970.
Nonfiction (1st floor – Main Collection): 338.7622 F458t
South Dakota Collection (1st floor – South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 F458t
Cash, Joseph H. Working the Homestake. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1973.
Nonfiction (1st floor – Main Collection): 338.7622 C338w
South Dakota Collection (1st floor – South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 C338w
Bronson, William and T. H. Watkins. Homestake: The Centennial History of America’s Greatest Gold Mine. San Fransisco: Homestake Mining Co., 1997.
South Dakota Collection (1st floor - South Dakota Collection): 338.7622 B869h
Toms, Donald, William J. Stone, and Gretchen Motchenbacher, eds.The Gold Belt Cities: Lead and Homestake: A Photographic History. Lead, SD: G.O.L.D. Unlimited, 1988.
Nonfiction (1st floor – Main Collection): Oversize 978.391 G6183g
Reference (1st – Reference Collection): Oversize 978.391 G6183g
