During its 126-year history, the Homestake Mining Company (HMC), located in Lead, South Dakota, was the oldest, largest and deepest producing gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. Many advances and changes in the mining industry can be credited to the talented and creative employees of the HMC. Their dedication and hard work resulted in safer and more efficient methods of mining, milling and refining the gold bearing rock of the Homestake Lode. To this end, the Homestake mine quickly and efficiently evolved from a manually labor intensive operation using timber to set stopes (openings created when ore is mined) and mules for transporting ore, to a cutting-edge corporation whose practices caught the attention of the global mining industry. Soon, these advances in safety and technology were adopted by gold producing mines worldwide.

Locally, the Homestake Mining Company was a ubiquitous and settling presence in communities of the Northern Black Hills, particularly the neighboring cities of Deadwood, Central City and Spearfish. People emigrated from around the world to work for Homestake and settle in Lead. It was the philosophy of founder George Hearst’s wife, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, that through exposure to educational, cultural and recreational opportunities, the lives of community residents would be greatly enriched. Because of her philanthropic generosity and efforts, Phoebe established the first kindergarten in the western United States in Lead. The public library in Lead bears her name, an institution where miners could read newspapers from their home countries including Finland, Czechoslovakia and Wales. The opera house and recreation center on Main Street featured cultural and leisure activities such as musical and theatrical performances, Hollywood movies, swimming and bowling. Homestake created in Lead a vibrant cultural hub, rich with ethnic diversity and economic prosperity. The mine thrived until 2002, when the cost to extract gold bearing ore rose above its monetary value and Homestake was forced to close.

The HMC had an exceptional sense of its own legacy and went to great efforts to keep much of its recorded history for posterity. Within the pages of mining deeds, land claims, mineral surveys, annual reports, assay ledgers, timber contracts and photographs lie the stories of Black Hills citizens, communities and the details of the corporation that was their lifeblood. After the mine’s closure in 2002, this recorded history was passed on to the Adams Museum & House, Inc. With the opening of the Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center in 2009, Homestake’s history and company legacy will be made accessible to the public through exhibitions, research opportunities and educational programming.

To learn more, you may download the online presentation of our efforts toward preserving the Homestake Legacy