Lead
Pine Crest proves to be such a good camp that we decide to make it our
headquarters for a day or two. In the morning we put up a lunch and
drive over to Lead. Of course the first and foremost point of interest
in Lead is Homestake Mine. We stop at the Burlington Railway station and
register for the trip through the mine buildings. It is only a few
moments before we are ready to start.
We follow our young lady guide up a steep incline. Half way up she stops
us and asks us to face about. Clear across the gulch on the opposite
side of town is a huge cut, where the hill is virtually cut in two.
This, she tells us is the site of the first mine, a surface working. We
are told that $20,000,000 worth of gold came from this cut.
[Illustration: Homestake Mills, Lead, S.D.]
We go on up the hill to the Ellison shaft, the one now being used most
extensively. There the ore is coming up from the 2300 foot level, by
hoists and seven ton cars. It is dumped into a conveyor belt, and passes
the pickers. We go next to see the giant air compressors for maintaining
circulation of air in the mines.
The hoist room contains large drums driven by 1400 horse power electric
motors working on direct current. These huge affairs bring the heavy
cars up from the mine in a very short time. Their speed and precision
are remarkable, considering their enormous size. The room is immaculate.
From the hoist room we go to the shop where diamond drills are
sharpened. These are tubular bars of hard iron, with hollow centers, and
sharp edges on one end in the form of a cross. They are used with the
electric drill down the mine, working on the plan of the electric
riveter. When dull these points are brought to the surface, pounded into
shape in a trip hammer, while white hot, and tempered very hard.
The motor generator which is driven by alternating current and delivers
direct current is a huge affair. It has to be in order to develop enough
direct current to drive the heavy machinery. Its flywheel alone weighs
thirty-five tons.
In the blacksmith shop all of the blacksmith work of the mine is done.
Repairs are made, castings are made, gears are cut, and iron is pounded
into shape. A pair of shears is cutting iron ¾ inch thick for a boiler.
The ease with which it goes through this mass is astounding. Lathes are
plaining blocks of iron or gears into shape. These lathes are cutting
shavings a half-inch thick. In the molding room molten iron is being
poured into casts, covered with sand, and allowed to cool.
Now comes the real gold mill. The first part we come to is the rock
crusher or rod mills. From the rod mills the material is taken to the
stamper, where it is mixed with water. The solution passes to dewatering
cones and cleaner troughs. Rod mills crush the ore to powder, which,
with water makes a mud. The mud passes through troughs containing
mercury. Most of the gold leaves the mud and clings to the mercury.
The remaining solution goes to sand slime separation cones and then to
cyanide tanks. The tanks are filled with mud. The water drains off.
Cyanide is poured over the mass. The cyanide sinks, carrying the
remaining gold of the crushed ore to the bottom with it. This is
reclaimed and the mud is washed out and sent down the gulch.
The trip is an interesting one. The guide now tells us that the gold is
molded into bricks worth twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars.
Approximately sixteen are made each month.
[Illustration: B & M. Shop #2
One of the buildings of the Homestake Mining Company’s
Lead, S.D.]
Quoting from literature distributed by the mining company the following
might be of interest:
“The Black Hills are highly mineralized, containing practically every
known element to a greater or lesser degree. Lead is the home of the
Homestake mining company, the largest gold mining concern in the world.
The company has been running continuously since 1877 and has taken from
the ground approximately 56,000,000 tons of ore yielding $200,000,000 of
gold (now over $212,000,000.) In order to produce an annual output of
$6,000,000 about 2,000 men are steadily employed. The average daily
output is 43500 tons, or 1,750,000 tons annually. There is enough ore
blocked out to furnish the mills with this many tons a day for nine
years.
“More than 1,554,117 pounds, or 3,108,234 sticks of 40% dynamite was
used in 1927, costing over $500 a day. In 1927, 3,816,724 feet or over
722 miles of fuse was used. If this were in one length it would take 971
days, 21 hours and 22 minutes and 8 seconds for the flame to traverse
it. More than a million blasts were set off during the year.
“The company has never undertaken to furnish houses. It has, however,
encouraged the building of homes by giving free permits to occupy
company ground and by advancing the purchase price and allowing the
employee to pay on the monthly payment plan with a low rate of interest
on deferred payments. After forty years of continuous operation as the
sole industry of the community there are few company owned houses in
Lead. Under this policy the town has grown from a typical mining camp
with its log cabins and board shacks, into a modern small city with
paved streets, sewer and water systems, electric lights and beautiful
homes, owned largely by their occupants. The grocer, the butcher, and
the hardware dealer, the clothier and the real estate men carry on their
business in this mining camp as in an ordinary town of equal size. Keen
competition keeps prices at a reasonable level.
“No part of the welfare work at the Homestake has met the needs of the
people more fully than the free library, originally a Christmas gift
from the late Phoebe H. Hearst in 1894, now carried on through the
generosity of her son William Randolph Hearst, with present quarters on
the second floor of the recreation building. Now the library contains
approximately 14,000 volumes. In the reading room are eighty
periodicals, of which two are foreign. The close proximity of the high
school enables the library to render valuable assistance to teachers and
pupils.
“A smoking room is provided for the men, and the children have an alcove
for their particular use, provided with low tables and suitable chairs.
One end of the stack room is used for mineral exhibits, especially the
minerals of the Black Hills region.
“The Kindergarten, opened in 1900, is also maintained by the generosity
of the Hearst family.
“A small, but well kept park nearby provides a place for outdoor play
during the summer months. The kindergarten has been an inestimable aid
to the public school by giving the children of foreign birth a start in
the English language and teaching them something of American ways and
manners, thus relieving them of the handicap resulting from their
foreign parentage. It has also proved a large factor in Americanizing
the parents by both direct and indirect contact with the teachers.
“The Homestake company, supporting a liberal policy toward the schools,
feels that it is fully repaid by the stabilizing influence on its
working force, due to the fact that men with families are attracted to
Lead on account of its educational advantages. Many of the young men who
are now holding important positions in the shops, mills, assay and
engineering departments are graduates of the Lead High School.
[Illustration: Old Mine Entrances]
“The Homestake Recreation Building, built and equipped by the Homestake
Mining Company at a cost of $250,000 was opened to the public in 1914.
It is a three story brick and stone structure of the latest design and
well lighted, heated, and ventilated. No expense is spared to make this
the recreation place of the employes and their families, and all
residents of Lead are given the same privileges as employes, so that it
is a community house in the fullest sense. No membership fee is charged.
Everybody is welcome and all are treated as special guests by the
attendants. The only rules posted are those governing the length of time
one set of players may use the various tables and games, and specifying
the days when the men, women, and children may use the plunge. The
average monthly attendance is about 25,000.
“On the first floor of the building is a large rest room furnished with
easy chairs and lounges with tables for chess, cards, and other games,
and directly in the rear of this room is the billiard room, with two
regulation billiard and two pocket billiard tables. In alcoves of the
rest room are three tables for children between the ages of six and
sixteen. About 2,500 persons play on these tables during the month.
[Illustration: Mucking
April 21, 1933
Homestake Mining Co.
Working in the gold mines at Lead]
“Below the rest room is the gymnasium and a bowling alley of six alleys
equipped with automatic pin setters. Over 2,000 persons use these alleys
each month, including the ladies who have one day each week. The
gymnasium is well equipped, and is also used by two bands as a practice
room.
“In the rear of the rest room, and with a separate street entrance is a
well furnished theatre with a seating capacity of 1,000. Moving pictures
are shown both afternoon and evening, with road shows and vaudeville
when available. The average monthly attendance is about 20,000.
[Illustration: A view in the cyanide plant of the gold mining plant at
Lead]
“Under the theatre auditorium and directly in the rear of the bowling
alley is a tank 25×75 feet with a depth of water ranging from 4 to 9
feet. The plunge and floor are lined with white tile. Change rooms,
shower baths, and hair driers are provided for the bathers. The water is
heated, filtered, disinfected, and changed frequently. The plunge is
patronized by approximately 1800 persons per month, about equally
divided among men, women, girls, and boys.
“A small room called the sun room, because of its particularly sunny
exposure, is used as a meeting place by various clubs, societies, and
committees.
“There is no charge for the use of any part of the building to Homestake
employees and their families, or to residents of Lead, except for the
theatre where a nominal charge is made to cover the cost of pictures and
other attractions.
“The company erected at a cost of more than $60,000 a thoroughly modern
brick hospital of thirty-five bed capacity which furnishes absolutely
free to its employees and their dependents every type of medical,
surgical and obstetric treatment. No charge is made for any hospital
care, operating fees, or for medicines.
“The employees and dependents make very great use of this service as
shown by the 1922 annual report. Forty-three thousand people were taken
care of in the dispensary, fourteen thousand visits were made at the
homes and one hundred forty-three confinements were handled.”
The Homestake Employees Aid association is an organization to help the
employees. Also:
“The company retires its old employees on account of old age, physical
disability, giving them 25% of last year’s full pay plus $10.00 per year
for each year’s service with the company, but in all not to exceed $600
per year.
“There were 64 men (1928) receiving pensions of from $350 to $600 per
year. The average age of those receiving pensions, at the time of
retirement was over 65 and the average years service is nearly
thirty-one.
[Illustration: Weighing Gold Bricks in the assay office]
“A pension is also paid to the widows of new men who lost their lives by
accident prior to the enactment of the state compensation law.
“Every effort is made, both in the mine and in the surface plants to
provide sanitary working conditions. Bubbling drinking fountains are
placed in convenient places both underground and in the mills and shops,
and provided with clear, cold, wholesome water. Clean, well heated and
ventilated change rooms are provided with hot and cold water and
individual lockers for clothes. A special underground latrine is used in
the mine. Ventilation of the underground workings is carefully
supervised.
“Seventy-five per cent of the Homestake employees are English speaking
nationalities. In the other twenty-five Italians predominate.
“Many religious denominations are represented in Lead, and most of them
have an organization and a place of worship. The Homestake company makes
a yearly contribution of $200 to each church holding regular services,
and renders other material aid in various ways.”
[Illustration: Tourist Camp]
Thus we see that South Dakota, and more specifically Lead has an
industry not only of enormous size but with the most modern and
progressive practices known to civilization. A trip through it is enough
to stimulate the imagination rather decisively of anyone mechanically or
industrially inclined. Here is an organization whose social, industrial,
mechanical, and personnel organization is worked out and administered on
modern scientific principles, with the interests and safety of its
employees ever in the fore.
From the mine we go up the hill through Lead to “Mile High Camp,” where
we eat lunch. This camp is a very nice camp of little earlier date than
some of the others. Jubilee camp on the West branch of U. S. 85, just on
the edge of town is another good camp. It is situated on a very high
point, overlooking Lead on one side and beautiful tree covered
mountains, cliffs and valleys, on the other.
We follow U. S. 85 toward Cheyenne Crossing and Newcastle. The road
leads through Icebox Canyon. This canyon was properly named. Even on
this hot July day it is very decidedly cool. In addition, it is a
beautiful drive. The tall stately pines have almost a noble look to
them.
The road leads over long gradual grades, up hills and through valleys.
There are camps and cabins along this route, and the trout fishing is
good. Icebox Springs, is a very cold spring six miles from Lead and 6270
feet above sea level. Here we get a drink of clear, cold water,
maintained as such without the aid of refrigeration. The spring pours
right out of the side of the canyon. Terry Peak, within 200 feet of the
same height as Harney, rises a short distance from the trail.
This again is historical ground. In the early days the Deadwood-Cheyenne
stage and treasure coaches traveled over this route. Here were the
scenes of the early hold-ups, fights with bandits, and murders of the
stage people.
Here was the testing ground of civilization. To see the present Black
Hills one could hardly believe that less than fifty years ago it went
through the wild formative period of outlawry, Indian fighting, and the
gold rush. Cheyenne Crossing is but a couple of small cabins, a sort of
outpost. Here we turn about and return to “Pine Crest.”
From Lead we take the old mines road back to Deadwood. This leaves town
near Jubilee camp, making a loop to the north. Along the road, just out
of Lead are cabins variously named: “Travellers Rest,” “Tramp Inn,”
“Saloon,” “Bucket o’Blood,” “Haven of Rest,” etc.
Along this road we see remains of old placer mines, mining mills, and
various other remains of early mining. Most of them are now abandoned.
Nevertheless one can imagine the life that must have been enacted here a
few decades ago. Central City, and other former thriving cities are now
but vestiges of what was once the splendor of Deadwood Gulch. Now, only
an occasional inhabitant and a number of run down buildings remain.
It is almost marvelous to think that a country could pass from the
extreme of an outlaw West to the highly modern civilization that Lead
and Deadwood present today. No place on earth but the progressive
pioneer western community with its fertile and indomitable brains could
do it.
At the camp that night part of the crowd of the previous night is
present, and quite a number of new people. Another very enjoyable
evening is spent.
[Illustration: Cabin]
[Illustration: Deadwood, today. Located in Deadwood Gulch. Scene of the
most exciting of Gold Rush Episodes]