The Holy Terror, the Uncle Sam and the Golden Reward:
in the Shadows of the Homestake

by Thomas A. Loomis
from MATRIX Vol. 10, No. 3 Issue

“In little more than fifty years of settlement, the Black Hills has produced approximately one-eighth of all the gold that has been mined in the history of the world”  (O’Harra, 1929). 

Early Black Hills miners.
Courtesy Ed Gerken, Black Hills Trails of Time
Carper-Tscharner Collection

That seems astonishing, but correct. But after 1929, worldwide gold production increased dramatically. The Black Hills of South Dakota output dropped to about 3% percent of the cumulative world production by the end of 2001. Nevertheless, during the period of 1875 through 2001, the Black Hills produced a significant 46.47 million ounces. Of this total the Homestake mine produced 39.65 million ounces and the remainder was produced by dozens of other gold mines scattered about the Hills (Cepak, 2002). 

They once called the Black Hills “the richest one hundred miles square”. This was certainly not all inclusive of the Black Hills proper. In fact, it probably included only the area around Lead, which included the Homestake as well as dozens of other mines. The Black Hills afterall are more like 6,000 square miles. But consider the term “richest” and the validity of the previous statement holds. There probably is no place on earth, where, in such a small area, mineralized quantities exist of gold, silver, copper, tin, columbite – tantalite, antimony, lead, bismuth, beryl, feldspar, mica, lithium minerals, tungsten, vanadium, iron, uranium, and industrial and decorative minerals such as limestone, sand, rose quartz, granite, talc, graphite, fireclay, Fuller’s earth and yes – coal. All of these commodities were mined at one time or another in the Hills. Gold however has always been the driving force behind the Black Hills economy. One mine, the Homestake gold mine, overshadowed all the other mines in the Hills. However, this article will not shed more glory on the Homestake, but will cast light onto a few of those all but forgotten other gold mines. 

The "Old Standby" - a Black Hills favorite near Rochford. This mill
was demolished in the 1990's.
Courtesy Ed Gerken, Black Hills Trails of Time

In a general sense, the gold deposits of the Black Hills can be divided into Precambrian and Phanerozoic deposits and further divided into placer, iron formation hosted, quartz veins, and Tertiary epithermal deposits. A few other categories of lesser degree are polymetallic, paleoplacer and quartz-pepple conglomerate deposits. Early in the Black Hills history, placer deposits were easy mining and cast the Hills into the spotlight of the mining world.  In the first three years after the settlement in the Black Hills, the placer gold operations produced about 4.5 million dollars (BHMR, 1898). But this was a short-lived period and having exhausted the “gravy”, miners were forced to look for hard rock vein deposits. Vein deposits were getting attention as the panners began tracing the gold back to the source. 

Prior to 1890, free milling gold mines produced about 90% of the gold from the Hills. This constituted the Homestake gold belt and most of the mines from Lead to Deadwood. After 1890, free milling gold mines produced about 60 % of the gold (Irving, 1904). This was a reflection of the increased production from non-free milling gold mines. Vast deposits located nearby at Bald Mountain and the surrounding area contained gold ores in the Cambrian Deadwood and Pahasapa Formations. These ores contained sub-microscopic gold locked in siliceous and other altered rock that would not yield its content without special treatments. They term “refractory” was applied to these ores, meaning that conventional methods of the day would not produce satisfactory recovery rates. Gradually the secrets of unlocking these “refractory” ores were discovered, and the gold was liberated through cyanidation, chlorination, roasting, smelting or a combination of any of these. The Black Hills mining contingent developed much of this new technology and was labeled as front-runners in the mining world. But little could be done without significant capital as this technology required research, expertise, and equipment.  

Capital funding however came relatively easy, as promoters spread the word throughout the country and, unlike tin mining, were able to show proof with gold bullion and specimens. Capital financing soon infiltrated the Black Hills from New York to San Francisco and Europe.  A new period was dawning in the Hills and the capitalists were jockeying for position. The combination of this new found capital and technology created a robust mining environment in the Hills. With the Homestake Company as an anchor and many new mines coming on board, the Black Hills finally began to gain national if not worldwide attention as a legitimate mining district. The black eye that the tin fiasco gave the Black Hills began to heal. New gold districts were found literally surrounding Lead, such as Ruby Basin, Bald Mountain, Ragged Top, Spruce Gulch, and the silver districts at the Carbonate Camp and Galena. 

South Dakota’s governor Mellette addressed the Legislature in 1893 and declared that the advance in the gold industry had been phenomenal.  The previous two years had shown marvelous mining developments and evolutions.  The successful treatment of refractory ores was the single greatest advance.  As the Governor claimed, “the refractory ores had long baffled the genius of invention and the skill of science in an effort to extract the metal with profit. The profitable treatment of these ores, which were numerous in extent, marks the beginning of a new and most important era in the development of the mineral resources of the state and has increased by 33.5 per cent the shipment of gold bullion from the Hills” (Kingsbury, 1915). By 1894, the Black Hills had produced 56 million dollars in gold production (Allsman, 1940). By 1896 the Black Hills gold output passed Leadville, Colorado and was second only to Cripple Creek (BHMR, 1898). 

Kingsbury, 1915 described the heydays in the Black Hills during 1903: 

“The American Mining Congress which assembled in the Black Hills in 1903, was an event of great importance to the state and the nation. The twin cities, Deadwood and Lead, vied with each other in preparing a splendid welcome for the delegates and members.  The streets and most prominent buildings were gaily decorated with bunting and brilliantly illuminated with electric lights. In the Bullock Hotel of Deadwood was arranged a complete and interesting display of all the ores and minerals of the Hills. An elaborate reception was given to all the delegates at the Franklin Hotel in Deadwood. Governor Herreid was present.  An appropriate and encouraging letter from President Roosevelt was read. The invitation to President Roosevelt was written on an 18-carat gold plate 3 inches by 5 1/9 inches. He replied that he could not be present.  Secretary Shaw of Roosevelt’s cabinet gave a speech on “The importance of Mining to Other Occupations”. Other speeches given were: 

D.H. Darton – “What the United States Geological Survey is doing for the Black Hills”

J.D. Irving – “Ore Deposits of the Northern Black Hills”

C.W. Merrill – “The Metallurgy of the Homestake Ores”

John Blatchford – “Ore Deposits of the Northern Black Hills”

C. C. O’Harra – “The Geology and Mineralogy of the Black Hills”

 At this congress there was selected for permanent exhibit at the State University a fine collection of specimens of the different ores. One specimen showing several dollars’ worth of free gold from the Uncle Sam mine and another was a rich specimen of horn silver from the Iron Hill mine.” 

Kingsbury (1915) would further comment: 

“In 1903 a very valuable collection of gold nuggets and curios gathered at great expense by M.R. Russel, of Deadwood, was sold to B. W. Carlow, of Boston, for a large sum of money. It was one of the finest and most valuable collections in the United States and had required many years to acquire it.  Aside from the intrinsic value of gold, the collection possessed great worth owing to the many rare and notable nuggets taken from local placer beds. The collection consisted of specimens taken from all the mines of the Hills. Presumably this collection is still in Boston.” 

Had it not been for the countless other mines and placer claims in the Black Hills beside the Homestake, Kingsbury, could not have made these statements, and the Hills would have been forever labeled as a “one mine camp”.  Three mines in particular helped the Hills shed this label: the Holy Terror, The Uncle Sam and the Golden Reward.   

The Holy Terror 

It was said that the town of Keystone was built around the Holy Terror mine. Despite the bittersweet romance cast upon the locals during the tin mining years, Keystone rebounded with a vengeance.  What should have been at least ten years of honest gold prospecting were lost to the great tin hoax, yet the town somehow benefited and came out smelling like a rose.  Soon after the tin fiasco, gold prospecting resumed and many remarkable finds were made. The Keystone mine was one of the first to be located. Tom Blair, Jacob Reed, and a man they called “Rocky Mountain Frank” located the mine in 1891. His real name was William Franklin. But it wasn’t the Keystone mine, which made ‘ole Rocky famous, it was the Holy Terror that was accidentally found by his daughter in 1894. There are several accounts on the story but the earliest account found by the author dates back to 1898, only four years after the discovery. As told by the Black Hill Mining Review on March 21, 1898: 

“The Holy Terror mine, like most great mines, was discovered by accident. The veteran prospector of the Black Hills, Wm. B. Franklin, now deceased, and his daughter were picking strawberries on the mountainside and, as is customary, carried a miner’s prospecting pick. The daughter sat down on a rock for a rest and was playing with the pick when something bright caught her eye. She called her father to look at it, which he did, and at once staked the claims. After doing so he went home and told his wife about his latest find. She said to him that he had located a great many mines and that he had never named one after her; he said all right, he would call it the “Holy Terror”. 

This being a few days before the Fourth of July, they told all the boys in and about Keystone to go to the Holy Terror and take out all they could for two days for a Fourth of July celebration. This they did with great success, each getting from $10 to $30. It is not necessary to remark that there was a “hot time” in Keystone that Fourth of July.” 

Evidently, William Franklin, like every other miner in the valley liked his whiskey. He liked his wife too, but occasionally Rocky would slip out and wander off with the boys. This didn’t sit well with his wife, who upon finding him would wrangle him away in a loud and angry voice. She wasn’t afraid to tell his friends her opinion of his little escapades. As his wife pulled Rocky out of the saloon in one direction, he would sheepishly look in the opposite direction and whisper to his partners “Ain’t she a Holy Terror?” (Linde, 1988). 

William Franklin and Tom Blair staked the Holly Terror on June 28, 1894. The two men pooled their money and fervently began digging a shaft on the discovery vein. At 40 feet they hit ore valued at $500 per ton. But with diminishing funds and lacking the proper equipment to process the ore, they sought outside capital. With rich gold specimens to show for their efforts, finding investors was an easy task. They offered John Fayel and Albert Amsbury half interest if they built a five stamp mill. The deal was accepted and within a short period of time the mine was producing on a remarkable scale. Aside from the Homestake mine, very few mines in the Black Hills had free milling ore with visible gold showing leafs and veins protruding and engulfing quartz specimens, as did the Holy Terror. Testimonial to the richness of the mine, the state mine inspector’s report placed the bullion output at $74,952 in 1894. It was estimated that during some weeks, the mine output approached $10,000. By the end of its first year of production, the Holy Terror received national if not world recognition despite being in the shadows of the Homestake. 

The owner’s newfound acclaim succumbed to the temptation of outside offers to purchase the mine. Evidently, offers they couldn’t refuse. Barely a year into production Franklin and Blair sold out to a capitalist out of Milwaukee named John George. Under George’s command, the mine reorganized and the Holy Terror Mining Company was formed. George quickly appointed the experienced and widely adept John Fayel as general manager.  Rolling with the changes the Holy Terror continued producing large quantities of free milling gold, when it suddenly came to a grinding halt. As so often was the case in old west, fire would dash the willingness and hard work of the miners and destroy the mill at the Holy Terror.  Rebounding quickly, a new mill was erected by the end of 1895. Soon after, the shaft was driven to unprecedented depths for the southern Hills. Under the direction of Fayel, the shaft was sunk to the 500-foot level, and the mine achieved record production figures peaking at $70,000 during a one week run. Franklin, Blair and Fayel through the wealth of the Holy Terror mine brought prosperity and dignity back to the area of Keystone and Hill City that was all but destroyed by the Harney Peak Tin Company (see article in SD I). The Holy Terror became the anchor of the southern Hills economy. But pioneer living was hard in those days and sadly Fayel died in October 1898. 

Not long after Fayel’s death the Holy Terror Company was taken over by the adjacent Keystone mine. The new organization was called the Keystone-Holy Terror Company (Connolly, 1929). By 1900, the shaft reached 1,000 feet and though the Holy Terror had already achieved remarkable production levels and new heights would yet realized. Historical newspaper accounts state that a two-week run produced a record $112,000. The combined output during 1898 and 1899 was a phenomenal $570,000. But as much as the mine was famous for its incredible richness, it was equally infamous for its dangerous conditions.  During one accident, eight miners were reported killed. In 1896, tragedy was averted, when the local school children and their teachers came to the rescue. Martha Linde, in her book “Rushmore’s Golden Valleys”, describes this amazing story in her own words: 

“As the mine’s shafts were being constructed, the miners feared fire underground nearly as much as accidents, and took all the precautions they could. One early day incident which occurred September 6, 1896 and turned out better than most was the fire in the Keystone Mill. The town at this time had grown up around the Holy Terror mine and was accustomed to the constant din of stamps. When they ceased and sudden quiet was interrupted by all the mill whistles blowing at once, people came hurrying to the mine knowing that there was serious trouble. It proved to be a fire down in the Keystone Mill with three men trapped below.  

In the mill were two shafts, one which was used for the large cage bringing up ore and taking down men, and one which was used for the pipes carrying water from the mine. In this smaller shaft was a ladder for emergency use, which was constructed in sections with platforms at twenty-foot intervals. These were to protect any miner climbing out from long falls and provide resting places. 

As the only water available for fighting the fire was that being pumped from the Holy Terror and that in Battle Creek, along bucket brigade was quickly formed from the creek to the shaft. In this line stood seventh and eight grade students as well as adults, all laboring for hours, passing buckets of water from hand to hand up the long line from the creek to the shaft. Here they kept wetting down the shaft to keep it from burning so the men could escape. After long tired hours in which the bucket brigade never faltered the tired miners climbed the long way up the ladders and out the triumph arose from the tired people waiting there.” 

Ironically, in 1903, the mine suspended operations due to water problems.  Also contributing to the closing was litigation caused by a serious accident underground when a faulty compressor cylinder sent carbon monoxide through the airline and into the mine. The explosion killed three miners and injured seventeen others. The miners’ families brought on litigation that caused considerable expense to the mine. Damage suits resulted in judgments ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 in each case. In 1906 the mine was dewatered again, unfortunately the cost to re-timber was cost prohibitive and the project was dropped.

Running on little capital, a two-stamp mill was quickly erected and within two days produced $30,000.  This production, however, was attributed to placer gravels from the creek (Fielder, 1972). Nevertheless, enough of gold was recovered from the quartz vein to have attracted outside capital. The Uncle Sam Mining Company was organized and owned by a New Yorker, Joseph Swift. Although records are a bit sketchy, this company and probably a subsequent company may have produced up to $500,000 in gold through 1898. During this time 10-stamp mill was erected. A vertical shaft was sunk 240 feet and an incline followed a vein to a vertical depth of 350 feet. Water problems hampered activity and caused a shut down in 1888 after which the mine completely flooded.  

In 1899 the mine was reorganized as the Clover Leaf Gold Mining Company capitalized at 1 million dollars. The Montana cattle baron, Pierre Wibeaux, founded the new Clover Leaf Company.  Being from France and now “owning” the town of Perry, Wibeaux, renamed the town to “Roubaix”.  The influx of capital brought prosperity to Roubaix for a short period of time. The mine now had a 60-stamp mill, a new shaft and hoisting house, a machine and blacksmith shop.  Land was purchased surrounding the mine with mineral claims covering 700 acres.  The business men of Roubaix built stores, a post office, boarding houses, a barbershop, churches and schools and had its own newspaper. The town supported a population of 500. The mine operated for another six years and brought the total gold production to over 1 million dollars. The Clover Leaf Company produced until 1905 when a series of misfortunes resulted in a fatal blow to the mine. Apparently, while performing maintenance to the boilers on the ground level, a collapse of the underground workings occurred.  Water rushing in on the 700-foot level would have normally been pumped to the surface, but on this ill-fated day, the collapse dammed the water. Naturally the dam created a perilous condition, which was only amplified when the pumps broke down due to lack of water intake. Suddenly, the dam gave way and sent surge of water through the mine. After two weeks of fighting the water, the owners called it quits, and the mine was once again flooded.  Homestake Mining Company took over the operation at considerable expense in 1924, however the operation failed to produce (Connolly, 1929). The Anaconda Milling and Mining Company dewatered the mine in 1934 to1936. Gold was recovered by amalgamation but apparently not enough to sustain operations and the mine was once again allowed to flood. 

Gold veins to 5mm in Quartz, Uncle Sam mine.

Uncle Sam mine at Perry. 

Connolly (1929) states that the gold is fairly coarse and some “handsome” specimens were found. As with specimens from the Holy Terror mine, several specimens have been preserved over the years and can be seen at the Adams Museum in Deadwood and the Museum of Geology at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City. The gold is associated sphalerite and pyrite but particularly with galena. The deposit is considered a saddle reef in a minor anticline plunging 40 degrees southeast (Norton, 1972). The strike and dip vary considerably especially near the main quartz vein.  As Connolly (1929) states: “the principle ore body is a large saddle-shaped mass of quartz on a pitching anticlinal fold in mica schist”. Prior to Connolly’s observation, the two limbs of the anticline were considered two separate quartz veins.   The discovery was made in the large body of quartz at the crest of the fold or “intersection” of the veins. Through its history the Uncle Sam/Clover Leaf produced 43,885 ounces of gold (Allsman, 1940). 

Irving in 1904 described the Uncle Sam gold:

 “The gold in the quartz is free and almost invariably associated with galena. A specimen taken from the famous pay streak of the mine, which occurred in the thickest portion of the quartz body as it was followed downward to the southeast, shows a three-eighths inch streak of galena, in a matrix of milky white quartz. In this streak, and completely surrounded by galena, occur nugget-like and irregularly rounded masses of gold, some of them attaining a diameter of one-fourth of an inch. Throughout the entire mass of these specimens are scattered patches of galena, in the center of which could generally be detected a small speck of gold. These smaller masses of gold frequently showed crystal faces.”   

The Golden Reward Mine

The Golden Reward mine was located about five miles southeast of the Homestake mine in the northern Black Hills. Historical gold mining districts in the area include the Bald Mountain and the Ruby Basin districts. Mines in these districts provided employment to hundreds of miners during the period of 1877 to 1960. An astounding maze of underground workings was created and produced literally hundreds of miles of tunnels. Gold production from these two districts amounted to over 1.7 million ounces. Golden Reward was located in the Ruby Basin district at the base of Terry Peak. 

The area is geologically distinct from the nearby Homestake mine, which is located in Precambrian metamorphic rocks. Within a six-mile radius of the Homestake mine in Lead there are hundreds of gold deposits located within the Cambrian Deadwood Formation. There has always been and still is speculation and theories as to the origin of gold found in these deposits. Most of these deposits are poly-metallic hydrothermal replacements typically within dolomitic and/or carbonaceous beds. In the Bald Mountain and Terry Peak areas Tertiary intrusives and Deadwood Formation sediments contain large ore bodies with finely disseminated gold. The significance of this lies in the fact that mining has steadily evolved over the last 120 years. Placer operations eventually gave way to mining veins with visible gold, which in turn evolved into mining replacement bodies with microscopic non-visible gold. Finally, the industry evolved into the mining of large tonnage deposits and extracting the gold through cyanide heap leach technology. These modern mines extract gold from sedimentary and igneous rock, which contain less than two percent of one ounce of gold per ton of rock! The technology required to extract the gold from the historical as well as modern mines would not have been possible had it not been for the perseverance of the many prospectors, geologists and metallurgists. Microscopic gold was “locked-up” in the siliceous ores found in great abundance in the Bald Mountain area. A. I. Johnson, one of the foremost and significant historical mining figures of the Black Hills is attributed with much of the success of Black Hills mining scene.

 The Bald Mountain/Terry Peak area can be further subdivided into the Portland district, lying on the northwest of Nevada Gulch and the Ruby Basin district to the southeast. Since 1877, when the first lode claims where located in these districts, problems extracting the fine gold particles from the ore seemed insurmountable. In a general manner, the miners had categorized the types of ore found in the Deadwood sediments as red ore and blue ore. Red ore was simply oxidized ore, while the blue ore was the unoxidized or the primary counterpart. The gold within both ore types was microscopic, sometimes on the order of 1 to 3 microns in size (this was verified during modern mining activities). Not amendable to ordinary amalgamation to extract the gold, the geologists termed these ores as “refractory”.  The red ore, while still somewhat refractory was more susceptible to straight cyanide treatment and yielded about 70 to 85% of its gold. The blue ore, because of its siliceous nature, however, yielded sometimes less than 35% (Clow, 2002).  In an attempt to boost recovery on their blue ore, the Golden Reward Gold Mining Company installed a barrel chlorinator in 1889. The Deadwood and Delaware Smelting Company built a smelter in Deadwood soon after. Both processes were successful in recovering gold from both the red and blue ores, however both processes were expensive. As a Black Hills leader in gold recovery techniques, the Golden Reward Company installed the first chlorination plant in the Black Hills to recover the gold from the unyielding refractory ores. Later, the company sent tailings from this plant to Denver for further trials using cyanide treatment. As a result of the success of these experiments, the Golden Reward Company installed cyanide-leaching tanks at its chlorination plant in Deadwood in 1892.  Although these tanks were experimental, it resulted in a full modification of the chlorination plant using cyanide on its refractory ores in 1894. 

The original Golden Reward Company was organized in 1887 in the Ruby Basin district at the base of Terry Peak. The holdings were increased late in 1897 and the company was reorganized as the Golden Reward Consolidated Gold Mining & Milling Company. The property at that time contained more than 440 patented claims or about 3,400 acres of land. Early in 1895, the Golden Reward Mining Company showed as the product of six days work a flat brick worth $17,000 (Kingsbury, 1915). By 1901 it was estimated that eight million dollars worth of gold had been taken out of the Black Hills region. Golden Reward ranked second with $1.2 million behind the $4.3 million of Homestake’s. This standing continued until 1918 when high costs as a result of World War I caused Golden Reward to close. By this time, the Golden Reward had produced approximately $21 million or 371,000 ounces in gold.  Though not achieving the attention and glory of the Holy Terror and the Uncle Sam mines with spectacular gold specimens, rich veins, and headline stories, the Golden Reward’s production figures dwarfed both of these mines as well as countless others in the Black Hills as a result of its innovative recovery techniques. 

According to Allsman (1940), the conglomerate of mines held by the company was mined through multiple levels and over 30 miles of underground workings.

Only Precambrian, Cambrian Deadwood Formation, and Tertiary intrusive rocks are exposed in the area. Veinlet, breccia and hydrothermal replacement deposits occur in the Deadwood Formation in and adjacent to sub-vertical fracture systems and intrusions. Early in the mining efforts these fractures were simply called “verticals”. The fracture systems in the Deadwood Formation acted as conduits for presumably rising hydrothermal solutions.  The ores typically replaced dolomitic and limestone strata, which were undoubtedly more susceptible to replacement by the hydrothermal fluids. The author, through personal experience has studied these replacement zones, while mapping at two of the modern gold mines within the Bald Mountain area:

The alteration zones of the Deadwood are commonly decalcified.  Lineal extents outward from a “vertical” reach over 200 feet and are depleted of all carbonate content normally found in the limestone beds. What is left behind is a friable, sandy or clayey mass with absolutely no cementation whatsoever. Surprisingly, these areas assay up to 2 ounces per ton of gold. Closer to the “vertical” the same stratum show a complete replacement by silica. These siliceous areas are apparently the unoxidized zone and contain the blue ores encountered in the historic mines. The siliceous zones may have been created by a separate “pulse” or stage in the hydrothermal events, which followed directly behind the period of decalcification. The alteration patterns create bizarre mineral assemblages. Fluorite for instance occurs as sandy or clayey fillings of bright purple replacements of the original cement but yet possess no cementing qualities. The blue ore was always the most interesting in that many unidentified micro-minerals occur. Recent analysis identified pharmacosiderite, pyromorphite, and cerargyrite. Old reports indicate the presence of sylvanite in the blue ore.  At the Ross Hannibal mine, part of the Golden Reward holdings, recent open pit mining uncovered an area rich in the rare mineral sincosite (Loomis, 1996). This find is interesting in that it represented enrichment of the Deadwood sediments with vanadium and phosphate, something not yet observed in the entire district. The original sincosite find was discovered in the 1890’s in the underground Ross Hannibal workings. However, it was misidentified as torbernite. Had it not been for this mistake, the Ross Hannibal would have been the type locality. As it was, Sincos, Peru became the type locality in 1924.

 Postscript 

Through the last one hundred and twenty years the Black Hills has been one of the great mining regions in the world. It’s hard to say when gold mining reached its peak in the Black Hills. By using just the shear numbers of mines, probably the late 1890’s or the turn of the century could have been considered a peak. But as more financial capital and the railroads entered the mining scene, many mines began to consolidate in the 1890’s. Advancements in technology enabled increased production and the gold standard of $20.67 per troy ounce set by the U.S. government in 1900 was steadily raised to $25.56 in 1933. To further complicate manners, in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned the export of gold, and ordered all U.S. citizens to hand in all the gold they possessed.  By 1935 Roosevelt fixed the price at $35 per ounce. This price held as until 1970 when the gold standard was abandoned. Soon after in 1973, the U.S. Dollar was removed from the gold standard, and gold prices were allowed to “float free” according to the Gold Institute. By June of that year, the market for gold in London reached more than $120 per ounce. Furthermore, World War II caused the shutdown of all gold production in the Hills. Although Homestake resumed production, most mines never recovered. Gold production experienced a huge boom in the 1980’s due to important advances in exploration, mining and processing technologies and gold reached an historic high of $870 per ounce.

 As a result of the new technology and the surge in gold price, the Black Hills experienced another gold rush. Four open pit mines began operating in the Black Hills during the 1980’s. These mines included the Annie Creek, the Gilt Edge, the Richmond Hill, and the new Golden Reward mine. Mining and processing these deposits through bulk minable, cyanide heap leach technology made the waste left behind by the “old-timers” profitable and the same old districts, which included the Portland, and the Ruby Basin district were back in business.  Through these means it can be said that the 1980’s were perhaps the peak of gold mining in the Black Hills. But as if haunted by the ghost miners of the past, one by one, the new open pit mines were shut down. Sulfides and the refractory ores that troubled the mines 100 years prior raised hell once again. Today, a year after Homestake mined its last ton of ore, only one mine remains – Wharf’s Annie Creek mine, now simply called “the Wharf mine”. Through the years, Wharf has encountered little of these so-called refractory ores and has managed to produce over 1.2 million ounces of gold since 1983. By approximately 2006 the Wharf mine is projected to mine its last ton of ore. And as John Begeman, the general manager at Wharf, so aptly stated in the Rapid City Journal: “…. and the Black Hills gold rush will have ended”.  

Special Notice

Please note: Access to most of the mines in the Black Hills are restricted if not all together forbidden. Most of the mines mentioned in this article are within private property and permission must be given by the landowner for entry. In many cases the entry will be denied. As with all mines, dangerous conditions exist. Holes, rock walls, shafts, water hazards, equipment, blasting material, large boulders, dangerous rock slopes and many other hazards endanger your safety. The author and any aforementioned groups and /or organizations including MATRIX magazine will not give permission to enter any mine property and thus will not assume any liability whatsoever. 

References

Allsman, P. T. (1940) Reconnaissance of gold-mining districts in the Black Hills, South Dakota: United States Bureau of Mines Bull. 427. 

Amey, E. B. (2002) United States Geological Survey, pers. comm. 

Black Hills Mining Review (1898) “The Black Hills” v. 4, n. 10. 

Cepak, M. (2002) South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Nov. 18.   

Clow, R. L. (2002) Chasing the glitter, Black Hills milling 1874-1959: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, Pierre, South Dakota. 

Connolly, J. D. and O’Harra, C. C. (1929) The mineral wealth of the Black Hills: South Dakota School of Mines Bull. 16 

Fielder, M. (1972) A guide to Black Hills gold mines: Aberdeen, S. Dak., North Plains Press. 

Gerken, Ed. Trails of Time Publishing POB 747, Hill City, SD 57745 USA

Gold Institute (2002) website. 

Irving, J. D. (1904) Economic resources of the northern Black Hills, United States Geological Survey Prof. Paper n. 426. 

Kingsbury, G. W. (1915) History of Dakota Territory: vol. III. 

Linde, M. (1976) Rushmore’s Golden Valleys, Permelia Publishing, Keystone, South Dakota. 

Linde, T. B. (1978) The Holy Terror- history of a gold mine: Lapidary Journal v. 1, p. 2140. 

Loomis, T. A. (1999) The Ross Hannibal mine, Lawrence County, South Dakota: The Mineralogical Record v. 30, n. 3. 

O’Harra, C. C. (1902) The mineral wealth of the Black Hills: South Dakota School of Mines Bull. 6 

O’Harra, C. C. (1929) The mineral wealth of the Black Hills: The Black Hills Engineer, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, v. 17, no. 1. 

Porter, K. E. and Amey, E. B. (2002) United States Geological Survey, Open File report 01-006. 

Smith, F. C. (1898) The Potsdam gold-ores of the Black Hills of South Dakota: American Institute of Mining Engineers Transactions, v. 25.