CHAPTER XI

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.

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.

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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

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.