Mining local history at Deep Talks

Today, the deep underground shafts and drifts at Sanford Underground Research Facility (Sanford Lab) host cutting-edge research experiments. Just twenty years ago, however, this underground system housed Homestake Mining Company (Homestake), the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, which produced approximately 41 million ounces of gold in its 126-year lifetime. 

This robust industry rose from a modest beginning. In the 1800s, individual prospectors with small claims formed pockets of tent cities amidst the Black Hills.

“Knowledge, capital and an incredible appetite for risk—that’s what it took to create the venture of gold mining in the Black Hills,” said David Vardiman, geotechnical project engineer at Sanford Lab who previously worked for twenty-one years at Homestake.

At the upcoming event “Deep Talks: Historic characters of Black Hills mining,” Vardiman’s expertise in mining and geology will combine with a personal passion for local and national history for a presentation. This Deep Talks, Science for Everyone event begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, at the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center in Lead, S.D.

“The presentation will be a thumbnail sketch of the history of the Whitewood Quartz Mining District,” said Vardiman. “This district in the northern Black Hills was home to hundreds of mining claims, many of which were grafted into Homestake.”

While gold mining didn’t begin in earnest until the late 1800s, European explorers visited the region as early as 1741, with the French La Verendrye Brother’s Expedition. Later, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through the region in 1804, eventually followed by General Custer in the 1870s. With the discovery of gold, early prospectors flocked to the area, forming tent cities that slowly grew into an industrious mining district.

“We will get into the personalities of these historic figures, looking at the incredible entrepreneurial spirit that existed in the U.S. at that time,” said Vardiman. “The personal risk these people took to come into this area was huge. Some were incredibly successful—the majority were not.”

In 1877, three key figures formed the Homestake Mining Company: George Hearst, Lloyd Tevis, and James Ben Ali Haggin.

“It took an incredible wild craft to survive in remote locations while prospecting with little resources, gradually building a mining empire,” Vardiman said.

Vardiman is especially interested in the headstrong personality of Homestake's George Hearst. Hearst grew up in Missouri, then headed west in 1850 during the California Gold Rush before setting his sights on prospects in the Midwest.

“I grew up twenty miles from where Hearst was raised in the Merrimack River Valley, Franklin Country, Missouri. I also worked on the west coast, looking for gold deposits, before coming to work at Homestake,” said Vardiman. “Hearst’s own story—going from a small farming family in Missouri to becoming mining industry entrepreneur—is phenomenal history.”

Deep Talks is held at the Visitor Center, 160 W. Main Street, in Lead. The event begins at 5 p.m. with a social hour that includes free beer (must be 21 and older to drink) and light snacks. Deep Talks is sponsored by Crow Peak Brewing Company of Spearfish, S.D.