Visitor Center sees tremendous growth

Since June 2015, thousands of visitors, many tourists, visited the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. They go through the exhibit hall, hit golf balls off the observation deck, shop and take selfies in the ring sculpture. Groups hold meetings in the classroom, couples tie the knot and buses roll in for a tour of Lead or lesson in science. And each year, the number of visitors increases.

“Our visitor numbers are up by 20 percent and revenues are up by 32 percent,” said Billi Bierle, executive director of the SLHVC. “That’s a really big deal and it means we’re getting the word out.”

Mike Headley, executive director of the SDSTA, said the Visitor Center numbers are impressive and he believes the next few years will only get better.

“We’re really excited about the progress the Visitor Center has seen over the past couple of years,” Headley said. “It’s a great facility that beautifully tells the stories about Lead, Homestake and the science at Sanford Lab. Billi and her team do a tremendous job bringing tourists in and making their experience fun.”

Bierle attributes much of the Visitor Center’s growth to a new trend in tourism. “Surprisingly, the trend is not toward Walt Disney World. More families want to get outdoors,” she said. “Lead’s natural beauty and other attractions are a real draw.”

She also believes the Sanford Lab is a contributing factor. “People read or hear about the science and that intrigues them, so they come to Lead to learn more about what’s happening.”

But Bierle and her team don’t rely on word of mouth, trends or news articles to get tourists to Lead. Bierle works with local tourism groups and regularly attends the American Bus Association conference, where she meets with dozens of touring companies over a three-day period.

“It’s like speed dating,” she said of the frantic pace. “You have seven minutes to get someone to fall in love with you and want to come to your facility. But it’s the follow up that really matters.”

It must be working. This year, 135 buses are scheduled to stop at the Visitor Center—25 more than last year. And they always have the unscheduled buses—at least one per week. Whether scheduled or not, Bierle said her teams rolls out the red carpet. They do step-on tours, in which a Visitor Center guide gets on the tour bus and drives through Lead and up to Sanford Lab for a surface tour, or give them a Trolley ride. Some groups just want to shop, while others, like the Road Scholars, want to learn all about the history of Lead and the science at Sanford Lab.

“Really small things make all the difference, so we try hard to make sure their experience is the best it can be,” Bierle said.

Sarah Carlson, executive director of the Historic Homestake Opera House, serves as the president of the Visitor Center Board. She believes Bierle's dedication to outreach and marketing, as well as partnership building made the difference.

"Through Billi's efforts in sharing the unique mine-to-lab story in the engaging and approachable SLHVC, additional buses and travel groups are starting to take notice," Carlson said. "Solid relationships have been established with our educational and cultural tourism partners locally in the Northern Hills, and also throughout the region and beyond through Black Hills Badlands Tourism Association and SD Tourism. The city of Lead is being brought to the forefront of discussions with new audiences because of the goals and plans of the future as presented by the SDSTA. I encourage Lead citizens and readers alike to find ways to get involved with their community as planning continues in several growing organizations such as the SLHVC, and they're making great progress – together."

When the frenetic pace of summer ends, the Visitor Center begins to focus on education, bringing in more than 4,000 students from October to March. Kids to edible chemistry and quarky physics but they also learn about the value of philanthropy.

“We always do a lesson on that because of Phoebe Hearst and T. Denny Sanford,” Bierle said.

Hearst, was married to George Hearst, who, along with three others, turned the Homestake Mine into the largest gold producer in the Western Hemisphere. Phoebe Hearst started the first kindergarten in Lead and financed the library and Opera House, among other entities. Sanford donated $70 million to the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority to help fund the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

The Visitor Center also partners with the Historic Homestake Opera House and the Black Hills Mining museum for the educational ventures. “Sarah does a great job talking about the facility and demonstrating the acoustics—she has an amazing voice,” Bierli said. “And the Mining Museum is just cool.”

“The Visitor Center is a great addition to our community,” said Mike Stahl, city manager. “It’s a quality visitor center and we really needed that. It’s very well run, and is highly recommended by many people. Everyone who goes there is amazed and finds it spectacular.”

The Visitor Center was built with funding from Sanford Lab and the two entities often do joint events and work together to enhance exhibits. One example of that partnerships is the new LUX exhibit, which was unveiled in July.

“We have similar missions and we all want to get people excited about science,” Bierle said. “You just never know when you might be talking to the next Einstein.