Qualla: Homestake Mine

Homestake Mine: Introduction

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. "White men would kill every Indian on the plains if they found out about the gold." Missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet spoke these words to the Lakota people, warning them to guard their secret. They did, for a time. But in 1876, Fred and Moses Manuel, Alex Engh, and Hank Harney discovered the Homestake deposit during the Black Hills Gold Rush, and everything De Smet feared came true. The mine that followed would burrow 8,000 feet into the earth, operate continuously for 125 years, and transform from one of history's most ruthless business ventures into a laboratory hunting for particles that pass through the entire planet.

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Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Homestake Mine: Hearst's Empire

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James St. John, CC BY 2.0. George Hearst arrived in Deadwood in October 1877 with $70,000 and ambitions that stretched far beyond any single claim. He bought the Homestake deposit from its discoverers and proceeded to consolidate the surrounding territory through methods both legal and violent. When a man ...

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Image: James St. John | CC BY 2.0

Homestake Mine: A Century of Gold

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V., Public domain. The Homestake Mining Company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1879 and remained listed until 2001, one of the longest continuous listings in NYSE history. The mine grew ever deeper, eventually descending 8,000 feet below the surface. Mules and horses hauled ore until...

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Image: Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V. | Public domain

Homestake Mine: From Treasure to Science

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stanton W. Caddey, Richard L. Bachman, Thomas J. Campbell, Rolland R. Reid, and Robert P. Otto (USGS), Public domain. The story could have ended there, another exhausted mine left to flood and decay. Instead, physicists recognized that Homestake's depth offered something equally valuable: shielding from cosmic radiation. In the mid-1960s, Raymond Davis Jr. established a laboratory deep in the mi...

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Image: Stanton W. Caddey, Richard L. Bachman, Thomas J. Campbell, Rolland R. Reid, and Robert P. Otto (USGS) | Public domain

Homestake Mine: The Deepest Laboratory

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation, Public domain. Barrick Gold corporation kept the pumps running at $250,000 per month while scientists lobbied for the mine's future. When negotiations stalled, the company switched off the equipment on June 10, 2003, and water began rising through the tunnels. But the scientific potential prove...

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Image: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation | Public domain