The Homestake lode, the basis for the great Homestake Mining Company, was discovered by Moses Manuel, who, with his brother Fred, had come to the Black Hills in 1875. The two brothers, along with Hank Harney, officially located the claim on April 9, 1876. The claims were later sold to a San Francisco syndicate consisting of Senator George Hearst, Lloyd Tevis, and J.B. Haggin.
The Homestake Mining Company was incorporated on November 5, 1877, with $10,000,000 capital. With the completion of an 80-stamp mill in July of 1878, Homestake was ready to begin full-scale production, a first step in the development of one of the great gold mining enterprises of the world.
The site of the original discovery of the Homestake ledge has long since disappeared into Lead's Open Cut. Approximately 40 million tons of rock was taken from this once-solid mountain between 1876 and 1945, most of it drawn from underground operations. The Cut then sat idle for many years, until mining was resumed in 1983.
Most of the mining, however, has been, and still is, done underground, and the mine is presently at a depth of 8,000 feet - over a mile and a half beneath the surface!
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