From Lead into the Spearfish Canyon

 

On Monday afternoon we left Deadwood towards the Spearfish Canyon and passed through nearby Lead. Like Deadwood, the city was officially founded in 1876, as a company town by the Homestake Mining Company. The mine was the largest, deepest and most productive gold mine in the Western Hemisphere before closing in 2002 (photo below).

The Hearst family from California was instrumental in making Lead more livable, establishing a library, a Kindergarten, an Opera House and other buildings.

Nowadays, Lead and the Homestake Mine are hosting the Sanford Underground Research Facility ("Sanford Lab"/SURF), researching low-background experiments on neutrinos, dark matter, and other nuclear physics topics. Wish we would have known before and gotten a tour arranged in the Mining Museum and at SURF.

 

On we drove along the beautiful Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway (left) to our hotel, the Spearfish Canyon Lodge (right). We checked in and went for a hike to the Roughlock Falls. Leafs were still showing gorgeous colors, it was really warm (80 deg F/26 C), but plesantly cool and fresh on the trail. Just a beautiful landscape surrounded by towering limestone cliffs.

Little chipmunks everywhere,,,