Touring The Black Hills Mining Museum
- Date Visited: July 15, 2021
- Address: 323 W. Main St U.S. 85, Lead, SD 57754
- Phone: (605) 584-1605
- Website
- Hours: Monday-Saturday 9 AM-5 PM (Seasonally)
- Price: Adults $8 for museum only or $15 for museum and mine tour - Children 9 and under Free
The Black Hills Mining Museum can be found on the main street in Lead, South Dakota just miles away from the historic town of Deadwood.
The museum is open seasonally from May to mid-October.
You may choose to view the small museum only or purchase a combo ticket for the museum and simulated underground mine tour (highly recommend). For a small fee, you can also pan your own gold.
The exhibits and displays located inside are dedicated to preserving the mining history of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Impressive dioramas show you just what the life of a miner looked like.
Mining equipment is also on display with descriptions of their function.
The display cases on the main floor of the museum are filled with memorabilia and objects from the mining era of the town and the surrounding area. It may be a smaller museum, but a ton of information is provided and there’s no shortage of artifacts to look at.
Though the museum upstairs is nice the real star of the show is the simulated underground gold mine tour.
In the basement of the building, they have recreated parts of the Homestake Gold Mine. This was the Western Hemisphere’s deepest gold mine and was located right in the city of Lead.
Thirty years ago more than 140 Homestake miners and former mine employees created a realistic set-up of the mine that shows the history of mining and 125 years of changes that followed.
David (I believe was his name) was an amazing tour guide. He and his family both worked in the mine and provided us with some great first-hand accounts of his time there.
The tour lasted a little over an hour but seemed to fly by.
As we stopped at each exhibit David provided us with history on not only the mine in Lead, but mining in general. The inner workings of equipment and procedures were discussed in detail and all questions were expertly answered.
When you’re walking through the passages it’s hard to believe some of the rooms they have constructed down there. A couple of the rooms and machinery within were rather large. I mean there were two little trains down there!
The attention to detail in setting up each section was incredible.
I ain’t gonna lie though some of those thirty year old mannequins were a little creepy, lol.
If you happen to be visiting Deadwood and have any interest in the history of mining I highly recommend you taking the fifteen minute drive down the road to check out the Black Hills Mining Museum.
For a reasonable price, you get to see a nice little museum and take an excellent tour through a simulated gold mine.
While in town check out the very cool Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center (it’s free), admire some murals in downtown Lead and grab a slice at the Pizza Lab on your way back to Deadwood.