Why Homestake as an underground research lab?
Prospectors Moses and Fred Manuel discovered the Homestake Ledge on April 9, 1876. The brothers sank a shaft, built a crude mill, and took out $5,000 worth of gold that spring. The city of Lead was named for that outcropping of ore, referred to as a lead and pronounced “leed.” George Hearst sent L.D. Kellogg, an experienced practical miner, to investigate promising reports of new Black Hills gold discoveries in June of 1877. Following a brief investigation, he optioned the Homestake and Golden Star claims for $70,000 less a strip of land 10-feet wide originally deeded by the Manuels to H.B. Young (this parcel of land was subsequently acquired by Hearst and his partners). The Homestake Mining Company was formally incorporated in California on November 5, 1877. That was the beginning of the Homestake story and its list of accomplishments, both technological and civic, which continued for the next 125 years. Before closing in 2001, the Homestake was the oldest, largest and deepest mine in
