Touring an underground gold mine
Located in Deadwood, South Dakota, you can take a tour of an underground gold mine that was utilized over 100 years ago.
Established in 1878, it is called Broken Boot Gold Mine. It is open daily from 8 AM to 6 PM, and tours run every thirty minutes.
The mine closed in 1904 and reopened in 1917, but then closed for good the following year. The mine was unoccupied for many years. But in the 1950’s, when the gold mine was being renovated so it could be reopened as a tourist attraction, an old worn boot along with other relics were found in a chamber. So, that is how the mine got its name.
Taken by the lead of a tour guide, you take about a half hour walk through the gold mine. You enter one way and exit another. The ceiling is low at times, so you’re given a hard hat to protect yourself from hitting your head.
In 1878, Olaf Seim and James Nelson came to South Dakota in search for gold, which is how this gold mine started. It produced about 15,000 ounces of gold over 26 years. Apparently, that is not too much.
Not only did they find gold, but they found plenty of iron pyrite, commonly referred to as fool’s gold. However, this ironically turned out to be beneficial to them, because iron pyrite was in demand due to its usefulness to make sulfuric acid which is used in the processing of actual gold. Actually, it turned out that the mine made more profit from selling fool’s gold.
The tour guide informed us that back when people worked in the mines, there were no lights or wooden beams to support the metal from falling like there are now. They had to use candle light and even had to crawl through holes to get in and out of the mine, as there was no comfortable entrance and exit like there is today. With that said, it can be inferred that this was a dangerous job with inherent risk involved.
It turns out that there is a water underground and it is located through this small window! You can walk up to it and look through the opening with a flashlight. Not only that, but when you reach this part of the mine in the tour, the tour guide turns off all the lights in the mine and lights a candle, so you get a perspective of what it looked like for the miners that first occupied the space for work.
The temperature of the mine was pretty cold. As you can see, the thermometer showed that is was just about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (about 15.55 degrees Celsius).
Broken Boot Gold Mine has now been a tourist attraction for longer than it was used as a mine! Taking a tour of this place was a worthwhile activity that provided insight on some of the history of Deadwood. Overall, I learned a lot. When you’re in South Dakota, it’s worth a stop!