Lead, South Dakota
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Lead ( ) is a city in Lawrence County,
South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
, United States. The population was 2,982 at the 2020 census. Lead is located in western South Dakota, in the
Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk P ...
near the
Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
state line.


History

The city was officially founded on July 10, 1876, after the discovery of
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
. The city was named for the leads or
lode In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 17t ...
s of the deposits of valuable ores. It is the site of the
Homestake Mine Homestake Mine is the name for several mines in the United States: * Homestake Mine (Nevada), listed in the National Register of Historic Places * Homestake Mine (South Dakota) The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine (8,000 feet or 2, ...
, the largest, deepest () and most productive gold mine in the
Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...
before closing in January 2002. By 1910, Lead had a population of 8,382, making it the second largest town in South Dakota. Lead was founded as a company town by the
Homestake Mining Company Homestake Mining Company was one of the largest gold mining businesses in the United States and the owner of the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota. Founded in 1877, it was acquired by Barrick Gold in December 2001. Homestake was the longest- ...
, which ran the nearby Homestake Mine.
Phoebe Hearst Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst Mus ...
, wife of
George Hearst George Hearst (September 3, 1820 – February 28, 1891) was an American businessman, miner, and politician. After growing up on a small farm in Missouri, he founded many mining operations, and is known for developing and expanding the Hom ...
, one of the principals, was instrumental in making Lead more livable. She established the Hearst Free Public Library in town, and in 1900 the Hearst Free Kindergarten. Phoebe Hearst and Thomas Grier, the Homestake Mine superintendent, worked together to create the Homestake Opera House and Recreation Center for the benefit of miner workers and their families. Phoebe Hearst donated regularly to Lead's churches, and provided college scholarships from Lead–Deadwood school which holds a staff of over 130 to the children of mine and mill workers. In the early 1930s, due to fear of cave-ins of the miles of tunnels under Lead's Homestake Mine, many of the town's buildings located in the bottom of a canyon were moved further uphill to safer locations. Lead and the Homestake Mine have been selected as the site of the
Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), or Sanford Lab, is an underground laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. The deepest underground laboratory in the United States, it houses multiple experiments in areas such as dark matter and neutrino ...
, a proposed NSF facility for low-background experiments on neutrinos, dark matter, and other nuclear physics topics, as well as biology and mine engineering studies. In 1974, most of Lead was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
under the name of the "Lead Historic District". Over four hundred buildings and were included in the
historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
, which has boundaries roughly equivalent to the city limits.


Geography

Lead is located at (44.350967, -103.765784). According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the city has a total area of , all land. Lead has been assigned the ZIP code 57754 and the
FIPS place code The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) of the United States are a set of publicly announced standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed for use in computer systems of non-military, American ...
36220. Two prominent manmade features of Lead's geography are the giant open cut, which was used for surface gold mining by the Homestake Mine, and the resulting ridge nearby built with the non-producing material from the cut.


Climate

Lead has a
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Dfb'') with warm summers and cold, very snowy winters with the typical extremely variable temperatures of the western Great Plains. Its high elevation in the
Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk P ...
makes Lead one of the wettest places in South Dakota and among the snowiest places in the contiguous United States with a mean snowfall of . During the cold and snowy winter of 1993–94, a whopping of snow fell and three years later snowfall totalled . However, frequent
chinook wind Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from ...
s mean that most of the enormous snowfall melts during the winter: the highest snow cover on record is on March 1, 1998 – during a storm that totalled of snow (water equivalent ) over six days ending March 2. Mean snow depth in January is only and the median even less at . 12.9 mornings can be expected to fall to or below , with the average window for zero temperatures being December 7 to March 3; on the other hand during winter 12.8 afternoons can be expected to get to or above . The coldest temperature has been on February 8, 1936. During the spring, weather becomes very changeable with frequent severe storms: the first maximum of at least can be expected on April 17, but the last spring freeze normally does not occur until May 24. The spring is also the wettest season owing to the frequent storms, with the wettest month of May 1965 seeing of precipitation. The wettest year – and a South Dakota calendar year record – has been 2013 with and the driest 1936 with . Summers are very warm in the afternoon, but mornings are pleasantly cool: frost-level temperatures occurred in July 1921 and in the Augusts of 1910 and 1911, with August 1910 seeing a freak snowstorm of . The hottest temperature has been on July 7, 1936 during a notorious Plains heat wave. Precipitation is lower in summer than in spring, and declines further into the fall and winter as temperatures cool. Fall weather is similarly variable in temperature, as is the spring; however, the fall period tends to be less prone to severe weather.


Demographics


2010 census

At the 2010 census there were 3,124 people in 1,420 households, including 828 families, in the city. The population density was . There were 1,694 housing units at an average density of . The
racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
of the city was 94.6% White, 0.3% African American, 2.0% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.9%. Of the 1,420 households 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.6% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 41.7% were non-families. 35.1% of households were one person and 10.8% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.82. The median age was 40.5 years. 23.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.3% were from 25 to 44; 31.5% were from 45 to 64; and 12.7% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.3% male and 49.7% female.


2000 census

At the 2000 census there were 3,027 people in 1,279 households, including 832 families, in the city. The population density was 1,521.5 people per square mile (587.3/km). There were 1,617 housing units at an average density of 812.8 per square mile (313.7/km). The
racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
of the city was 95.74% White, 0.23% African American, 2.25% Native American, 0.20% Asian, 0.59% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.71%. 36.5% were of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
, 8.1%
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, 7.8%
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
, 7.1%
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...
and 6.7%
American ancestry American ancestry refers to people in the United States who self-identify their ancestral origin or descent as "American," rather than the more common officially recognized racial and ethnic groups that make up the bulk of the American peop ...
according to
Census 2000 The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 cen ...
. Of the 1,279 households 33.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.8% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.9% were non-families. 29.2% of households were one person and 11.8% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.89. The age distribution was 26.1% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 30.2% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.0% 65 or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.8 males. As of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $29,485, and the median family income was $35,855. Males had a median income of $25,958 versus $18,841 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,726. About 10.7% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 15.7% of those under age 18 and 12.9% of those age 65 or over.


Recreation

In the summer, there are numerous trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horse back riding. The George S. Mickelson Trail, which runs from Edgemont to Deadwood, runs through the city. Several man made lakes, including Sheridan Lake provide fishing and swimming.
Spearfish Canyon Spearfish Canyon is a deep but narrow gorge carved by Spearfish Creek located in Lawrence County, South Dakota, U.S., just south of Spearfish. The canyon is located within the Black Hills, located on the northern edge of the Black Hills Natio ...
to the north has many places to rock climb. During the winter there are two ski areas just a few miles outside of Lead.
Terry Peak per yr --> , snowmaking = , nightskiing = , external_linkterrypeak.com } Terry Peak is a mountain and ski area in the west central United States, in the Black Hills of South Dakota outside of Lead. With an elevation of above sea level, it is ...
and Deer Mountain are both full service ski areas.


Local media

AM radio * KBHB 810 * KKLS 920 *
KDSJ KDSJ (980 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a full-service format. Licensed to Deadwood, South Dakota, United States, the station serves the Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiib ...
980 * KTOQ 1340 * KBFS 1450 FM radio * KRCS 93.1 * KKMK 93.9 *
KSQY KSQY (95.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a mainstream rock format. The station known as "K-SKY" is licensed to Deadwood, South Dakota and serves the Rapid City listening area. K-SKY is owned by Haugo Broadcasting, Inc. History 95.1 K-SK ...
95.1 * KZZI 95.9 * KOUT 98.7 *
KFXS KFXS (100.3 FM, "Real Rock 100.3 The Fox") is a radio station licensed to serve Rapid City, South Dakota. The station is owned by HomeSlice Media Group, LLC. It airs a classic rock music format. Notable on-air personalities include D. Ray Kn ...
100.3 * KDDX 101.1 *
KFMH KFMH (101.9 FM, "Kool 101.9") is a radio station licensed to serve Belle Fourche, South Dakota. The station serves Rapid City, South Dakota, with an on-channel broadcast booster licensed as KFMH-FM1. The station is owned by Oregon Trail Broadcas ...
101.9 *
KYDT KYDT (103.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Pine Haven, Wyoming, United States, it serves the Sundance, Wyoming and Belle Fourche, South Dakota region of the Black Hills. It is currently owned by ...
103.1 * KIQK 104.1 Television * KHSD Ch. 11
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
* KCLO Ch. 16
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
*
KNBN KNBN (channel 21) is a television station in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with NBC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Jim Simpson's Rapid Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on South Plaza Drive in Rapid City, and its tran ...
Ch. 21
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
* KBHE-TV Ch. 26
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...


Notable people

*
Richard Bullock Richard "Dick" Bullock (20 August 1847 –7 February 1920) was a Cornishman who once sang in a Methodist choir and later became a legendary figure of the Wild West Cowboy era. His quick-shooting deeds working on the Deadwood stage gained him th ...
(1847–1921),
American pioneer American pioneers were European American and African American settlers who migrated westward from the Thirteen Colonies and later United States to settle in and develop areas of North America that had previously been inhabited or used by Nati ...
*
Sean Covel Sean Covel is an American film producer best known for being a producer of ''Napoleon Dynamite''. Early life Covel grew up in Edgemont, South Dakotaand attended college at the University of Nebraska, Kearney, majoring in Broadcast Management ...
(b. 1976), film producer * James B. Dunn (1927–2016), South Dakota legislator *
Thomas D. Edwards Thomas D. Edwards (1847–1935) was the U.S. Consul (representative), Consul at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 1905–17 and Cornwall, Ontario, 1919–22. Biography Edwards was born on April 30, 1847, in Floyd, New York to John and Mary Evans, immigrants ...
,
Consul General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
of the United States to
Ciudad Juarez Ciudad () is the Spanish word for City Ciudad may also refer to: *La Ciudad (archaeological site), Hohokam ruins in Phoenix, Arizona *La Ciudad, district of Durango City, Mexico *''La ciudad'', novel by Mario Levrero 1970 *La Ciudad ''The City'' ...
*
Stan Gibilisco Stanley Gibilisco (1955 - 3 May 2020) was a nonfiction writer. He authored books in the fields of electronics, general science, mathematics, and computing. Biography Gibilisco began his career in 1977 as a radio technician and editorial assistant ...
, writer *
John Miljan John Miljan (November 9, 1892 – January 24, 1960) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1924 and 1958. Biography Born in 1892, Miljan was the tall, smooth-talking villain in Hollywood films for almost four deca ...
(1892–1960), actor *
Charles Moyer Charles H. "Charlie" Moyer (1866 – June 2, 1929) was an American labor leader and president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) from 1902 to 1926. He led the union through the Colorado Labor Wars, was accused of murdering an ex-govern ...
(1866–1929),
labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
leader and former president of the
Western Federation of Miners The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into s ...
* William H. Parker (1905–1966), former
chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...
of the
Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
*
Len Rice Leonard Oliver Rice (September 2, 1918 – June 13, 1992) was an American Major League Baseball catcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1944) and the Chicago Cubs (1945). A native of Lead, South Dakota, he stood tall and weighed . Rice is ...
(1918–1992), baseball player * Mina P. Shaughnessy (1924–1978), professor at the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
and pioneering scholar of
basic writing Basic writing, or developmental writing, is a subdiscipline of composition studies which focuses on the writing of students sometimes otherwise called "remedial" or "underprepared", usually freshman college students. Definition Sometimes called " ...
* Mike Steponovich (1908–1974), football player with the Boston Redskins * Charles Windolph (1851–1950), recipient of the
Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
and the last surviving white participant in the
Battle of Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota people, Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lako ...


References


External links

*
Lead Tourism
{{Authority control Black Hills Cities in South Dakota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota Cities in Lawrence County, South Dakota Populated places established in 1876 1876 establishments in Dakota Territory Mining communities in South Dakota National Register of Historic Places in Lawrence County, South Dakota Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places