Editing Lead, South Dakota (section)

==History==
The city was officially founded on July 10, 1876, after the discovery of [[gold]]. The city was named for the leads or [[lode]]s of the deposits of valuable ores.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA93|year=1908|page=93|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428015604/https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA93|archive-date=2016-04-28}}</ref> It is the site of the [[Homestake Mine (South Dakota)|Homestake Mine]], the largest, deepest ({{convert|8240|ft|m|disp=sqbr}}) and most productive gold mine in the [[Western Hemisphere]] before closing in January 2002.  By 1910, Lead had a population of 8,382, making it the second largest town in South Dakota.<ref>Severson, Trudy. - [http://www.homestaketour.com/history.html 'History of the Homestake Gold Mine'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213232457/http://homestaketour.com/history.html |date=2009-02-13 }}. - Homestake Visitor Center.</ref>

Lead was founded as a company town by the [[Homestake Mining Company]], which ran the nearby Homestake Mine. [[Phoebe Hearst]], wife of [[George Hearst]], 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.<ref>Smith, Duane A. - "Here's to low-grade ore and plenty of it, the Hearsts and the Homestake mine". - ''Mining Engineering''. - September 2003. - p.23-27.</ref>

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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E-IDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Popular+Science+1933+plane+%22Popular+Mechanics%22&pg=PA582 "City Moved to Make Room for a Gold Mine"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603165158/https://books.google.com/books?id=E-IDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA582&dq=Popular+Science+1933+plane+%22Popular+Mechanics%22&hl=en&ei=v_wHTomlB6H30gG6tLzMCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&sqi=2&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA |date=2016-06-03 }} April 1933, ''Popular Mechanics''</ref>

Lead and the Homestake Mine are the site of the [[Sanford Underground Research Facility]], or Sanford Lab, a NSF facility for low-background experiments on neutrinos, dark matter, and other nuclear physics topics, as well as biology and mine engineering studies.  <ref>News: [https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109694&org=NSF&from=news "Team Selected for the Proposed Design of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403043134/https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109694&org=NSF&from=news |date=2010-04-03 }}. - U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).</ref>

In 1974, most of Lead was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] under the name of the "Lead Historic District". Over four hundred buildings and {{convert|580|acre|ha}} were included in the [[historic district (United States)|historic district]], which has boundaries roughly equivalent to the city limits.<ref name=nris />
[[Image:Homestake Mine Pit.jpg|thumb|right|The Homestake Mine pit in Lead]]