1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lead (South Dakota)

LEAD (pronounced leed), a city of Lawrence county, South Dakota, U.S.A., situated in the Black Hills, at an altitude of about 5300 ft., 3 m. S.W. of Deadwood. Pop. (1890) 2581, (1900) 6210, of whom 2145 were foreign-born, (1905) 8217, (1910) 8392. In 1905 it was second in population among the cities of the state. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & North-Western, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways. Lead has a hospital, the Hearst Free Library and the Hearst Free Kindergarten, and is the see of a Roman Catholic bishopric. It is the centre of the mining interests of the Black Hills, and the Homestake Gold Mine here contains perhaps the largest and most easily worked mass of low-grade ore and one of the largest mining plants (1000 stamps) in the world; it has also three cyanide mills. From 1878 to 1906 the value of the gold taken from this mine amounted to about $58,000,000, and the net value of the product of 1906 alone was approximately $5,313,516. For two months in the spring of 1907 the mine was rendered idle by a fire (March 25), which was so severe that it was necessary to flood the entire mine. Mining tools and gold jewelry are manufactured. The first settlement was made here by mining prospectors in July 1876. Lead was chartered as a city in 1890 and became a city of the first class in 1904.