Across the gulch the drill sharpening shop where 3000 drills are sharpened each day, and the foundry and machine shop are points of interest. The noise of operation of the stamp mill night and day, 365 days in the year make its location easily determinable. Here 240 stamps each weighing 900 pounds and dropping at the rate of 90 times per minute crush to a powder 1000 tons of ore each 24 hours. To each ton of powdered rock is added 2400 gallons of water which wash it over the silver plated copper plates. In another building it is re-ground, and the coarsest portion or sands sent to the Cyanide Plant. Here solution is accomplished by the addition of potassium cyanide, and the gold then precipitated by the addition of zinc dust. The finer portion of the powder or the slime is piped to the Slime Plant at Deadwood, where the gold bearing powder is caught in filter presses and the gold then extracted as before.
The Homestake Pumping Plant at Hanna, 6 miles from Lead, and the Hydro-electric plant at Spearfish, 15 miles from Lead, furnish the water and power used in the Homestake properties. The Hydro-electric Plant is the largest of its kind in the Hills. The water is carried in a tunnel 5 miles long from the river in Spearfish Canyon, at a point 8 miles from Spearfish, to the reservoir on top of the ridge overlooking and directly south of the city. The three surge towers, on the pipe lines leading from the reservoir down the 700 foot drop to the power plant, may be seen for many miles.
SPEARFISH CANYON
There is probably no other scenic place in the Black Hills which has been given as much attention by tourists, photographers, and magazine writers as Spearfish Canyon. The Royal Gorge in Colorado, the Palisades of the Hudson and many other points of national scenic wonder may be found reproduced here on a scale perhaps less grand, but making up in beauty all that is lost in magnitude. Good automobile roads traverse long stretches of this canyon, entering it from Deadwood, and from Spearfish as platted herein. It is anticipated that in a few years the road will be made suitable for auto traffic the entire length of the canyon.
CRYSTAL CAVE
Crystal Cave, in the Northern Hills, is resplendent with stalactite and stalagmite formations and is quite different in general structure from Wind Cave. During 1913 it is expected that the construction of a new road from Deadwood will make this cave accessible to automobile tourists.
SYLVAN LAKE THE NEEDLES HARNEY PEAK
One of the most interesting places in the Hills from a scenic point of view is located about midway between Deadwood and Hot Springs. Harney Peak, the highest point in the Hills from which can be seen four states, the hundreds of Needles, some rising as much as 500 feet in cathedral tower like grandeur, the great varied vistas, and the quiet beauty of Sylvan Lake surrounded by monstrous rock walls and pine clad heights, all bring to one the realization of the real wonder and beauty of nature. Excellent hotel accommodations at Sylvan Lake makes this region justly popular as a tourist resort.
SAND CREEK
This is a typical Black Hills stream in Wyoming close to Deadwood and Spearfish. The fact that Wyoming laws allow trout fishing at all seasons of the year makes this stream the rendezvous of the fisher both summer and winter.