Big Thunder Gold Mine (Deadwood, South Dakota) | museum

 museum, gold mine

Big Thunder Gold Mine (Gold Hill Lode), originally named the Gold Hill Lode, was discovered in 1882. The mining work was done by two German immigrants, Krupp and Engle. They did not know each other when they came to the Keystone area, but because they could both speak the same language, they became partners. They originally started higher up on the hill where there was an outcrop of indicator minerals. Not striking a rich vein, the miners moved down the hill to the current mine location. They were trying to intercept the Lucky Boy vein.

The Lucky Boy Mine is located on the next claim downstream from the Big Thunder, adjacent to the first half of the Big Thunder property. The miners learned what they could about the direction and angle of the Lucky Boy ore body. With this knowledge, they felt they could intercept the ore body by driving an adit into the hill at the current mine entry point.

www.bigthundermine.com/