The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine (8,000 feet or 2,438 m) located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002 it was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. The mine produced more than of gold during its lifetime. This is about or a volume of gold roughly equal to 18,677 US gallons. The Homestake Mine is famous in scientific circles because of the work of a deep underground laboratory that was established there in the mid-1960s. This was the site where the solar neutrino problem was first discovered, in what is known as the Homestake Experiment. Raymond Davis Jr. conducted this experiment in the mid-1960s, which was the first to observe solar neutrinos. On July 10, 2007, the mine was selected by the National Science Foundation as the location for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL). It won over several candidates, including the Henderson Mine near Empire, Colorado. History The Homestake deposit was discovered by Fred and Moses Manuel, Alex Engh, and Hank Harney in April 1876, during the Black Hills Gold Rush, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, an area that had been guaranteed to the Lakota Nation by the Fort Laramie Treaty. A trio of mining entrepreneurs, George Hearst, Lloyd Tevis, and James Ben Ali Haggin, bought the claim from them for $70,000 in 1877. George Hearst reached Deadwood in October 1877, and took control of the mine property. Hearst arranged to haul the mining equipment by wagon from the nearest railhead in Sidney, Nebraska. Arthur De Wint Foote worked as an engineer. Despite the remote location, deep mines were dug and ore began to be produced. An 80-stamp mill was built, and began crushing Homestake ore by July 1878. In 1879 the partners sold shares in the Homestake Mining Company, and listed it on the New York Stock Exchange. The Homestake would become one of the longest-listed stocks in the history of the NYSE, as Homestake operated the mine until 2001. Hearst consolidated and enlarged the Homestake property by fair and foul means. He bought out some adjacent claims, and secured others in the courts. A Hearst employee killed a man who refused to sell his claim, but was acquitted in court after all the witnesses disappeared. Hearst purchased newspapers in Deadwood to influence public opinion. An opposing newspaper editor was physically attacked on a Deadwood