Broken Boot Mine

Broken Boot Gold Mine

Useful Information

Location:	80km from Rapid City. US16A north. US16 west. US 385 north to Deadwood. 800m outside Deadwood on Hwy 14A. (44°22'56.01"N, 103°43'20.22"W)
Open:	Mid-MAY to mid-SEP daily 8:30-17:30. Tours every 30 minutes. [2007]
Fee:
Classification:	Gold Mine
Light:	electric.
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=30min, V=10,000/a [2006].
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Deadwood Lead Chamber of Commerce, 735 Main Street, Deadwood, SD 57732. Tel: +1-605-578-1876. Broken Boot Gold Mine, 1200 Main Street, Deadwood, SD 57732. Tel: +1-605-578-9997. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1878	Olaf Seim and James Nelson started digging.
1904	mine closed.
1917	mine reopened for war production.
1918	mine finally closed.
1954	mine opened as a show mine by Selma Herbert.
1986	donated to the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce.

Description

The history of Broken Boot Gold Mine is connected with the life of Olaf Seim, who looked for valuable ores in the area with his friend James Nelson around 1880. He discovered a little gold, but also fool's gold, graphite, silver, copper sulfate, and quartz. The so-called fool's gold is iron pyrite, an iron ore. Many of the ores in the mine are sulfuric, and the success of the mine was the production of sulfuric acid from this sulfur, which was used frequently in the processing of gold. He was so successful, he soon had exhausted the mine and it was closed.

The mine was reopened as a show mine by Olaf Seim's daughter, Selma Herbert, in 1954. As an tourist attraction it earned more money than by selling the minerals.