The Story
Prospectors found lead-silver ore (galena) here in 1875-76, making it the first significant non-gold district in the Black Hills. The town swelled to around 400 by late 1877, and the Sitting Bull Mine became its flagship, producing over $750,000 in total. Galena had the first smelter in the Black Hills (1877), churches, hotels, and a school. Its 1882 schoolhouse operated until 1943; a historical society formed in 1983 saved it, and it joined the National Register in 1999.
Surprising Facts
→ Sarah "Aunt Sally" Campbell, the first non-Native woman known to enter the Black Hills, cooked for Custer's 1874 expedition and later for Galena's miners; she died here in 1888.
→ A pet coyote named Tootsie, adopted by Galena residents, was named South Dakota's state animal mascot in 1949.
→ Fewer than 20 people live in Galena today, yet its 1882 schoolhouse is a National Register landmark.