The Story
Back in 1965, physicist Ray Davis built a 100,000-gallon tank of cleaning fluid on the mine's 4,850-foot level to catch solar neutrinos — the first experiment ever to detect them, work that won a share of the 2002 Nobel Prize. After mining stopped in 2001, philanthropist T. Denny Sanford donated $70 million in 2006 to convert the flooded mine into a permanent lab. On that same 4,850-foot level, the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment became the world's most sensitive dark-matter detector (2022), and the international DUNE neutrino experiment is now under construction there, aimed at a beam fired 800 miles from Fermilab in Illinois.
Surprising Facts
→ Ray Davis's Nobel-winning solar-neutrino detector sat on the exact same 4,850-foot level that hosts today's dark-matter experiments.
→ T. Denny Sanford's $70 million gift in 2006 saved the flooded mine from being sealed and abandoned.
→ The 1930s Yates and Ross headframes that once hoisted gold miners now lower physicists underground.