The Story
Gold drew the first prospectors in the mid-1870s, but in 1884 workers found tin in the pegmatite rock, and Tinton became a rare American tin-mining operation. The Tinton Tin Mining Company built the formal townsite in 1902-04; by 1911 its Rough & Ready Mine had produced nearly 105,000 pounds of tin. At its height the town had a bank, store, post office, schoolhouse, and its own newspaper. Roosevelt visited in 1903 with Seth Bullock. Mining ended in 1942, a fire destroyed the mill, and the last resident left by 1959. The site straddles the SD/WY line and is now posted private land.
Surprising Facts
→ Tinton is one of the only places in U.S. history mined significantly for tin.
→ President Theodore Roosevelt visited in 1903, touring with Deadwood lawman Seth Bullock.
→ Its main street literally runs along the South Dakota/Wyoming state line.