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Historic place

Homestake Hydroelectric Plant No. 2

Spearfish Canyon (near Spearfish Falls), Savoy, SD

This second Homestake power plant literally dried up one of Spearfish Canyon's named waterfalls for decades by diverting its flow into a pipe — until a 1947 landslide destroyed the conduit and shut the plant down for good.

📅 1917–1947🏛️ Power PlantClosedBuilt 1917
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The story

As Homestake's power demand grew, the company built Hydro Plant No. 2 within the canyon in 1917. Unlike Plant No. 1's tunnels, it used a pipe conduit that captured the flow feeding Spearfish Falls near the Latchstring Inn — causing the falls to run dry for decades. A 1947 landslide damaged the conduit and the plant never reopened. The property later passed to SD Game, Fish & Parks; Spearfish Falls' flow was finally restored in 2003. The historic building still stands.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

Its water diversion caused Spearfish Falls to run completely dry for decades.
The falls' flow wasn't restored until 2003 — more than 50 years after the plant shut down.
A landslide, not obsolescence, ended the plant's operating life in 1947.

Connected places

Nemo (Homestake timber camp)

Nemo, SD
Homestake

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Savoy (canyon hamlet)

Jct US-14A & Roughlock Falls Rd · 35 m away
This unincorporated speck of a resort hamlet began as a sawmill town supplying the Black Hills timber trade, and survive

The Latchstring Inn

10619 Roughlock Falls Rd · 150 m away
Named for the frontier custom of leaving a latchstring hanging out as a welcome sign, this canyon inn has operated since

Roughlock Falls

Roughlock Falls Rd, Little Spearfish Canyon · 1.1 km away
Wagon drivers once had to chain-lock their wheels to inch safely down the grade here — giving this roughly 50-foot casca

Dances With Wolves Winter Camp Site

Forest Service Road 222, Little Spearfish Canyon · 1.1 km away
In November 1989 a Lakota winter camp of real teepees was built in the snow north of Roughlock Falls for the closing sce

Cheyenne Crossing Stage Stop

21415 US Highway 14A · 7.9 km away
The last horse-change stop before the Cheyenne-to-Deadwood stagecoach made its final run into the gold camps is now a wo

Bridal Veil Falls

US Highway 14A (Bridal Veil Falls) · 8.1 km away
A 60-foot sheet of water cascading over limestone right beside the highway — Spearfish Canyon's most easily seen waterfa

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Sourceshttps://www.spearfishhistory.org/2016/04/the-two-spearfish-canyon-hydro-plants_18.html