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Historic place

Galena (silver camp)

Galena Rd (Bear Butte Creek), Deadwood, SD

Galena boomed as the Black Hills' first major silver camp — its Sitting Bull Mine alone produced over $750,000 in silver — before shrinking to a scatter of cabins where fewer than 20 people live today.

📅 1876–present🏛️ Ghost TownRepurposedBuilt 1876
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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.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

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.

Connected places

Nemo (Homestake timber camp)

Nemo, SD
Black Hills

Whitewood Historic District

Whitewood, SD
Black Hills

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Keystone, SD
Black Hills

Needles Highway

Custer, SD
Black Hills

Sylvan Lake

Custer, SD
Black Hills

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Historic Adams House

22 Van Buren St · 8.0 km away
A Queen Anne mansion built for one Deadwood pioneer family was bought by another as a memorial to his dead wife and daug

Mount Moriah Cemetery

10 Mt Moriah Dr · 8.2 km away
Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, and Potato Creek Johnny all rest on this hillside overlooking the town th

Days of '76 Museum & Rodeo

18 Seventy Six Drive · 8.3 km away
A century-old rodeo modeled on Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, held in a town famous for a poker hand — now ranked among

Mollie Johnson's Brothel

100 Sherman Street · 8.3 km away

Wing Tsue Bazaar

566 Main St · 8.4 km away
For nearly 45 years a pair of brick buildings on Lower Main held the heart of Deadwood's Chinatown — the shop, home, and

Homestake Slime Plant (Deadwood Mountain Grand)

1906 Deadwood Mountain Drive · 8.4 km away
A gold-processing plant built with Douglas fir beams railed in from Washington State ran until 1973, then sat as a count

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena,_South_Dakota