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.
Everything that was here
- 1876–1959
Tinton (mining town)Ghost Town
Tinton started as a gold camp, reinvented itself as one of the only significant tin-mining districts in U.S. history, hosted Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, and today has more standing original buildings than any other South Dakota ghost town — even though it's fenced off as private land.
See the map in 1877 →
Did you know?
Connected places
St. Louis Coliseum
Hyperion Theater
Temple of Music (Pan-American Exposition)
Hotel Schenley (William Pitt Union)
Black Cat Cafe
Bullock Hotel
Explore the full web of connections on the map.
Nearby history
Roughlock Falls
Dances With Wolves Winter Camp Site
The Latchstring Inn
Savoy (canyon hamlet)
Homestake Hydroelectric Plant No. 2
Bridal Veil Falls
Know something about Tinton (mining town)? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?
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