Published: March 6, 2018 |

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The Black Hills Mining Museum will receive a $7,800 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to continue its mission of preserving the mining history of the Black Hills.

Ever since it opened its doors in 1986, the mining museum has been dedicated to not just preserving the history of mining in the Black Hills, but also telling the story of the people who made this area their home.

The museum exhibits takes visitors through displays dealing with the early days of mining in the Black Hills, where visitors can even pan for actual Black Hills gold. From there visitors are led into a built replica of what the working environment was like during the mining years. For those who are so inclined, they can then take a guided tour down stairs lead them through the history of mining as in evolved at the Homestake Mining Company. The winding exhibit tour is jam packed, with not just accurate replicas, but also the actual equipment and tools used by Homestake miners throughout the mine’s more than 125 years of operation. There, visitors learn all about how deep underground mining works and how the Homestake Mining Company was on the forefront of many technologies in the industry. As guests ascend from the subterranean dioramas, they are brought back to a surface world of old time industry, an industry that turned Lead into one of the richest towns in America and brought pioneering families from all across the globe to the Black Hills in droves. This is befittingly where the tour ends, with the cultural legacy left by those people and their descendants.

The grant and networking opportunities that come from joining the Institute of Museum and Library Services will go far in helping the mining museum to continue its work. However as was concluded by two experts sent by the institute to conduct an inspection of the facility, there’s a lot of work to be done.

“Lighting and fire safety and suppression are our number one priority,” Bob Phillips, secretary for the Black Hills Mining Museums board of directors, said Tuesday.

Phillips explained that one of the experts sent for the inspection was a structural expert from Lincoln, Neb., who pointed out several issues needing to be addressed.

“It’s an older building, and it was built as an old grocery store,” Phillips explained.

He also said that the mining museum’s parking lot presented an issue.

Phillips said an engineer inspected the museum said the parking lot was structurally unsound.

“As soon as the guy got down there and looked he said ‘you need to close this,’” he said.

Phillips said that while the board figure out what the cost will be to fix the parking lot and how to proceed with it, they hope to be able to use the space as an open air exhibit and perhaps be able to do some demonstrations during the summer.

The other major area the institute wanted to inspect was the collection itself.

“(They were both) in awe of what we had here,” Phillips said of the collection inspection. However, as with most museums in the country, space and environmental monitoring were two issues brought up by the collections expert.

“Everything you see here hanging on the walls are original,” Todd Duex said at a Lead Area Chamber of Commerce mixer that was hosted by the Mining Museum Thursday night. “And that’s not ideal.”

Phillips explained that while most museums, in order to preserve their archives, would make photocopies of the pictures and documents they wished to display and store the originals for safekeeping.

“Our problem is, where’re we going to put them,” he posed.

Duex also mentioned at the mixer that the museum has never had a full-time director on staff and that securing funding in order to hire one is paramount to the success of the mining museum. Duex will be stepping down as president of the board this year and a new president will be elected at a board meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Source: Black Hill Pioneer

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