$5M Lead visitor center on track for June 1 opening

LEAD | A century ago, philanthropist Phoebe Apperson Hearst, wife of legendary Homestake Mining Co. founder George Hearst, donated to the people of Leadthe Homestake Opera House and Recreation Building, complete with an expansive theater, bowling alley, swimming pool, library, social rooms and a billiard hall.

Now T. Denny Sanford, South Dakotas lone billionaire, is giving the city a modern-day equivalent: a $5 million visitor center that celebrates the colorful history of a town built on gold and seeking a return to glory.

Rising at the city's northern gateway, the center will perch on the edge of the Open Cut, which visitors will view through large windows. Interior displays will include the story of how the Homestake Mine, which ceased operations in 2002, became the Sanford Underground Research Facility, a renowned scientific center.

Project managers and city officials hope the contemporary structure, scheduled to open June 1, leads to the revitalization of what was once South Dakotas richest town.

The new Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center will be the link from our past to our future, Lead Mayor Jerry Apa said Tuesday. It will provide a dramatic gateway to Lead and hopefully result in the rebirth of our downtown. People will see that there is an energy here and a commitment to this community, that were welcoming and that they can move here and prosper.

Certainly, prospering was on the minds of the gold-seekers who showed up in the Black Hills in the last quarter-century of the 1800s. When they discovered gold just south of Deadwood in 1876, they created the city of Lead. By 1910, Lead was South Dakota's second-largest community.

Construction of the 9,000-square-foot visitors center began with groundbreaking last July 7, and nearly a dozen workers with Ainsworth-Benning Construction of Spearfish this week were finishing the assembly of the building's skeletal steel frame.

Soon, subcontractors installing heating and cooling systems, plumbing fixtures, electrical connections, windows, doors and drywall will arrive, according to Project Manager Josh Willhite, who also serves as engineering director at the nearby Sanford Underground Research Facility.

We are on track, Willhite said while surveying the site. I am fairly confident we are going to make the June 1opening, but there may be some overlap between exhibit installation and finishing up the building. Of course, that could change if we get 3 feet of snow in March, which has been known to happen.

Willhite said he is excited about the design, nearly $1 million in planned interpretive and educational exhibits, classrooms, office space and picture windows that will allow visitors to gaze at the Open Cut.

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$5M Lead visitor center on track for June 1 opening