Second Deadwood Gold Discovery

Near this point in 1875 occurred the second of two initial gold discoveries in the Deadwood area. It was made by the Lardner party of eight prospectors, steered here by John B. Pearson, a man already familiar with Deadwood Gulch. Their ‘Discovery Claim’ was staked near this spot on November 9. The narrow gulch from here to Deadwood proved fabulously rich in placer gold - - by far the richest in the Black Hills.

Pearson had been prospecting two miles downstream in August with the Frank Bryant party. Bryant and two others returned in November to their August find, and located their ‘Discovery Claim’ on November 8, just one day before Pearson and Lardner. Neither party knew the other was nearby - - the gulch between them was so completely choked with dead wood.

By January 1, 1876, fifty miners were working Deadwood Gulch with an average take of $10.00 per day, and by January 5 the entire gulch was occupied by mining claims. The Deadwood gold rush began in 1875 but residents celebrate the Days of ’76 because the city of Deadwood was laid out on April 28, 1876, and because the great rush of miners into Deadwood came in the spring of 1876.

By August 1876 combined digging and building had produced a city resembling a ‘heap of lemon boxes propped up on broomsticks.’ In the century since 1876 the Lead-Deadwood mining district has produced gold estimated at over $800,000,000.