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Early in the semester, I received a chance to travel to the black hills on a site visit for a studio project. On our travels were exposed to the rich country of the great plains with sites such as the burial grounds of sitting bull and the dwindling mountains such as Bear Butte. The destination, however was, Deadwood and Lead, SD. The black hills are sacred grounds for many Native Americans as well as a home. Natives used to live on a reservation located in the valley where Lead and Deadwood exist today, but that soon changed as many gold seekers started erecting 'temporary' tents and shacks in the area. The reservation was a place where the Natives were supposed to be able to live their live as they wished, but more and more settlers moved in due to the discovery more and more gold. In Deadwood's early history the Natives reacted and tried to stop the invading gunman and frontier men, but in the end it was hopeless. The town was established, but never lost it's rouged reputation as a rough town on the frontier. Soon people from Deadwood ventured out in search of more gold only to find a enormous lead of gold, in turn as more people moved in and settled, the town Lead, SD was born. These two settlement were some of the largest west of the Mississippi at its peak it had over 10,000 residents, a huge number for its day. The towns grew as mines sunk deeper into the rocky earth. The Homestake mine was established in Lead. The town naturally grew around the entrance into the mine, but with the mine being an open pit, the deeper the mine dug the wider its diameter needed to be. The mine actually started to consume the town. People did not stop coming as long as gold we being retreated from the deep, but soon the mine grew so deep that it became too inefficient to make a profit. On September of 2000 the Homestake mine announced it would be closing. Homestake's treasured mine is the largest open mine pit in the world. It is over a mile deep and over a half mile deep.