The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1907-04-29
FLOODING MINE.
Fire in the Great Homestake
Will Cause Immense
Loss.


once the noisest town of its size in the
world is, now the quietest. The i'm
mense stamp mills of the Homestake
Mining company, which have been
grinding and pounding away for the
past thirty years, are silent. No more
the noise of mills surprises the stranger
with its steady, unremitting roar, fol
the great works are closed and not q
stamp is dropping on Hometsake ore.
The final shutdown came last Monday
morning when, as it was decided to
flood the mine, it became necessary te
water might be used. The mine is OH
fire Worse than that, it is filled to
its lowest level, /, $50 feet, with deadly
carbonic acid gas, which, like thief
in the night, suddenly appears in the
most unexpected places, bringing de-
struc ion in its wake.
On the night of March 25 the news
suddenly spread from man to man,
from town to town, that the Homestake
was on fire.
What this meant to the people of this
country it is hard for outsiders to real
ize. The Hometsake is the largest
gold mine in the world. In it's thirty
years of existence it has, including the
companies which it has absorbed, paid
out in dividends over $25, 900, 900. 1t
operates on the largest scale of any
gold mine in the world; it treats ore
from the largest known deposit of gold
ole In the world, deposit go famous
that men come from all over the world
to look at the Homestake lode. Never
in all these years has the company
missed a dividend Never has it
known strike. It's shafts extend to a
depth of 1850 feet and it's underground
workings would total about $50 miles.
There is a veritable city under ground.
city under the city of Lead. This
underground town was lighted by cleo
tricity; it was peopled day and night
by hundreds of busy men; it housed
several blacksmith shops, powder maga-
zines; it boasted lines of railroad, doz-
ems of cars and compressed air motors
that furnished power; horses and mules
hauled the cars in the byways, and
these animals lived below ground in
the stables furnished there for them
timber enough to build the townss of
Lead and Deadwood ovel again are in
these depths, and an ore supply that
will supply the mills for a quarter of a
century to come.
With $500 men in its employ, and
with the magnitude Of its workings,
the company hesitated as long as posi-
BILE before deciding to use the last re-
sort-nooding. The fire was fought
faithfully and by every other means
known to man. but all without avail,
and it was finally decided that the only
way in which to subdue the flames and
to clear the mine Of gas was to flood it.
Through the Ellison shaft, through the
old Lincoln, through the immense open
cut, quarter of mile across, the
water is already pouring into the cav
ernous workings at the rate of 1, ,200
cubic feet a minute. 1t will be but a
few days until water is coming in from
the north end and through the Savage
tunnel in Whitewood gulch, and then
the flow will be increased to /, 500. cubic
feet minute. At this rate it is esti
mated that it will take forty eight days
to flood the workings Up to the 1000
foot level the mine is full. Until the
water reaches the 800 it will rise rap
idly, but above that point the rise will
be slow. Practically all of the 500
employees have been laid off and every.
thing is suspended awaiting the flood
ing Of the mine. How much of an ex-
pense this will mean to the company
cannot be estimated, but it will run
we'll mp into the hundreds of thousands
of dollars