In 1877, Galena’s McDonald Smelter was built, making it the first in the Black Hills. One of the main mines was Sitting Bull mine, which in December 1876, a local paper wrote “is a new discovery at Bear Butte, and prospects as well as the best previously located, and from appearances is a true mine.” In 1879, the mine shipped out $14,000 in silver and lead. Thomas Francis Walsh’s cabin still remains in the town. While she never attributed her misfortunes to the well-known Hope Diamond curse, her first son died in a car accident her husband ran off with another woman, and he later died in a psychiatric sanitarium her daughter, also named Evalyn, died of a drug overdose at the age of 25 and her grandson was killed by enemy fire in Vietnam. His daughter, socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, was the last private owner of the Hope Diamond. He later became a multimillionaire from his stake in Colorado’s Camp Bird Mine. She first came to the area with Custer’s 1874 Expedition as a cook.ĭuring this time, another fortune-seeker named Thomas Francis Walsh came to Galena to sell tools to those looking for gold and silver. One of the first claims filed in the area was by Sarah Campbell, also known as “Aunt Sally,” who was likely the first non-Native woman in the Black Hills. These galena deposits also contained silver. Galena was named after the lead compound that was common around the area. At its height, the population was about 1,500 to 2,000 people with boarding houses, general stores, saloons, a barber shop, sawmills, a meat market, and a newspaper. The history of Galena reads like a Western drama, but it was all too real for the hopeful prospectors, merchants, and families that called the town home.

The town of Galena was established in 1876. The Black Hills had been promised to the Lakota people with the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, but settlers were too busy trying to carve out their fortune to worry about any laws or treaties.

On the second Saturday in June, tourists are invited to visit Galena and enjoy live music, food, and self-guided hikes to remaining structures to get a glimpse into the life of the early settlers of the Black Hills.Īround 1875, the gold rush to the Black Hills drew a number of illegal settlers to the area. Only a couple miles from Deadwood, it is very well-maintained by the couple remaining residents and the Galena Historical Society. All too often, remaining ghost towns have deteriorated to the point that it is difficult to imagine what it had been like.

Hidden ghost town