The Hearst Highway

The bronze credits Phoebe Hearst with an industrial peace unheard of in western mining. Homestake settled that peace in 1909. When Lead's union resolved that its members would not work beside non-members, the company locked them out on November 24 and reopened fifty-four days later, on January 8, 1910, hiring only men who signed a card swearing they belonged to no union. The Lead Miners' Union, organized in 1877, was inactive by 1915. US 385 north from this junction carries the Hearst name.

What the plaque says

The Hearst Highway Dedicated to the memory of George Hearst (1820-1891) United States Senator, mining engineer, sportsman, speculator. Starting with nothing, he developed three of the fabled mines in the American West -- The Ophir, the Anaconda, and the Homestake -- and founded one of the great American Fortunes. His vision and organizing genius built a small mining claim into the mightiest gold mine in the world -- the Homestake -- and laid the foundations for the continuing prosperity of the Black Hills and the State of South Dakota. and Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842-1919) Wife, mother, true phi- lanthropist. Her continuing interest in the welfare of the Homestake miners and their families never flagged. She gave the city of Lead its library, founded its free kindergarten, and performed numerous unpublicized charities. Due to her influence, the Homestake adopted advanced labor policies that contributed to an industrial peace unheard of in western mining. She loved and admired the people of the Black Hills and they reciprocated in full measure. Erected 1969 by South Dakota State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Crazy Horse Memorial — 1.4 mi
  A Lakota elder's answer to Mount Rushmore, carved for more than seventy years by one family with private money, and still argued over by Crazy Horse's own relatives.
• Black Elk Peak — 6.3 mi
  The highest summit in the Black Hills, renamed in 2016 for an Oglala holy man after carrying, for 150 years, the name of the general who attacked a Sicangu camp in 1855.
• 1880 Train — 8.5 mi
  A steam excursion on a mining branch line that hauled gear for Mount Rushmore, named for a decade it never ran in by a man who wanted steam to survive.
• Needles Highway — 9.7 mi
  Fourteen miles that Governor Peter Norbeck laid out on foot and horseback through the granite spires, threading a tunnel eight feet wide.

More markers nearby

• Memorial to Horace N. Ross — 4.2 mi
• Mount Rushmore Inspiration — 5.4 mi
• Campsite of General Custer's Expedition — 6.1 mi
• In Memory of Anna Donna Tallent — 6.5 mi