"There's Gold in Them Thar Hills!"

No visit to The Black Hills is complete without a visit to a gold mine. We chose Big Thunder Gold Mine. It is an actual mine from the 1890’s. We took a private 45 minute tour of the mine. It was really interesting. Our guide was a homeschooled senior in high school. He was extremely knowledgeable, articulate, and great with the kids. We learned lots of cool stuff. Did you know gold fever was actually caused by mercury poisoning? Mercury was used in the sorting process, because gold stuck to it.

FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!

After our tour we decided to do some gem mining. Wait… why didn’t we go gold panning ? If you have ever been gold panning (and we have) then you know it takes patience. Enough said.

We ate lunch at Ruby’s Restaurant, exactly what I would expect an old elegant western restaurant to look like. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great. We also drove by The Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore, which we plan to visit.

Be sure to check out more photos of today in the Photo Gallery #2!

Ruby's Restaurant

Learn More About:

Black Hills Gold Mining: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hills_Gold_Rush