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Lead, South Dakota

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1961. It stands in Lead City. It lies in ZIP code area 57754. It stands on Whitetail Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lead quadrangle. 2,982 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,213 feet above sea level.

Lead within Lawrence County

On record in Lead

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Lead fell from 3,124 to 2,982 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20103,124
20202,982-142 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 17 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

150 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 150 fires within 5 miles of Lead between 1992 and 2020, burning about 12,358 acres in total. 40 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Natural40
Debris and open burning27
Recreation and ceremony25
Missing data/not specified/undetermined21
Equipment and vehicle use14
Power generation/transmission/distribution12
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Fireworks3
Smoking2
Firearms and explosives use1
Other causes1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2000Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionWAR EAGLE 2
8 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
7 September 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMontana/Dakotas State OfficeSHEEPTAIL GULCH
7 September 1996Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionPARTY
6 September 1997Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionPARTY
5 September 1995Naturalunder an acreBlack Hills National ForestCHEYENNE
5 September 1995Natural2.0 acresBlack Hills National ForestANCHOR HILL
30 September 2013Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSKATEBOARD

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lawrence County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 280 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 280 workings within 5 miles of Lead: 187 past producers, 41 producers, 29 unknowns, 11 occurrences. 47 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Gold, Silver, Tungsten. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Belle Eldridge Gold Mine Inc.Lead, Silver, ZincPast Producer1878, 1937
Belle Eldridge Gold MinesGold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, CopperPast Producer1890
Custer Peak PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Durango MineTungsten, Gold, SilverPast ProducerGold, Silver, Wolframite
Golden Reward MineGold, Silver, TelluriumPast ProducerReplacement
Hardin PropertiesGold, Iron, SulfurOccurrence
Hidden Fortune MineTungsten, Gold, SilverPast ProducerReplacement
Hoffman Iron Deposit MineIron, ManganesePast Producer1948
Homestake Filtration PitStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Iron PitSodiumProducer

Every working recorded in Lawrence County

Storms near this place

56 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lead in 56 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 45 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2010HailLead$300,000Golf ball sized hail damaged automobiles and buildings in Lead.
July 2019Flash FloodLead$297,000Flash flooding occurred along Bear Butte Creek in Boulder Canyon near the Boulder Canyon Golf Club. A landslide occurred on Galena Road and culverts were blocked by water and debris. Ruby Flats Road and Englewood Road were flooded, as well as a portion of Two Bit Road and Yellow Creek Road.
July 2004Flash FloodLead$250,000no account filed
July 2000LightningLead$5,000Lightning struck a cable that supplies power to one of the mine shafts at the Homestake Mining Co. This caused problems with the shaft elevator, the compressor and milling operations. There were people at the bottom of the mine who were not able to exit through the shaft. Instead they took mining tractors through the mining tunnels to another shaft and exited there.
September 2013HailLead$2,000no account filed
June 2002Thunderstorm WindLead$1,000A shed was blown over and damaged.
May 1993HailLead$500no account filed
May 2025HailLead-Public reported quarter size hail.
July 2019FloodLead-Flooding continued across the area from heavy rainfall. Runoff from additional rainfall during the afternoon and evening of July 5 kept creek levels high into the morning hours on July 6.
June 2018HailLead-Hail to the size of baseballs caused significant property damage in Lead.
June 2015HailLead-Wind gusts to 50 mph also accompanied the storm.
August 2008HailLead-A few automobiles were damaged by large hailstones.
June 1999HailLead-15,000 flowering plants were destroyed in downtown Lead. A restaurant had one corner of its roof damaged.
July 1997HailLead-Golfball size hail was reported at Deer Mountain.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindLead-no account filed
June 2023HailLead-no account filed
April 2022HailLead-no account filed
May 2022HailLead-no account filed
June 2022HailLead-no account filed
July 2021Thunderstorm WindLead-no account filed
May 2020HailLead-no account filed
June 2020Thunderstorm WindLead-no account filed
June 2020Thunderstorm WindLead-no account filed
June 2019HailLead-no account filed
July 2019HailLead-no account filed
July 2019HailLead-no account filed
July 2019HailLead-no account filed
June 2018HailLead-no account filed
May 2016HailLead-no account filed
July 2013HailLead-no account filed
August 2013HailLead-no account filed
September 2013HailLead-no account filed
September 2013HailLead-no account filed
September 2013HailLead-no account filed
August 2013HailLead-no account filed
July 2012HailLead-no account filed
July 2012HailLead-no account filed
June 2011HailLead-no account filed
June 2010HailLead-no account filed
July 2008HailLead-no account filed
August 2008HailLead-no account filed
August 2005HailLead-no account filed
May 2003HailLead-no account filed
August 2002HailLead-no account filed
August 2001HailLead-no account filed
July 2001HailLead-no account filed
May 2000HailLead-no account filed
August 1999HailLead-no account filed
May 1999HailLead-no account filed
June 1999HailLead-no account filed
June 1999HailLead-no account filed
July 1997Flash FloodLead-no account filed
June 1996Flash FloodLead-no account filed
September 1996HailLead-no account filed
August 1996HailLead-no account filed
August 1996HailLead-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lawrence County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Terraville0.7 miles17
Cartesville (historical)1.0 miles17
Central City1.0 miles17
Blacktail1.3 miles17
Gayville1.3 miles17
Carterville (historical)1.4 miles20
Pluma1.5 miles20
Kirk1.6 miles17

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on LeadAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q584982The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1265276. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.