Sanford Underground Research Facility
Science Museum · Lead, South Dakota
The deepest underground laboratory in the United States, nearly a mile down in the workings of the Homestake gold mine at Lead - which produced more gold than any mine in the western hemisphere before it closed in 2002. Rock that deep screens out cosmic rays, so the caverns now hold dark matter detectors and neutrino experiments that cannot be run at the surface. Twenty-eight active research projects are housed there. You cannot go down, but you can stand on the edge of the open cut and understand why it is there.
630 East Summit Street, Lead, South Dakota, 57754, United States
THE SANFORD LAB HOMESTAKE VISITOR CENTER is generally open daily in summer and on a reduced schedule the rest of the year - check before travelling. ⚠ THE LABORATORY ITSELF IS 4,850 FEET UNDERGROUND AND IS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. What you can visit is the visitor centre, the Homestake open cut overlook and the surface campus. Surface tours run seasonally and are ticketed; underground access is for researchers only.
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