Ragged Top, South Dakota facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ragged Top, South Dakota
Balmoral
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Unincorporated community
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 Ragged Top, South Dakota
Location in South Dakota
Ragged Top, South Dakota
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | South Dakota |
| County | Lawrence |
| Elevation | 5,873 ft (1,790 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (MST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
| GNIS feature ID | 1900655 |
Ragged Top (also called Balmoral) is a ghost town in Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. A ghost town is a place where people used to live and work, but now almost no one does. This town was once a busy place for mining, but it became empty because miners found it too hard to move their valuable rocks, called ore, to places where they could be processed.
Contents
History of Ragged Top
Ragged Top started as a gold mining town in the 1880s. It was first named Balmoral, after a mine nearby. Later, the town was renamed Ragged Top. This new name came from Ragged Top Mountain, the hill where the town was built.
The name Ragged Top also described the whole mining area. This area included other small towns that are now also abandoned. These towns were Preston, Cyanide, Dacy, and the original Balmoral.
Early Population and Mines
In the early 1880s, about 300 to 400 people were thought to live in the Ragged Top area. However, this number was probably much lower than the actual population. Many different companies worked in the mines there. Some of these companies included:
- Dacy
- Deadwood Standard
- Eva H. & Silver Tongue
- Eagle Bird
- American Mining Company
- Ulster
- Old Ironsides
- Victoria
- Metallic Streak
- Spearfish Gold Mining and Milling Company
One company, the Spearfish Gold Mining and Milling Company, found a lot of gold. Between 1899 and 1906, they produced about 48,618 ounces of gold.
Decline of the Town
Before 1896, the mines in Ragged Top were not fully explored. By around 1915, all the mines had stopped working. The town itself soon became empty. This happened because it was extremely difficult to move the heavy ore from the mines to the smelters. Smelters are factories where ore is heated to separate the valuable metal from the rock. Without an easy way to get the ore to these factories, the mining became too hard and expensive.
Geography of Ragged Top
Ragged Top is located in the Black Hills of central Lawrence County. It sits on Ragged Top Mountain, high above Spearfish Valley. The town site is south of Spearfish and west of Lead.
