Most of the gold was found in trace amounts, while silver and lead ore were the most common metals in the area.

A few of these first mines were called the Sitting Bull, Florence, Merritt, El Refugio, Emma, and Cora.

At the summits of the surrounding hills, shaft mines were drilled, while further down the cliff, miners built tunnels.

In October 1876, a settler named James Conzette built a cabin in Galena, which he planned to use as a fort against Native American raids, though it never served that purpose.

The last Native American seen in the town was in 1876, when a small group climbed down the ravine to the southwest where the Catholic church was built.

Around this time, Galena beat the nearby camps of Caribou and Hardscrabble in the election for the first post office.

[2] The town later boasted a physician, assayer, notary, shoemaker, two hotels, two saloons, another livery yard, an opera house, a tin shop, and two more sawmills.

In 1881, due to a very successful local mining operation, Galena experienced another period of growth.

The same year, a man named Patrick Gorman was killed and the case was brought to a trial, but the killer was let go when the jury ruled self-defense.

[4] Galena is located in the northern Black Hills in Lawrence County, South Dakota.