Spearfish
Spearfish, in the Northern Hills (population 8,500; elevation 3,657 feet), is a town on the move. Black Hills State University swells the population by nearly 4,000 when classes are in session, and the steady flow of community keeps visitors returning to sample some of the best that the Black Hills has to offer all year long.
Montana prospectors platted the town in 1876, and a point of conversation years later was that Spearfish had streets “paved with gold,” created from old mine tailings.
Early settlers formed “The Farmers’ Club,” a union of sorts, to control the price of grain in the Hills. Gen. George Crook and his cavalry, on the trail of renegade Indians, were forced to eat their four-footed companions on the starvation march called the Battle of Slim Buttes. A stone mason by the name of Thoen added a little excitement when he claimed to find an inscribed stone left by hunted miners in 1887.
Gold and tin mining continued around Spearfish well into the 20th century. Adding to the richness of the region was the cattlemen’s empire, the D.C. Booth and McNenny fish hatcheries, logging, agricultural crops and Spearfish Normal School — now Black Hills State University.
Tourism plays a role in the everyday life of Spearfish today, with much emphasis placed on its past. And of course, there is Spearfish Canyon — a piece of paradise along U.S. Highway 14A.