Homestake's Open Cut Mine, one of the best known landmarks in the Black Hills, is the site of the original discovery in 1876 of the Homestake claim, named for “making a man rich enough to make his home stake,” meaning enough money to return home and live comfortably. Homestake mined this area periodically from 1876 to 1998. Two noteworthy expansions of the Open Cut occurred in the 1980's, the first at the north end and the second, much larger, toward the south. Both projects used conventional open pit mining methods involving drilling, blasting, and hauling, with haul trucks capable of holding 85 tons of material moving ore to a mill for processing. Waste rock with no economic value had to be moved to reach the gold ore, and in open pit mines such waste rock is stacked in waste rock facilities and then reclaimed for beneficial use. The Open Cut is 1200 feet deep and one-half mile wide. Of the three peaks seen here, Bobtail and Highland are waste rock facilities, while Rhyolite Peak, with its bands of light and dark rock, is a natural formation that may be up to two billion years old. Two additional waste rock facilities, East and Sawpit, are near the Open Cut but cannot be seen from this view.