In the 1870s, four men–Moses and Fred Manuel, Hank Herney, and Alex Engh–entered the area on the hunt for gold. They each filed a claim in Bobtail Gulch on February 21, 1876. That spring, they discovered a rich
lode, and on April 9, 1876, they located it under the name Homestake. The claim was later bought by men from California, who formed the Homestake Mining Company. Terraville didn't have a mayor or law enforcement, except for the county sheriff. In the summer of 1982, the post office closed, the town was destroyed, and the 723 residents were forced to move when the Homestake Mining Company decided to create an
open cut mine at Terraville. The Homestake called it the Terraville Test Pit Project. Every building, most of them at least 100 years old, was torn down; at 102 years old, the Terraville Methodist Church was the oldest operating church west of the
Mississippi River at the time of its demolition, and plans to make it a historical landmark had emerged. Today, only remnants of the roads remain. An annual reunion for the former residents of Terraville has been held every year since at least 2001 in
Deadwood. ==Geography==