City hall in Lead, a onetime gold-mining boomtown in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Lead, called "Leed" by locals, takes that pronunciation from small pockets of gold that would "lead" prospectors to larger veins in the mines surrounding the little town. Lead was home of the legendary Homestake Mine, historically the Western Hemisphere's most productive gold mine prior to its closure in 2002. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2021.