Mike Headley is the Executive Director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority, and current head of the Sanford Lab in Lead, SD.  It is my assertion that the story of the creation of the Homestake Mine through its transition into the Sanford Laboratory is an encapsulation of America’s progress from Post Civil War to the Space Age.  It has everything:  The Wild West, a gold rush, evil industrialists, small town ideals, patriotism during WWII, George Hearst, underground scientific experiments, a Nobel prize, the financial destruction of a town and it’s economic rebirth, and a particle beam from Chicago!  Mike and I talk about all this and more.