The Associated Press

LEAD - Mark Merchen hopes the proposed construction of a national underground science laboratory in a closed Black Hills gold mine will eventually trigger the kind of economic growth the carving of Mount Rushmore National Memorial did in the last century.

"We're going to carve another mountain. This time it's going to be below the surface," said Merchen, chairman of Black Hills Vision, a nonprofit organization working to diversify the economy and attract technology companies to southwestern South Dakota.

Merchen and others are quick to point out the proposed national lab, which will feature research into tiny cosmic particles, won't transform the Black Hills economy overnight. But they believe an influx of world-class scientists, growth in research at area universities and the establishment of spinoff industries should help attract more high-tech companies to region.

Lead, a town of about 3,100, is in particular need of a boost. The historic mining town in the northern Black Hills has been struggling since the Homestake Mine closed about six years ago.

The mine once employed more than 1,000 people whose paychecks provided the fuel for the area economy.

The lab should be "a shot in the arm," said Mike Stahl, Lead city administrator. "We've seen as low as you can possibly go. We're really enthusiastic about the future of the community, and we think we have a lot to offer - not just the lab but what other people want to do around here."

Mount Rushmore, which now draws 3 million visitors a year, has become a key part of the Black Hills tourism industry since the granite carving of four presidents' faces was finished in 1941. The national lab can also play a big role in the effort to attract technology-based companies to the region, Merchen said.

"It changes the perspective of anybody who is looking at the Black Hills when you understand you have a world-class scientific project going on in your backyard," said Merchen, an electric utility executive who volunteers for Black Hills Vision.

For more than a century, the gold mine and its high-paying jobs anchored the economy in the northern Black Hills. But faced with declining returns, Homestake Mining Co. announced in 2000 it would shut down the mine.

Scientists who had already been conducting experiments in the mine suggested it be converted to an underground lab, and the state government began promoting the idea. Years of work on legal, environmental and other challenges paid off in July, when the National Science Foundation chose Homestake over three other sites as the preferred site for a national underground lab.

A team of scientists now will spend three years developing a detailed design for the lab, and Congress then will be asked to fund the project.

In the meantime, the state plans to open an interim lab 4,850 feet below ground with state money and a $70 million gift from Sioux Falls philanthropist T. Denny Sanford. The national lab eventually will feature experiments at about 8,000 feet below the surface.

Physicists want to go deep underground to conduct experiments aimed at increasing their knowledge of the universe's composition, its beginning and its future. More than a mile of rock will filter out many of the cosmic rays that otherwise interfere with the study of fundamental particles such as neutrinos.

Scientists also want to study dark matter, which has gravitational force but is not visible. In addition, the mine is expected to host experiments in geology and microbial life deep underground.

All this comes as Gov. Mike Rounds and the state's universities want to increase the schools' research capabilities. The lab could contribute $300 million to $1 billion a year to the regional economy, based on what has happened at other national labs, Rounds has said.

Black Hills Vision is working to duplicate Tennessee's success in attracting technology companies to the area around the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which features work in nuclear energy and physics. The vision includes clusters of technology companies around the major Black Hills cities, including Rapid City, the state's second-largest city.

"This will be a long haul. Somewhere down the road, a long ways down the road, it would be wonderful to have 1,000 technology-based companies in the Black Hills region," Merchen said. "I think Homestake is a wonderful anchor toward the technology corridor idea, but it won't be the only thing that will attract technology-based jobs to this region."

Merchen points out that two years ago, the Black Hills was faced with the possible loss of Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City and uncertain prospects for the underground lab. The base, South Dakota's second largest employer, was saved, and Homestake was picked as the preferred site for the national lab.

"So we're making progress, he said.

Stahl, the Lead city administrator, said the town won't see the full effects of the national lab for up to 10 years, when the underground science complex is running at full speed. The outlook in town has changed, however, with the likelihood the lab will be built, he said.

"It was very low for a while, very low. The shutdown of the mine was devastating. A lot of people mo-ped around and didn't know what to do," he said. "There was a time in this city where there was a woe-is-me attitude."

But the economic activity generated by the lab should help revitalize a struggling downtown, Stahl said.

"The scientists are going to come here, and they're very well paid. They are going to bring money into the community," Stahl said.

Meanwhile, the city will have to deal with parking, traffic flow and possible new housing developments, all things that haven't been issues in recent years, Stahl said.

Lead itself is built in a gulch, with houses clinging to steep hillsides. Little free land exists for construction. "There's just not room to boom," Stahl said.

That means a lot of the expected new housing will occur on forest land outside of Lead or in nearby cities, particularly Spearfish, which has room to expand on the northern edge of the Black Hills.

Trish Fahey, a Lead real estate agent, agreed that much of the housing growth will happen outside the city limits, where people will buy land and build new homes. Lead and nearby Deadwood, the gambling town, have limited space for construction and a limited number of fine, old homes, she said.

When the announcement was made that Homestake had been chosen as the lab site, there was a brief increase in people wanting to sell or buy property, Fahey said. People have to realize that growth will occur over the course of many years, and they have to be realistic about what property is worth, she said.