About Landstrom's® Original Black Hills Gold Creations

1874 South Dakota Gold Rush
Horatio N. Ross, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, discovered gold along French Creek in the central Black Hills.

1876
Inspiration for the Black Hills Gold grape and leaf designs in three colors of gold is credited to a prospector/goldsmith named Henri LeBeau. These designs probably began in the mining towns of California during its Gold Rush days in 1849 and worked their way through the mining camps in Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Colorado. Henri LeBeau brought these designs from Montana to South Dakota in 1876, when he opened up a shop in Central City.

Central City and Deadwood grew out of the Wild West era of prospectors, saloons and legendary figures like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.

1878
Henri LeBeau trains S.T. Butler, who starts a jewelry manufacturing store and produced Black Hills Gold jewelry with his son, George M. Butler in Deadwood.

1900's
Clarence Thorpe, nephew of George - grandson to S.T. Butler, takes over business.

1919
Clarence Thrope sells his business to his brother, Frank Thorpe. Frank forms a partnership with Ed. "E.O." Lampinen under the name F.L. Thorpe Company. Frank and Ed dissolve their partnership and divide the original molds and dies between them. Frank continues F.L. Thorpe Co. Ed buys George Butler's tools and equipment and founds the Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Company.

1944
Ivan Landstrom buys Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Company from Lampinen and moves to Rapid City. Lampinen stays on staff to train employees in the traditional methods of creating Black Hills Gold Jewelry.

1981
Black Hills Gold jewelry features grape leaves, clusters and vines in tri-colored gold. By Federal mandate, this style of jewelry must be manufactured in the Black Hills of South Dakota in order to be described as "Black Hills Gold Jewelry".

1995
Landstrom's bought the F.L. Thorpe Company of Deadwood making Landstrom's the sole owner of all the original Black Hills Gold designs.

2006
Landstrom's passes on to Constance Landstrom Drew's daughter and son. Landstrom's continues to be dedicated to handcraftsmanship and to maintaining the highest standards in the Black Hills Gold industry.

Landstrom's Black Hills Gold - Clink & Clunk Test

Landstrom's Original Black Hills Gold Creatrions

Offers FREE factory tours.

Come see and feel the difference!

Landstrom's is the oldest Black Hills Gold manufacturing company and is the only true heir to the original Black Hills Gold designs, tools, and manufacturing methods made over 100 years ago. They celebrated 130 years in the business last spring.

The distinctive grape and leaf design in three colors of gold make Black Hills Gold a unique American art form. In an age of robotic manufacturing, each piece of Landstrom's Black Hills Gold continues to be handcrafted by highly skilled and talented artisans.

See the original Black Hills Gold manufacturing process up-close and watch the intricate details that go into each piece of Landstrom's Black Hills Gold.

Landstrom's factory tours are available Monday through Friday at 10:00 AM and at 1:00 PM.
Tours last approximately half an hour to 45 minutes.
Landstrom's factory is handicap accessible and has ample parking space.
Ladstrom's is located at 405 Canal Street in Rapid City, South Dakota.
From Interstate 90 take Exit 57. At the first stop light turn right and travel three blocks to Canal Street.
Landstrom's phone number is 800-343-0157.

The Clink & Clunk Test After The Tour
What We Have Learned

Landstom's demonstrates the high quality of their jewelry with a clink & clunk test. Inside of their retail store there is a case with Black Hills Gold rings, lined up from left to right made by the main Black Hills Gold jewelry manufacturers: Landstrom's, Stampers, South Dakota Gold Company, Rushmore Gold and Black Hills Gold Jewelry By Coleman.

All of the jewelry seems very similar until you see the products up close where the true quality of each piece shows. The other brands of Black Hills Gold do not have the same high detailing as Landstrom's.

Landstrom's ring was obviously far heavier than the other brands. There didn't seem to be as much gold in the rings manufactured by the other companies. You could feel the difference when holding the Landstrom's ring and you could see it (thickness). Each ring was tagged with a card indicating the gold weight, measured in pennyweight (1 pennyweight = 1/20th of a troy ounce).

Landstroms -- 4.32, Stampers -- 2.60, South Dakota Gold Co. -- 2.90, Rushmore Gold -- 2.75, Black Hills Gold Jewelry By Coleman -- 2.31

The Landstrom’s ring contained more than 48% more gold than the next heaviest piece. The Landstrom's ring was priced higher than the others but the price by gold weight is less.

Finally, the clink & clunk test. This is where you drop each ring onto the counter. It was easy to here the solid clunk of the Landstrom's ring when it hit the counter. The other brands clinked, dinged and pinged when they hit the counter. They even bounced and flipped around a bit because they were not made as solid.

It's obvious to us why so many of our customers prefer and ask for Landstrom's products.

We hope you will stop by the Landstrom's factory to take the tour and see what you think when you do the clink and clunk test. We are sure you will be impressed.