America’s Underground Lab overhauls its WWII era wooden mine shaft | Local News | bhpioneer.com

Mar 19, 2025

One of the four Yates Shaft crews to complete the top-down maintenance project at SURF includes Russell Bauer, Will Hover, Rodney Loup, and Matthew Kelly, standing inside the Yates Shaft a few thousand feet below the surface.

Photo by Stephen Kenny, SURF

LEAD — The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead is America’s Underground Lab – with cutting-edge experiments in biology, geothermal energy, engineering, and physics.

Experiments at SURF include the world’s leading dark matter detector, LUX ZEPLIN, and the on-going construction of the massive Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Log In

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,racist or sexually-oriented language.PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.Don't Threaten. Threats of harming anotherperson will not be tolerated.Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyoneor anything.Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ismthat is degrading to another person.Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link oneach comment to let us know of abusive posts.Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitnessaccounts, the history behind an article.