According to legend, a French goldsmith named Henri LeBeau became lost during the "gold rush days" of the middle 1870's in the Black Hills of South Dakota and fell asleep, dying of thirst and starvation. He dreamed he saw a mountain stream with grape vines growing on its banks.

Upon awakening, he walked over a rise and found the stream and grape vines just as he seen in his dream. He ate of the grapes, feeling life flow back into his veins. As he bent to drink from the stream scooping up the water by hand, he drew up gold nuggets. The gold nuggets from the stream made him wealthy. The richness of his life, however, came from dedicating his life and talents to creating jewelry in the shapes of grape clusters and leaves fashioned in rose, green, and yellow gold in gratitude for his second chance at life

Today, a series of up to 40 different steps are necessary to capture the same dramatic detail in our traditional and contemporary Black Hills Gold designs.