The poster reads “Find your inner outlaw” and where else would you find cowboys, gamblers, gunfighters and outlaws but in Deadwood, South Dakota. Home to Boot Hill Cemetery, where all the famous Wild West gunfighters are buried, and a frontier town that boasts 80 historic casinos and gambling halls, Deadwood has become a destination for those seeking a Wild West experience.
Deadwood was a gold rush town in the 1800’s. With the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, by General Custer’s exploration party in 1874, the area was overrun with men seeking to make their fortune in gold. There was only one problem; the land belonged to the Native Americans as part of the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868. But nothing could keep the treasure hunters from invading this scared Native American land and looking for gold.
Deadwood, being a typical gold camp, was inhabited by entrepreneurs, fortune seekers and those who just wanted to take advantage of the money that was floating around. Wild Bill Hickok was one of these fortune hunters. He came to Deadwood in June of 1876 and spent the next six weeks gambling. On August 2, 1876, he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall at the No. 10 Saloon. The hand he was holding, black eights and aces, has come to be known as the “dead man’s hand.” Every afternoon throughout the summer his murder is reenacted. The chair he was shot in hangs over the entrance to the original No. 10 Saloon on Deadwood’s Main Street.
The casinos are all located on the Main Street where you can take your chances at the slot machines or the card tables. Most of the casinos have restaurants that feature prime rib and buffalo on the menus or offer reasonably priced buffets.
Besides trying your luck at one of the casinos, you can visit Mount Moriah Cemetery, also known as Boot Hill, where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. Take a city tour and learn all about the history of this frontier town and its other colorful inhabitants.
Many of the casinos have museums. The Celebrity Hotel has a movie and TV car museum and a movie costume display. See James Bonds Austin Martin, Herbie the Love Bug, the Trans am from Smokey and the Bandit, a jeep from the TV series MASH and several other famous cars. The costume display features outfits from some of Hollywood’s most famous movies.
The Adams Museum, located in an arts deco building that was endowed by the Widow Adams, host artifacts from Deadwoods past including gold rush memorabilia.
If you really want to get in touch with the past, take a ghost tour of the Bullock Casino and Hotel. Maybe you will meet up with Seth Bullock, who is said to walk the halls of his historic hotel. Bullock was a US Marshall and the first sheriff of Deadwood; he arrived in town the day before Hickok was shot. The Franklin Hotel, one of the most elaborate historic buildings in Deadwood, is also allegedly haunted as are several other buildings in the town.
If want to go underground, take a tour of the Chinese underground opium tunnels that line the streets of town. The Chinese had an entire city underneath the part of Deadwood known as the Badlands. The town has a rich Chinese history including a section at Boot Hill for the Chinese workers. But only two bodies remain as the rest were taken back to China as per an agreement that the mines had with the Chinese migrant workers.
Day trips to Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument can be arranged. The tours usually stop in Lead, where the famous Homestead Gold Mine was located. See the remains of the gold mine that only recently shut down. You can still find good deals on gold items such as jewelry that is made from local gold.Mount rushmore
Every August the Black Hills are invaded again, this time with Harley Davidson riding cowboys who come for the Sturgis Motor Cycle Rally. Deadwood is a favored destination for these motor bike enthusiasts.
Deadwood has the look and feel of a frontier town. Walking down Main Street you can almost see what it was like in the wild west during the gold rush. The town, situated in a gulch and surrounded by the scenic Black Hills, is page from the past of American history brought to life again by the legalization of gambling. Without the casinos financial input into the restoration of many historic buildings and sites, Deadwood would be just another ghost town. So take a trip to Deadwood and help keep the past alive.
Photos by Diana Ellis
