Deadwood, South Dakota

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Deadwood was a wild town in it's day. Deadwood was a gold mining town where the men outnumbered the women 200 to 1. There were saloons with poker tables, lots of booze and many many houses of ill repute.

Deadwood, South Dakota has a colorful past as a gold mining town where anything you wanted could be found, including gold ! Men came from all over the country to strike it rich!

There are many museums, saloons and every restaurant has a casino in it. As a matter of fact, every restaurant in Montana that we heard about or visited has a casino in it. The hotels all have casinos.

We visited Saloon # 10 where Jack McCall, a local rogue, shot Wild Bill Hickock in the back of the head while he was holding a dead man's hand at the poker table. This shooting happened on August 2, 1876. A dead man's hand is two aces and two eight's. Jack McCall was later hanged for the shooting across the street from Saloon # 10.

Wild Bill Hickock's reputation was much exaggerated. He was said to have killed hundreds of men but actually he only killed seven. One was the accidental shooting of his dearest friend. This was the territory for the famous outlaws of that era and they all came here to strike it rich in the gold mines.

Calamity Jane is buried right next to Wild Bill at the Mt. Moriah Cemetary, the nation's only official "Boot Hill", even though they were never romantically involved. She insisted that she be buried next to him as though she were his wife. She was a woman who for her 53 years lived more than most. She worked on a bull train, performed in the wild west shows and was a prostitute of "little repute". She died in 1903 of many ailments, particularly alcoholism.

Potatoe Creek Johnny, a name synonomous with Black Hills prospecting, was without a doubt, one of Deadwood's most colorful characters. He stood just over four feet tall and was said to have panned one of the largest gold nuggets ever found in the west. It weighed in at over 7 ounces. Children loved Johnny and he became very famous helping the tourists and performing at rodeos.

Deadwood fell onto hard times and was on the verge of becoming a ghost town when some of the town's citizens decided to act to save the town. They lobbied the state government to allow gambling. They remodeled every building in the town and paved the streets with brick pavers as it was in it's heyday. The town has been reborn! It looks nothing at all as we expected it to look, but it still has a little of the western flare. It reminded us a great deal of Central City, Colorado.

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Photos

Downtown Deadwood
Downtown Deadwood has two museums, several hotels and many many saloons and gambling casinos.

The Franklin Hotel
The Franklin Hotel, the best in town, has been completely renovated to it's original condition.

Saloon # 10
This is the sight where Wild Bill Hickok was killed. We were not allowed to take photographs in the museum here.

The Courthouse
The courthouse is beautiful inside and out. Built in the mid 1800's, the inside has paintings on the walls and the ceiling.