Deadwood, SD

The first time we came to South Dakota we didn’t make it far enough north to reach Deadwood, so I’m glad we have the time to stop now.

We were completely overwhelmed with the amount of history this little town holds. You HAVE to come spend a day or two if you are a wild west / history buff. Dad, you so need to talk mom into coming our here. You will LOVE it!

In 1876 thousands of miners descended on the area hoping to strike it rich in gold or as business owners catering to the miners.

There was an informational marker depicting a bustling Main Street.

So where is all this bustling now? There wasn’t even a car in sight.

Turns out they were filming “The Bachelor” and had blocked off the street so they could get some film footage.

Later on in the afternoon, we walked right by where they were filming and I got within a couple of feet of “The Bachelor” and got a chance to say “Hi” to him. Not nearly as thrilling as you might think. Whatever.

There are two stories about Deadwood: The Legend and The Reality.

From our tour around town it seems that the seedier “legend” side of Deadwood is embraced by the businesses along Main St.

If you look closely you can see manikin “ladies of the night” posed in the windows.

Guns for pull handles on many business’ doors.

And the exploiting of the most famous historical figure of the area: Wild Bill Hickok. The original location where Wild Bill was shot is now a gift shop.

Inside you can pay a fee to go down into the lower level and actually see where Wild Bill was shot. It was closed when we were there. Bummer.

However, there is a replica of the actual Saloon No. 10 across the street We stopped in for a beer and found it to be creepy cool.

Over the bar they had replicas, perhaps, of Death Masks of some famous people. Calamity Jane and Wild Bill to name a few.

Death Masks were made, back in the day, of deceased people so that they could be identified by loved ones at a later date. With no way to preserve bodies long term and when the only means of travel from town to town was by horse….well you get the picture.

Over the doorway they showcased the chair that Wild Bill was sitting in when he was killed.

I think John would have fit in the wild west as a gun slinger. What do you think?

You can’t tell the story of Wild Bill and not mention his assassin Jack McCall. Here was the place where he was apprehended on Aug 2, 1876

There were lots of other cutesy kind of businesses and casinos in almost every establishment.

So what is “The Reality” of Deadwood?

Chinatown? Really? Back then how did the Chinese get word of a gold rush in California, let alone the little town of Deadwood? Whoda thunk?

Well we didn’t see any Chinese people around town, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there somewhere.

Nor did we see any evidence of Victorian gentility. We did however find the arts alive and well. We came across a woman blowing glass and stopped to watch.

And finally we were hoping for some blues music at the Deadwood Tobacco Co., to top off our evening but alas, we were too early.

So we had another beer and relaxed for a while in what might be considered a gentleman’s smoking room of days gone by. There was every flavor of pipe tobacco, more cigars than I’ve ever seen and lots of loose tobacco in a multitude of flavors for your cigarette rolling pleasure.

South Dakota has some interesting smoking laws.

Admittedly though, the place smelled pretty good. Not like the nasty stale cigarette smoke, but it was sweet and pleasant.

Another surprise was this flag hanging on the wall. Pretty cool. The flag was flown in combat over Afghanistan on board a B-1B Bomer in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, in honor of the Deadwood Tobacco Company on September 11 2014, according to the certificate, by the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron.

Yeah lots of history to explore and I’ve barely touched on it. Deadwood is worth the trip for old west history buffs.

Now….on to Kadoka SD so John can shoot some prairie dogs!!