Highway 14 A off Interstate 90 leads through mountain passes into town. It is a modern road. Beautiful monuments bid welcome coming down into the gulch where once a rowdy settlement housed thousands of miners in 1875. Much has been written about this historic town’s early frontier days. A fictional film series portrayed it as a city of vice, corruption and evil where murderous thugs ruled by force and power.
Deadwood has settled down some since frontier days although gambling has been legalized and casinos dot the landscape everywhere. Revenue from casino gambling enabled the city to restore and improve many landmarks in town. There are luxury hotels and fine restaurants, inns and boarding houses. Historic Main Street’s brick buildings remain much as they were once the city recovered from fires that long ago destroyed its shanties and wooden saloons.
We settled our luggage at the Deadwood Mountain Grand Holiday Inn Resort on a hill overlooking town. It was a beautiful fall day. The mountains were just beginning to offer hints of change. A nip in the air required sweaters. The Mountain Grand restored Homestake Mine’s ore extraction plant. The huge buildings once housed a gigantic slurry plant where crushed ore was dumped from a railway above into huge basins where the process of gold purification took place. Original beams that supported the operation remain in place and the character of the buildings of this gigantic facility have been preserved.
Deadwood Creek flows past the Mountain Grand right through town. It is hard to resist temptation to look into the creek hoping miners may have overlooked a nugget or two. Alkali Ike Tours operate from the doorstep of Saloon Number 10. We made it in time for Mike’s animated tour. Once on the bus this former Rapid City fireman has as much fun conducting the tour as visitors from around the world do taking it. A highlight of the tour is Mt. Moriah Cemetery on a hill overlooking town.
Mt. Moriah contains the graves of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. Seth Bullock and his wife Martha’s grave it located up an unpaved track. The cemetery provides a guide and map to the graves that recount everything from Chinese culture and history to the wild days when burials took place in unmarked graves on the hillside. Make time later to walk up to Mt. Moriah from town to take pictures at the overlook and explore more closely historical legends buried there.
Back at Saloon Number 10 we went inside this Old West saloon. Sawdust on the floor and a long bar enhance the experience. Above the door is Wild Bill’s death chair. It is said that it is the original chair he was sitting in when shot in the back of the head by the assassin Jack McCall in 1876. Reenactments of the shooting, that take place in a back room of the saloon, are free and fun to watch. Early arrivals are pressed into action as actors, given costumes and asked to play cards while Wild Bill narrates the scenario. Upstairs is the Deadwood Social Club. Good food and a western ambiance prevails.
Walk up the street past the Masonic building to Deadwood-Lead Economic Development Corporation. Ask for a free coupon book. There are many premiums available and discounted tickets for food, attractions, stores and gaming. Walking back to town try your luck at the historic Franklin Hotel on Main Street. Rooms in the hotel are themed. In the old days, when Bill Walsh operated the Franklin, he had costumes hung in the rooms guests could wear down to dinner. Wild Bill, Sheriff Bullock and ladies of the period enjoyed the fun.
We ambled along Main Street to Kevin Costner’s The Midnight Star. The Hollywood film star decorated his casino, saloon and restaurant with costumes from his many motion pictures including ‘Dances With Wolves.’ It is as much a museum as gambling emporium. Named after the saloon in his film ‘Silverado,’ the fourth floor houses Jake’s Restaurant. Jake is the character Kevin Costner played in ‘Silverado.’ Jake’s offers fine dining in magnificent surroundings. On a clear night, moonlight filters through skylights in the ceiling. Windows give diners views of Main Street below and delicious fare is served.
After the tour and our jaunt around town we went back to our hotel. Our luggage had already been brought up to the large room with refrigerator and all the appointments of a grand hotel. We donned bathing suits and headed down to the jacuzzi and pool on the main level. The heated pool has tall windows that offer views of the hill behind the hotel and town below. The jacuzzi was most welcome. Thick towels are provided poolside with lounge chairs for convenience.
We booked dinner at Deadwood Mountain Grand’s Aught Six Restaurant. Old usage meant that ‘aught’ was used for the cipher zero. Since the ore processing plant was built in 1906, the restaurant was dubbed, ‘Aught 6,’ for 06. There is a comprehensive wine list. Food and beverages are reasonably priced. The steak came to table perfectly cooked and the salmon flavorful and savory. Check with the hotel to see what events are scheduled on stage. The complex draws many headliners and well-known entertainers.
We wanted to see Kevin Costner’s ‘Tatanka.’ Located on a hill outside of town ‘Tatanka’ is a center that offers insight into the first peoples of the land and describes their dependence on the bison, ‘Tatanka.’ There are programs inside, museum displays, a food concession and gift store. Outside tipis bring native culture to life with docents. A series of bronze sculptures depicting a buffalo jump is extraordinary. The more than life size bronze works are amazing in both accuracy and detail and in the way the site recreates a cliff over which Lakota on horseback drive bison before their sturdy steeds.
We took lunch across the street at Deadwood Lodge. The Lodge is magnificent. They offered a tour of rooms and indoor swimming pool. While we enjoyed the convenience of being right in town, we clearly will come back to stay at the beautiful Lodge on the hill. There are many nature walks nearby and fall is a magnificent time of year to visit.
We explored creekside walks along Whitewood Creek in town. Deadwood city officials have created beautiful walkways along the creek with places to sit comfortably. Here is where miners first found gold in 1875, panning in the shallow creek. A bronze statue of a whiskered miner with his pan proclaims the first find. Nearby is the Days of ‘76 Museum. Built with the generosity and patronage of Jon Mattson and many kind townspeople, the museum houses an comprehensive collection of historic guns and horse drawn vehicles. Every July since 1924, Deadwood celebrates its Days of ’76 with a week of events that include rodeos and parades. A beautifully restored Concord stage coach along with period buggies and carriages take visitors back to the days when horses and oxen provided the only means of transportation.
The Days of ‘76 Museum is part of a consortium of museums in town that include The Adams Museum and House on Sherman Street. The Adams is a must. It is worth a special trip to Deadwood even if there is time for nothing else. Deadwood History Executive Director Mary Kopko and the staff of historians and curators have preserved archives that bring history to life. The many highlights in the Adams include Wild Bill’s six shooter, the playing cards he had in his hand when he was shot of aces and eights, a pistol once owned by Charlie Utter, Potato Creek Johnny’s gigantic gold nugget as well as exhibits of Chinese life and culture, mining history and society life that grew up once Deadwood was tamed.
Historians will want to spend hours in Deadwood History’s Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center archive section. Archivists and curators are on hand to help research whether for an article, book or motion picture. Accurate details about life in the area can be found in the newly created, computerized facility.
Just up the hill is the town of Lead. The towns are connected physically as throughout history. Lead is headquarters for the Homestake Mine. Discovered in 1875, bought by a mining consortium, Homestake was one of the world’s most productive gold mines. There are mine exhibits and now a physics complex built deep in Homestake’s old mining tunnels to study neutrinos. The mine closed operations in 2002. Its deep earth facilities have new meaning in cutting edge quantum physics research.
Deadwood is plainly fun. It is living history side by side with modern casinos. There was always gambling in Deadwood, only in recent years has it been legalized. Try your luck if so inclined at any of the games of chance. Explore the town and its environs. It only takes a little imagination to turn back the hands of time to the wild and woolly west.
For more information contact Deadwood’s visitor’s bureau at 1-800-344-8826 or go on line at www.deadwood.com.
For general information visit www.travelsd.com or call toll-free 1-800-S-DAKOTA. For historical information visit www.deadwoodhistory.com.
