This South Dakota Town Has The Biggest Heart
Deadwood, South Dakota is a city located on the edge of yesterday, where legends are alive, and the time is always high noon. In the pages of history, and in the fictionalized world of television screenplays, Deadwood is synonymous with the solitary individual: the lone gunman, the saloon owner with the checkered past, the resolute sheriff singlehandedly struggling to bring justice to the town.
But today’s Deadwood has a completely different take on civic order. No longer suspicious of the stranger riding into town, Deadwood welcomes visitors with a warm embrace, and delights families with thrilling recreations of its nineteenth century past. By many accounts, Deadwood is the South Dakota town with the biggest heart. It’s a change that would surprise Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and the other colorful characters who once populated this raucous Old West outpost.
A Golden Legacy
In 1874, George Armstrong Custer, then a Lieutenant Colonel, led an expedition across the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. His expedition report confirmed rumors of gold in the region, igniting a massive gold rush. In 1876, miners discovered gold deposits in the area that is now Deadwood, leading to the birth of the town. Soon, Deadwood's population was booming, with an eclectic population of prospectors, gamblers, gunslingers, and merchants.
Echoes of that golden age can be found on every street in modern-day Deadwood. Saloon #10 on Main Street is a replica of the Nuttal & Mann's Saloon where legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok met his end at the poker table as he fanned out the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, the eight of spades, and the eight of clubs, an unlucky draw now known as “the dead man’s hand.”
As night falls, the neon lights of casinos illuminate the storybook downtown. Gambling has been legal in Deadwood since 1989, and this new source of revenue has financed myriad historic preservation projects, enhancing the town’s status as a National Historic Landmark. It has also drawn generations of gamblers to sophisticated versions of such original Deadwood pastimes as blackjack, poker, dice, and roulette.
Time Travel
Laid out beyond the gaming tables is an exciting panoply of family-friendly entertainment. On Main Street, gunfight performances recapture the chaos and peril of the frontier. Several times a day during the summer, the actors of “Deadwood Alive” stage gripping reenactments of gunfights, bank heists, and timely rescues of damsels in distress.
History also comes alive in mines and museums. The Adams Museum and the Days of ’76 Museum feature horse-drawn carriages, antique firearms, and tales of gold rush adventures. Kids love the Broken Boot Gold Mine, where guided tours take families deep underground to see where prospectors once foraged for gold. The immersive experience educates as it fires the imagination of young minds.
Savvy tourists time their visits to Deadwood’s calendar of seasonal festivals. Mardi Gras Weekend is the first of many celebrations, followed by the Forks, Corks & Kegs Food and Wine Festival in April, showcasing the the best wines, beers and culinary creations in the region.
In June, Wild Bill Days honors the famous folk hero with music, fun events, and historical performances. In July, Deadwood hosts one of the nation’s top rodeos, the Days of ’76 Rodeo. Kool Deadwood Nites brings classic cars to downtown in August, along with a vibrant street party. Polka music and the scent of bratwurst fill the air during Oktoberfest, and winter sees the arrival of a premier professional snowmobile racing event, the Deadwood Snocross Showdown.
Treasure In The Hills
Adding to its family appeal, Deadwood is surrounded by the inspirational beauty of the Black Hills National Forest. Like the daguerreotype photographs of the era, the hills change their appearance with subtle shifts in angle and lighting. Dense with ponderosa pine, the hills appear dark from a distance, but reveal a spectrum of greens, reds, grays, and golds to wonderstruck explorers. Sparkling water cascades down sheer granite formations into languid streams and lakes. The hills are alive with bison, elk, deer, and rare birds.
Several destinations within a 1.5-hour drive of Deadwood will appeal to nature enthusiasts. Custer State Park is the ideal place to admire the abundant wildlife. Underground natural treasures await at Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park, two of the longest cave formations in the world.
Around an hour's scenic drive away, Mount Rushmore rises from the hills with its chiseled portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Close by is the Crazy Horse Memorial, a mountain carving of the legendary Lakota Sioux chief who defeated G. A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The unfinished monument has been under construction since 1948.
Heart Of Gold
How does a small town gain a reputation for friendliness and big-hearted generosity? In the case of Deadwood, the foundation is pride in its history, a heritage of confidence rooted in the town’s enduring pioneer spirit. Residents love to retell the great stories of the past, drawing visitors into an exhilarating realm of adventure and imagination, where fortunes could be made overnight with a pickaxe or lost in an instant at the poker table. The people of Deadwood are the masters of their own narrative — not doomed to repeat history, but proud to relive it.
