History

While it was gold that summoned Deadwood into existence, pioneer and prospector Frank Bryant was hunting for deer, not gold, that autumn afternoon on November 13, 1875, when he made a discovery in Deadwood Gulch that would change the Northern Black Hills forever. Within a few months thousands of prospectors divided the Gulch from Gayville to Crook City into mine claims, and Deadwood became a boomtown, flaring hot and bright with the fire of opportunity. Deadwood’s gold rush of 1875-76 was the last great gold rush in the continental United States.

As the United States celebrated its Centennial in 1876, those in search of a brighter future flooded the gulch that soon came to be known as Deadwood. The mining town was named after the dense growth of pine timber, much of it dead, which covered the hillsides. Deadwood’s 4th of July activities that year were so exuberant and so patriotic that it was hard to believe the celebrants were actually not in the United States at all but were illegally occupying land belonging to the Lakota.

Shacks and shanties filled the slopes as people poured into the gulch with population estimates ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 people, mostly men. Deadwood was a boomtown, not made for permanence, and its Main Street wound along the gulch floor, around tree stumps and rocks, with canvas and log make-shift buildings fronting each side. With the miners came those who served the miners – the merchants, priests, doctors, bankers, blacksmiths, saloon keepers, liquor salesman, lawyers, photographers, theater owners, and prostitutes. Prepared to record the activities of the boomtown were Denver news publishers A.W. Merrick and W.A. Laughlin who set up the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper in June 1876. The first paper was published on June 8, 1876.

The Grand Central Hotel, owned by Charles H. Wagner, was one of the first hotels to open. The cook was Lucretia Marchbanks, a former slave who went on to become a highly successful business woman. Miners were able to buy a meal for $1 from places like the Grand Central. Typical fare was flapjacks, bacon, beans, and black coffee.

Deadwood was noisy, chaotic, energetic, and ethnically diverse. The streets literally hummed with activity and potential. In the summer of 1876, the town was lawless and dangerous with saloons, gambling houses, and bawdy theaters lining the streets of the Badlands where the upper floors were the domain of prostitutes. A vibrant Chinatown held the lure of opium dens. Miners could find themselves separated from their gold in any number of ways, legal and illegal, pleasant and unpleasant.

The lawless town slowly evolved into a law-abiding community. Seth Bullock was appointed sheriff shortly after Wild Bill’s murder in August 1876, and E.B. Farnum became Deadwood’s first mayor that same month.

As the notorious beginnings of Deadwood slowly faded with each passing decade, so also did the landmarks and evidence of the city’s unique early history. The early mining camp burned to the ground in 1879, and subsequent fires and floods further erased Deadwood’s pioneer roots. By the 1980s, city leaders saw that the fascinating history of the city was in danger of disappearing altogether. They proposed a marriage of Deadwood’s gambling past with the vital need to care for its historic treasures. South Dakota voters passed a constitutional amendment legalizing gaming in Deadwood in 1989, with gaming tax receipts earmarked for the historic preservation of the community.

For Deadwood, a city that was founded on the gamble of finding gold, limited stakes gaming has continued a hundred-year tradition and given the city a new lease on life. Now with the creation of a HBO® series called Deadwood, the former mining camp has a new vein of gold to tap.

The town attained notoriety for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, and remains the final resting place of Hickok and Calamity Jane, as well as slightly less famous figures such as Seth Bullock. It became known for its wild and almost lawless reputation, during which time murder was common, and punishment for murders not always fair and impartial. (The prosecution of the murderer of Hickok, Jack McCall, had to be sent to retrial because of a ruling that his first trial, which resulted in an acquittal, was invalid because Deadwood was an illegal town. This moved the trial to a Lakota court, where he was found guilty and then hanged.)

As the economy changed from gold rush to steady mining, Deadwood lost its rough and rowdy character and settled down into a prosperous town. In 1876 a smallpox epidemic swept through the camp, with so many falling sick that tents had to be set up to quarantine them. Also in that year, General George Crook pursued the Sioux Indians from the Battle of Little Big Horn on an expedition that ended in Deadwood, and that came to be known as the Horsemeat March.

A fire on September 26, 1879, devastated the town, destroying over 300 buildings and consuming everything belonging to many inhabitants. Without the opportunities of rich untapped veins of ore that characterized the town's early days, many of the newly impoverished left town to try their luck elsewhere.

A narrow gauge railroad, the Deadwood Central Railroad, was founded by Deadwood resident J.K.P. Miller and his associates in 1888, in order to serve their mining interests in the Black Hills. The railroad was purchased by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1893. A portion of the road between Deadwood and Lead was electrified in 1902 for operation as an interurban passenger system, which operated until 1924. Apart from a portion from Kirk to Fantail Junction, which was converted to standard gauge, the railroad was abandoned in 1930. The remaining section was abandoned by the successor Burlington Northern Railroad in 1984.

Some of the other early town residents and frequent visitors included Al Swearengen and his employees Dan Doherty and Johnny Burns, E. B. Farnum, Charlie Utter, Sol Star, Martha Bullock, A. W. Merrick, Samuel Fields, Harris Franklin, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, the Reverend Henry Weston Smith, Buffalo Bill, First Federal Judge Bennett, General Dawson, and Madame Canutson (woman bull-whacker).

You have a call

Deadwood had the first telephone exchange in the state of South Dakota. Established by Paul Rewman in March of 1878, calls between Deadwood and Lead were 50 cents at the time, 25 cents cheaper than a stage ride between the cities, and much faster. The completion of the line was promptly celebrated as reported by the Pioneer with a large bonfire, gathering, and a grand ball at the Grand Central Hotel.

The "Ladies" of Deadwood

The earliest record of prostitutes arriving in Deadwood occurred in July 1876 when Charlie Utter’s famous wagon train arrived. The women were accompanied by two madams with the intriguing professional monikers Madam Dirty Em and Madam Mustachio. According to one account, when the prostitutes arrived in town, miners lined up along the street and cheered. Prostitution was to become an industry in Deadwood that endured through the years almost without interruption until 1980, when the State’s Attorney’s Office, along with the local and federal law enforcement, closed the last four brothels in town.

It was difficult for a woman to make a living in the American West of 1876 if she did not have the protection of a father or husband. Single women often turned to prostitution as their only option. In some instances unsuspecting women were lured West by offers of the chance for adventure and the promise of respectable employment, only to find themselves penniless and virtually enslaved in dance halls or brothels.

Women pressed into service charged men to dance, hustled drinks and, in curtained areas and private boxes, sold sexual favors. It was not uncommon for customers to find their pockets picked and valuables stolen at the end of a long evening.
Prostitution in Deadwood was largely confined to the Badlands district on Lower Main at the north end of town. Saloons and theaters occupied the first floor while brothels opened for business on the floors above. By 1900 the Badlands occupied an entire block of two-story brick buildings on the west side of Main Street, from the Mansion House on the corner of Wall Street (where the Fairmont Hotel now stands) to the end of the block.

Most of the women who found themselves in this profession remain anonymous. Violence was common, and prostitutes had little protection from abuse and battery at the hands of their customers and employers. According to pioneer John S. McClintock, a Gem Theater prostitute named Tricksie shot a man through the front of his skull for beating her up. The attending doctor put a probe through the man’s head, amazed that he survived the gunshot.

Drug use and alcoholism was rampant as a means of escape. Opium and its derivatives, laudanum and morphine, were the drugs of choice. Suicides were common, often the result of deliberate overdoses by mixing laudanum and alcohol. Deadwood doctor F.S. Howe, who frequently administered to the prostitutes, always took his stomach pump when summoned to the Badlands in the middle of the night.

One of the last brothels open for business was Pam's Purple Door (the 4 operating brothels were closed in 1980). It was especially well known, and was famous for its sign that said "Better Than You Can Get At Home."

Deadwood's Chinatown

The Chinese were one of the largest and most dominant ethnic populations in Deadwood’s early years. Estimates of up to 400 Chinese lived in a strategic section of the gulch, often called Deadwood’s Badlands. The Chinese came to Deadwood in the 1870s to take advantage of the great economic opportunities afforded by the gold rush. They reworked abandoned placer mines extracting enough gold to make a living. For the most part the Chinese viewed their tenure in America as a temporary economic opportunity. It was written into their contracts that if they should die here, their bodies would be returned to the ancestral land for burial before ten years had passed. It was their belief that only bodies buried in ancestral ground within ten years of death would be at peace.

As in other towns, Chinese citizens formed their own neighborhood, elected their own mayor and council, and established their own police force and fire department. The Chinese opened retail shops and laundries and worked as domestic servants in the white community. A minority of the population engaged in other occupations such as prostitution and selling opium. In Deadwood’s Chinatown there were fewer than twenty Chinese women and of these approximately one-third were wives.

The Chinese preserved and celebrated their customs and traditions in Deadwood, adding much to the rich tapestry of life in the frontier mining town. The Chinese New Year celebration was especially festive, according to the memoirs of early day resident Violet Gorum. Lanterns were hung in the streets and thousands of firecrackers were lit at one time. Burials were important events. The gong at the Joss House would be rung, signifying that a Chinese person had died. A band would accompany the funeral procession to Mt. Moriah Cemetery, and mourners would carpet the path with hundreds of pieces of red paper punched with holes. They believed that the devil had to crawl through each hole before he could reach the soul of the departed, and by that time the body would be safely buried. An oven was erected in the Chinese section of Mt. Moriah for a ceremonial feast, and plates of food were left on the grave. After a sufficient length of time to allow for decomposition of the body, a Chinese undertaker would arrive at the cemetery to disinter the bodies, separate the bones, and wrap each one in newspaper and muslin. He would then put each carefully labeled package into a zinc-lined box for shipment, first to San Francisco and then to China for final burial.

Most of Deadwood’s Chinese population had left the Black Hills by 1910. Some returned to their homeland while others pursued opportunities in cities with larger Asian populations.

W.E. Adams

Although a native of Michigan, young Will Emery Adams was living in Minnesota when, in 1877, he headed west to the land of opportunity, the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. He purchased a team of mules and a covered wagon to transport a load of hardware for a friend along the newly established Bismarck Trail. He soon realized that one of the best ways to "strike it rich" in Deadwood wasn’t panning for gold, but by selling the pans, and other supplies, to miners. He established a grocery store at 629 Main Street and invited his brother James to join him. The Adams Brothers Banner Grocery opened in 1877 and burned to the ground along with most of the Deadwood businesses in 1879. They quickly rebuilt and occupied several other addresses in town before James moved to California in 1889.

By 1894 Adams moved the business to Sherman Street, eventually building the Adams Block across the street from the Adams Museum. The four-story structure included a modern elevator run by waterpower. By 1901 Adams discontinued his retail business, concentrated on wholesale, and grew it into one of the largest businesses in the state. At the time of his death, his was the largest estate to ever go through probate in South Dakota.

W.E. Adams married Alice Mae Burnham on December 22, 1880. He was 26 and she was 20. A devoted couple, they had two daughters: Lucile, born in 1884 and Helen, born in 1892. Lucile married banker and executive Frank Stratton in 1909. They moved to Detroit where she tragically died from typhoid three years later. Helen married developer Irving Benton in 1915 and lived in Pasadena, California. Tragedy struck again in June of 1925 when Alice traveled to California for the birth of Helen’s first child. Diagnosed with cancer, Alice had been ill for some time. On June 6 she died. Helen, distraught, went into labor and died the following day. The baby died soon afterward, and was buried in her mother’s arms. Within a period of 48 hours, W.E. lost his entire family.

Grief-stricken, Adams wondered if he’d ever find happiness again. He did. A year later he met a young widow, Mary Mastrovich Vicich from Lead. Even though their relationship was condidered scandalous by some... she was Roman Catholic and he was Episcopalian, she was 29 and he was 73...love prevailed and they married in 1927. They shared seven happy years together. In June 1934, Mr. Adams suffered a stroke. He died at his home several days later.

W.E. was a public-spirited man. Stressing economy in government, he was mayor for six terms. He was a community leader, serving on many boards of financial and civic institutions. His philanthropy extended to the establishment of several parks and the gift of the Adams Memorial Museum to the City. For all his successes, both public and private, he had relatively little formal education. He was largely self-taught, well-read, a statesman, and a poet. A man loved by all, the entire city mourned when he died.

Mary Adams honored the memory of W.E until she died in 1993 at the age of 95. She kept the Historic Adams House and its contents together for over 50 years, enabling it to eventually become the beautifully restored structure that it is today.

Deadwood in fiction
Deadwood's history and inhabitants are the foundation of Pete Dexter's 1986 novel, "Deadwood," in which Charles Utter and Wild Bill Hickok are the central characters. The town's early history forms the basis for the storyline of the HBO TV series named Deadwood. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Fistful of Datas", the holodeck program that Worf, his son Alexander, and Deanna Troi participate in takes place in 19th century Deadwood. The Tales from Deadwood series of novels by Mike Jameson, published by the Berkley Publishing Group, are set in Deadwood and feature Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Al Swearengen, and other historical figures. In Flashman and the Redskins the eponymous hero, an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, ends his adventure in Deadwood in 1876, shortly before Hickok's death.

Gambling and Deadwood

Gambling was prevalent in the early days of Deadwood and all but disappeared until the early 1990's. The state of South Dakota and it's voters legalized limited stakes gambling, with limited stakes meaning blackjack, poker, and slots with a maximum bet of $5. Each "casino" (the term casino could not legally be used) was limited to 30 devices (with a device being defined as a card table or a slot machine). This limit was later raised to it's current $100 maximum bet.