Deadwood, South Dakota Comes Full Circle

Deadwood, South Dakota, was known as the toughest town in the Dakotas. Here a community of 25,000 people rose out of the ground after Union Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer discovered gold, thus luring fortune hunters into the sacred land of the Sioux. A hundred years of ups and downs followed. 

But, by the 1980s, with corporate mining downsizing its operations, things looked bleak. Merchants boarded up storefronts, and streets deteriorated. Today however, after nearly calling it quits, Deadwood, South Dakota has come back to life. Preservation officials now label it a miracle.

In 1989, after some debate, South Dakota's electorate approved limited-stakes gaming for the city of Deadwood, making it then the third community in the nation, behind Las Vegas and Atlantic City, to offer gambling. But, there was a catch. A chunk of the take was to go for preservation and restoration of Deadwood's historic structures.

The plan was successful. Streets are paved with brick as they were a century ago, and period lighting illuminates trolleys transporting residents and visitors past gaming halls, quaint restaurants, and historic and new hotels. America's penchant for wagering saved Deadwood.

Like all Western mining towns, Deadwood had its fair share of heroes and villains who have been immortalized in stories, legend and of course, the big screen. Two of the most famous were James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok and Martha "Calamity Jane" Cannary.

Born in Illinois, Wild Bill was a Union scout during the Civil War and achieved fame as a U.S. marshal and gunfighter in the cow towns of Kansas from 1866 to 1871. He toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, astonishing audiences with his shooting. Wild Bill came to Deadwood in the summer of 1876 with an aim to separate the miners from their gold at the gambling tables. By that time, he had already achieved national notoriety from his days with the Wild West Show. On a fateful day in August, Wild Bill went to Saloon No. 10 to try his hand at poker.