Striking it rich, from gold to gambling

By Seth Tupper

The people who settled Deadwood were trespassers in a foreign land. They were gold prospectors hoping to strike it rich, and entrepreneurs hoping to profit from the gold seekers. Their mere presence in the Black Hills of South Dakota was illegal, and that illegality gave rise to the lawlessness that made Deadwood’s early days so famous.

A conflict between the Sioux Indians and the U.S. government called “Red Cloud’s War” had ended in 1868 with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The document reserved all of western South Dakota, plus some ancillary lands, for the Sioux people. The area became known as the Great Sioux Reservation.

Based on the terms of the treaty, the U.S. government turned settlers away from the reservation and kept its soldiers out. That all changed, however, with the fateful decision to allow an 1874 military expedition into the Black Hills led by George Armstrong Custer.

The officially stated purposes of Custer’s expedition included finding a site for a fort and studying and mapping the region. His party included scientists and a photographer. Gold also was rumored to exist in the Hills, and there was little doubt that the ambitious Custer wanted to find it.

The party discovered gold in French Creek. The discovery was announced by newspaper reporters who accompanied the expedition, and the Black Hills changed instantly from a mysterious, Indian-controlled enclave to a gold-harboring treasure trove coveted by the U.S. government and profit-seekers everywhere.

Settlers began streaming into the Black Hills and established the settlement of Deadwood in 1876. The Fort Laramie Treaty was still in effect, so Deadwood was an illegal town located inside a reservation and outside the borders of the United States.

The U.S. government made some early efforts to turn back the tide, but Deadwood’s population quickly swelled to around 5,000 people. Saloons with gambling and prostitution succeeded, and an opium trade developed. Deadwood was a dirty, roughhewn, teeming mining camp wedged into a mountain pass and frequented by characters of all stripes. Crime was commonplace and sometimes went unpunished.

Deadwood was forever etched into America’s collective Wild West memory on Aug. 2, 1876, when legendary lawman, gunfighter and card player Wild Bill Hickok was fatally shot in the back while playing poker in Deadwood’s Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon No. 10. He reportedly held a hand of aces and eights, which became known as a “Dead Man’s Hand.” Today, Hickok’s grave next to Calamity Jane’s in Mount Moriah Cemetery is one of Deadwood’s main attractions, and a modern Deadwood saloon stages daily re-enactments of Custer’s shooting during the summer months.

Hickok’s murder sparked a demand for law enforcement, and Seth Bullock, who had arrived in Deadwood the day before Hickok was shot, was eventually hired as the county’s sheriff. One of Bullock’s reported first acts was to confront Wyatt Earp, who spent a winter in Deadwood and may have been interested in becoming sheriff.

The Black Hills were officially taken from the Sioux in 1877 with a new treaty. South Dakota became a state in 1889. The railroad, a sign of advancing civilization, came to Deadwood in the years just prior to 1900. Some catastrophic fires destroyed many buildings in Deadwood’s early days, but the town persisted into the modern era. The entire city became a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Gambling ended in 1947, but prostitution held on until 1980. In 1988, as Deadwood struggled to maintain its historic appeal, state voters agreed to legalize gambling in Deadwood. Part of the plan was to use some gambling proceeds to restore historic properties.

The Deadwood gambling industry has boomed since then. The amount wagered surpassed $1 billion in 2007 alone, marking the first time that annual wagers had surpassed that milestone.

The city offers attractions beyond gambling, including the Adams Museum and House and Mount Moriah Cemetery. It’s also near ski slopes and other Black Hills wonders such as Spearfish Canyon, the Mickelson Trail and Mount Rushmore. Events such as the Days of ’76 still celebrate Deadwood’s colorful past.