Attention Visitor: Please see notice on page 46. WelcomeTO DEADWOOD Make a Deadwood information location your first stop when you get to town. The Deadwood Welcome Center (501 Main Street) features free parking, an indoor trolley waiting area, creek access and loads of great information to help plan your stay and activities. Additional information locations include the History and Information Center (historic train depot at 3 Siever Street) and the Information Wagon (seasonal, a historic chuckwagon that travels to various locations on Main Street). Once you’ve parked your car and have a plan, hop on a Deadwood Trolley. Rides only cost $1 per person, per ride and the trolleys’ loop routes mean you’ll rarely walk more than a couple blocks before reaching a boarding location. Trolleys run from morning into the night, picking up at each location every 20-30 minutes. Be sure to pick up a current schedule at a Deadwood information location. Trolley operating hours and frequency change with the seasons. Trolleys can be tracked in real-time at TrackMyTrolley.com. © Gilbertson Photography 2 2020–2021 DEADWOOD VISITOR GUIDE WWW.DEADWOOD.COM 3 In 1876, thousands of ask around you’ll find some single-deck SLOT MACHINES tables, which give the house a significantly ROULETTE prospectors descended Slot machines are the most common casino smaller advantage. Ask most any gaming Roulette is one of three games new to upon Deadwood Gulch. game in Deadwood, but the games are as professional and they’ll tell you blackjack Deadwood in 2015. Roulette can be found diverse as they are universal. Penny slots offers the best odds in the house. at the town’s larger gaming venues. Another The promise of gold and a are the crowd favorite, with a multitude of easy game to learn, your roulette strategy better life inspired a flood betting options that makes the game fun can be kept simple by betting on red or Get Lucky of fortune-seekers into the and low-cost. Progressive systems link the black, on odds or evens, or up the potential IN DEADWOOD same machines throughout town creating winnings by selecting particular numbers. canyons and peaks of the an ever-growing jackpot amount. And many Then, just sit back and watch the wheel do Lakota’s sacred Black Hills. machines have the flexibility of being multi- the work. denomination, so your desired bet changes with the click of a button. Though many gold rush towns died POKER almost as soon as they started, Deadwood was different. The A good poker game in Deadwood is always nearby mines went through booms available, but you’ll have to search a little Craps and busts, but the gold kept longer than you do for slots. A handful of coming. Generations of miners casinos offer live poker games, and the play toiled underground, and when at them is outstanding. The most popular CRAPS their shifts were over, they came flavors are Texas Hold ‘em and Omaha, Like blackjack, craps is one of the most to Deadwood saloons, brothels both community card games. Depending popular casino games in the world. You can and gambling halls to unwind and on times, games start with blinds as low as walk through about any casino and if there’s relax. It didn’t matter that this was $2 and $4. There’s a variety of additional crowd gathered, you can almost bet it’s all mostly illegal; Deadwood had table games offered in Deadwood, such around a craps table. Craps is played by one always been a town on the edge as Let It Ride, Caribbean Stud, Ultimate player, or a group of players betting against of the law, and the people who Texas Hold-em, 3-Card, 4-Card and more. the house. Though the board and action can came for a good time didn’t mind If you’re unfamiliar with the game, stop in a look intimidating, the game is easy to learn bending a rule or two. casino that offers poker during a slower time Roulette and fun to play. of day; most dealers will be happy to help Things changed in 1989. After you learn the basics. And remember, all you more than a century of gambling need is a chip and a chair. on the down-low, Deadwood HISTORY NUGGETS became the third place in the United States (after Atlantic Wild Bill Hickok City and the state of Nevada) to Although Wild Bill Hickok is bars, brothels and gambling houses. allow legal gaming. The card Deadwood’s most famous resident, He was playing poker in Nuttal & tables and slot machines came he was in town less than a Mann’s (Saloon No. 10) when out from the back rooms, and month before he was shot Jack McCall walked in the town boomed. Fueled by down by Jack McCall on and shot Wild Bill in the the new tax revenue, the town August 2, 1876. back of the head. Bill was holding two pair, The former gunfighter began an ambitious historic Aces and Eights, which preservation effort that continues and lawman was became known as today. Gaming expanded again Blackjack famous long before Dead Man’s Hand. Deadwood. He arrived in 2015, when roulette and craps by wagon train from Jack was first tried joined the town’s existing poker Cheyenne in the by a miner’s court in tables, blackjack games and slot BLACKJACK company of Charlie Deadwood and found machines. Utter and Calamity Jane. not guilty. He was later Blackjack, also called 21, is a game that’s Despite talk of prospecting tried and executed in easy to learn, making it the most popular for gold, Wild Bill didn’t stray Yankton, the territorial casino game in the world. You’ll find from the Badlands, a section capital, and buried with the Not sure where to start? Here’s a blackjack at most of the medium-size and of Main Street known for its noose still around his neck. quick primer on the kinds of games larger gaming venues in Deadwood. While you’ll find in Deadwood. most games use multiple decks, if you 4 2020–2021 DEADWOOD VISITOR GUIDE WWW.DEADWOOD.COM 5 IN TOWN “ “CAMPGROUND OUT OF TOWN FEEL 235 Cliff St. Hwy 85 South Deadwood, SD 57732 Reservations: 1.800.704.7139 Information: 1.605.578.2092 www.whistlergulch.com 6 2020–2021 DEADWOOD VISITOR GUIDE WWW.DEADWOOD.COM 7 Deadwood was born in 1876, Deadwood when a rush of gold miners and HISTORY TIMELINE fortune seekers descended Learn About The 1874 Col. George Armstrong on the Northern Black Hills in Custer’s expedition discovers gold on the hopes of making a better French Creek in the Southern Hills. Old West life for themselves. The town 1875 A much richer gold deposit is discovered in Deadwood Gulch. IN DEADWOOD was practically lawless in The town of Custer is abandoned and those early years, and the men miners stream north to stake claims. 1876 Deadwood becomes an and women who first came official town, although rough around to Deadwood were people the edges. Wild Bill Hickok is gunned down, and the Manuel brothers strike of fortitude and strength - gold near present-day Lead. folks who didn’t mind a little struggle on the road to fame and fortune. Historic Deadwood Walking Tour undisturbed for almost 60 years during the These folks were responsible for DEADWOOD WALKING middle of the 20th century. Guided tours a number of lasting legends. The TOUR are $10 for adults and $5 for children. The dime novel exploits of Wild Bill, 1877 Mining mogul George Pick up a free brochure for this self-guided fully restored home is open April through Hearst buys the Manuel brothers’ Calamity Jane, Deadwood Dick and tour at one of Deadwood’s two manned October. Ask about special events such as claim for $70,000 and establishes other heroes captivated turn-of-the- visitor centers, 501 Main Street and 3 musical performances and history lectures the Homestake Mining Co. It would 20th-century America. In many ways operate for 126 years and pull untold Siever Street, or at City Hall, 108 Sherman during the summer on the lawn. they still define modern Deadwood. riches from beneath the Black Hills. Street. Also, interpretive signs at important 1879 Fire rages through the locations will tell short stories from That means that when you visit city, destroying buildings and leaving Deadwood’s past. Scan the QR codes with Deadwood, you’re diving head-first 2,000 people homeless. your smartphone to see rare photographs into living history. You don’t have 1890 The Fremont, Elkhorn and videos. to pore over old records or listen to & Missouri Valley Railroad begins lectures to know what Deadwood passenger service to Deadwood. was like 140 years ago — though BROTHEL TOURS you can. Just walk the brick-paved Deadwood’s last houses of prostitution streets, and you’ll immerse yourself closed following a raid in 1980. But starting in continental America’s last great this summer, visitors will be able to tour one gold rush. of these former bordellos at The Brothel, located at 610 Main Street, and understand That’s why TrueWest Magazine Adams Museum how the world’s oldest profession shaped has named Deadwood its #1 True more than a century of Deadwood’s history. West Town Best Place to Live ADAMS MUSEUM 1903 The Franklin Hotel opens; Like a Cowboy (Summer)-Editor’s Calamity Jane dies. Choice, Best Town for Historic HISTORIC ADAMS The oldest history museum in the Black 1906 The Homestake Slime Entertainment-Editor’s Choice, HOUSE Hills, the Adams Museum at 54 Sherman Plant (now the Deadwood Mountain Street originally had a Victorian cabinet- Grand) is constructed.