Hello fellow travelers! The next part of my Yellowstone and South Dakota trip took place in the town of Deadwood and at the Western Heritage Center!
About Deadwood:
Deadwood is a city that is known for its gold rush history during the Black Hills gold rush. The city is also famous for hosting a variety of Old West figures such as Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, and more.
The discovery of gold in the southern Black Hills in 1874 set off one of the great gold rushes in America. In 1876, miners moved into the northern Black Hills. That’s where they came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold and Deadwood was born.
Practically overnight, the tiny gold camp boomed into a town that played by its own rules that attracted outlaws, gamblers and gunslingers along with the gold seekers. Wild Bill Hickok was one of those men who came looking for fortune. But just a few short weeks after arriving, he was gunned down while holding a poker hand of aces and eights – forever after known as the Dead Man’s Hand.
Calamity Jane also made a name for herself in these parts and is buried next to Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery. Other legends, like Potato Creek Johnny, Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen, created their legends and legacies in this tiny Black Hills town.
I love how Deadwood has that Old West feel. It’s almost like a town you would see in a video game like Red Dead Redemption.
Photos
The Homestake Gold Mine, the deepest gold mine in the western hemisphere, and the interior of the Sanford Underground Research Facility.
Saloon 10, where Wild Bill Hickock was shot and killed
A statue of Calamity Jane
Deadwood sign
The Adams Museum
Deadwood post office
A memorial dedicated to the soldiers who fought in World War I
Lawrence County courthouse
Black Hills Railroad display
First Western Bank, which is now a hotel
A street photo
A snippet of history
The Saloon No. 10 and a Wild Bill Hickock impersonator
An old style saloon
A carriage ride through the town
More history snippets
The High Plains Western Heritage Center
About the museum:
We invite you to come learn about the legacy of our unique American Western heritage and experience it for yourself.
The High Plains are rich with history. It is a region that was at the unique intersection of nearly every cultural and economic circumstance that shaped the American West. The center was founded to preserve this past, inform the present and interact with our visitors through our extensive collections, archives and live events.
Opened in September 1989 in Spearfish, SD, the center provides more than 20,000 square feet of presentation space honoring Western legends and pioneers whose rugged individualism created the distinctive landscape and economies of this five state region.
The High Plains Western Heritage Center is located in Spearfish, about an hour outside Deadwood. It features a lot of history and artifacts from the old Western days.
A quilt celebrating 100 years of South Dakota’s statehood
A diorama of a bison
Busts of the founders of the Heritage Center
A replica of a barn and some animals like cows.
Several rifles
A cute diorama
A carved schoolhouse
Saddles
More clothing
More indigeous goods
The interior of a wagon
An example of what spices and herbs looked like back in the day. Settlers would trade salt, sugar, tobacco, and tea for furs, pelts, hides, and geographical information from the Native Americans.
A juvenile bison diorama
The Crow Creek Schoolhouse
From the highest point at the center, you can look into neighboring Wyoming.
Some of the native flora.
Some of the flags from neighboring states
Deer, coyotes, and other animals that are commonly seen around South Dakota.
Some other buildings around the property
White feather fan
A quilt on the wall.
Have you ever been to Deadwood before?
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