DEADWOOD, SOUTH DAKOTA

 Before we left for this trip, we had already had several people tell us that we needed to visit Deadwood.  So, of course, it was on our agenda.  We spent the day yesterday there and it is quite the little tourist town. The drive is about an hour from Rapid City.

Main Street is lined with shops, restaurants, hotels and casinos.  One thing I found interesting was that almost all of the casinos are smoke-free. What a nice surprise. There was suppose to be a Jeep Jamboree at Deadwood this weekend.  Mr. W's cousin, Buddy, and his wife Stella, have jeeps and wanted to go check it out and maybe hangout with some of the jeepers.  However, once we got there, we found out that the Jeeps had been out at the fairgrounds earlier that morning, but they had already hit the trails for the day.  It worked out good for us because we got to hangout with Buddy and Stella all day.

Deadwood was well known during the Dakotas Gold Rush.  At its height, there were 25,000 in population. That was from 1876-1879 and it attracted many famous old west characters such as Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hickok.  Wild Bill was killed here and is buried in Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  Calamity Jane carried a torch for Wild Bill for years and she is buried right next to him.  Unfortunately for her, Wild Bill did not carry the same torch for her. In 2018, the population was 1306. The entire city has been designated as a National Historic Landmark District.

We did some shopping down Main Street and then ate lunch at Mustang Sally's.  We really wanted to eat there because it had an outside patio and the weather was great.  The food, not so much.  We also were hoping to see the daily street gunfight while sitting there.  We had left and gone to a few more shops, come back to where the gunfight was suppose to be, just to find out that they had cancelled the gunfight.  Not sure if it was due to Covid or just because. Bummer.

One of the cool things in the city is they still have the chair that Wild Bill was sitting in when he was shot.  It is in the new location of the Saloon #10.  The original location where the shooting happened, still wants their claim to fame so they have a sign hanging up outside letting you know they are the original location.  You can walk downstairs in their saloon to a room that is set up just like the saloon was on that fateful day and you too can have your picture made in that room for $10. Haha!

We did walk down to the new location of Saloon #10 and got a picture of "the chair."  Pretty cool.

Wild Bill was holding a hand of 2 pair, black eights and black aces, now referred to as "Dead Man's Hand" in poker.  And what visit to Deadwood would be complete without a picture with Dead Man's hand in the background.

After we left the downtown area, we drove to Mt. Moriah Cemetery where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried, as well as some other people responsible for the development of Deadwood.  You have to pay $2 per person to get into the cemetery.  I really wanted the picture of the graves or I probably would not have paid it.  But, it really was worth the $2 bucks once we got in there.  Be prepared to walk a lot of up and down hills. The weather was good.  The drive was pretty.  All in all a good day. Well worth the visit.