Tax revenue from gaming would help prop up the crumbling buildings and replace outdated water and sewer lines. Then town leaders hit on an idea: Why not legalize some gambling and turn Deadwood into a year-round tourist town? This would bring back the flavor and fun that had left with the madams. 'We were left with about 10 shops that sold rubber tomahawks nine months out of the year and were boarded up the other three,' says Mike Trucano, who owns Black Hills Novelty, a slot and game machine business. Deadwood was almost dead, and a new Wal-Mart and Kmart in nearby Spearfish promised to put the final nail in the coffin. This rough-and-tumble legacy lingered until the 1980s, when state and federal agents shut down the last three whorehouses and many retailers closed their doors.

Legal or not, some bars offered poker games and 'for amusement only' slot machines. Less well-known figures had nicknames like Jimmy-Behind-the-Deuce, Bummer Dan and Slippery Sam. This was also home to Calamity Jane, Poker Alice, Preacher Smith and Potato Creek Johnny, a beloved, 4-foot-3-inch prospector from Wales who found one of the Black Hills' biggest gold nuggets. He'd only been in town a few weeks when he made the fatal mistake of sitting with his back to the door, playing a poker hand of black aces and eights, known thereafter as a Dead Man's Hand.

This is the mining camp, founded in 1876, where Wild Bill Hickok was shot. Summer provided the biggest boost, when thousands of bikers rolled into town for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Classic and Rally, the second-largest biker gathering in the nation.īut above all, people visited Deadwood in the Black Hills because it was part of the Wild West. Except for a few hundred jobs provided by the Homestake Gold Mine, the town scraped by on seasonal tourism. They'd see each other for coffee at Marie's Cafe or later in the day at Olé's for a game of cards. Before state residents legalized gambling here in 1989, most people in this town of 1,800 or so lived life in the slow lane. Note: This article accompanies another feature story, ' Gambling: A tribe hits the jackpot.'ĭEADWOOD, S.

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