DEADWOOD: The Most Notorious Town of the Wild West

this video is brought to you by Squarespace the all-in-one platform where entrepreneurs can easily create and customize their own personal and professional website more on Squarespace later in the video Welcome to Geographics I'm your host Eric Malachite and today we're talking about Deadwood the most notorious town of the Wild West authored by Ru Alexander be sure to check out my links below including my storytelling Channel story rant and if Ru has provided us with his links they'll be right alongside my own but without further delay let's get into it July 2nd 1874 a Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army set off from Fort Abraham Lincoln in what was back then the Dakota territory to explore an Uncharted region known as the Black Hills led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong kuster the one from kuster's last stand the expedition's main goals were to establish a good route through the Black Hills find a suitable location for a fort and ideally discovered some gold in them th Hills technically all of this should have been irrelevant because according to the 1868 treaty of fort laramy the Black Hills were the property of the sue people so even if there was gold it would belong to them right well as many of us know the United States government regarded treaties with Native americ Americans more like suggestions than actual rules to be followed so if there was anything of value there nothing would stomp it from claiming ownership and exploiting it unfortunately for the Sue kustard did find gold in the Black Hills a lot of it at least according to the reports he sent back which were widely distributed in newspapers throughout the nation which boldly proclaimed the Black Hills to be the new Gold Country once gold was on the table multiple events followed in quick succession by the fall of 18 75 over 15,000 Prospectors settled illegally in the Dakota territory risking their lives to sneak into the black hills and mine for gold at first the US Army tried to stop them at least pretending to abide by the treaty then it decided that it wouldn't do that anymore then president Ulisses S Grant offered to buy the black holes for $6 million but Sue leader sitting bold told them to stick it where the sun don't shine then the government announced that it was taking the land anywhere and gave the Native Americans a deadline to leave their homes then the latter ignored the deadline and the great Sue war of 1876 erupted because of course it did by the way if we may allow ourselves a Shameless plug we have a biographics video on Sitting Bull which presents the events from his perspective and includes the war and kuster's Last Stand and all that wonderful stuff but what does any of this have to do with our video today well as the miners came into the Black Hills they settled new towns in in the area as it happened one of the most desirable places to mine gold was also Deadwood Gulch so naturally it attracted a lot of new traffic and led to the birth of one of the most notorious towns of the American frontier [Music] Deadwood there are a few Origins for the name Deadwood but the most popular one claims that when miners arrived in 1875 the valley had been clogged by a mass of Fallen trees most likely from a tor NATO like many of the early settlements in the Black Hills Deadwood was founded illegally back when the territory still technically belonged to the Native Americans and also like those other settlements it started out as a humble mining camp we can't tell you who was the first Miner in Deadwood since keeping accurate records wasn't exactly of Paramount concern back then in contemporary newspapers as well as modern historians have given credit to various people but if you want to name the one that often gets brought up is Frank br who arrived with a small party in Deadwood gch in August 1875 according to his son Bryant found gold in Deadwood on August 11th then built a small Log Cabin near the creek and worked his claim although he did not actually register it until November another popular option would be a man named William lardner in his group and for what it's worth this was the opinion shared by a guy named Seth Bullock who some of you might already be familiar with but more on him later after these initial groups several other part parties found gold and recorded their claims in quick succession so that by December of that year the Lost mining District had been set up by lardner to keep records of all the new claims being registered if you're wondering what made Deadwood such an appealing Target it was all about location location location it was situated 4600 ft above sea level yet deep in the valley cut by Whitewood Creek coming in from the deer mountains those mountains were rich in gold and after thousands of years of rain and erosion a lot of that gold got carried by water down the slopes and into the valley it then reached Deadwood Gulch where the creek developed a gentler incline that permitted the precious ore to get deposited in the streamed just waiting for Prospectors to arrive with their pans and shovels and do one of those little jigs that they all love to do whenever they strike it rich this kind of gold digging is called Placer mining where gold is extracted from Sand and Gravel typically deposited on the bed of a river it can and spasic is using the aformentioned pan to sift through the sediment it is a technique that has been used since ancient times and although it won't likely yield any huge returns it has the advantage that anyone can start doing it with little training and investment of course more advanced methods were also available to the Prospectors such as using a device called a rocker or even better a SLO box both capable of processing much more raw material the problem with Placer mining is that it doesn't last very long especially once a a spot becomes popular and attracts thousands of miners at once centuries of gold deposits can be sifted in just a few years and when that happens it is often replaced with hard rock mining which as its name suggests involves searching for and extracting gold deposits from Solid Rock a much more complex and expensive alternative that typically requires heavy machinery indeed by the end of 1878 Placer mining had already started to dry up in Deadwood The Humble Prospectors who came to the area with a pan in their hand and a gleam in their eyes either moved on to greener pastures or sought employment with the mining companies that set up shop to work the gold veins in the mountains many claim holders made money not from gold but from renting or selling their property to businessmen who wanted to build on the land since by that point Deadwood had evolved into a fully-fledged city we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit for now it is still 1876 and Deadwood is still the PR land for many a prospector with dreams of diving into a pool filled with gold Allah Scrooge McDuck nobody knows exactly how many miners arrived in Deadwood in 1876 but estimates for the summer of that year range from a conservative 5,000 to an ambitious 10,000 of course all those miners needed places to buy supplies to process their ore to sell their gold and then to spend their hard-earned money the Gold Rush naturally attracted new businesses run by people who had no intention of mining but to cater to the demand demands of an Ever growing population the summer of 1876 saw a construction boom in Deadwood and before you knew it the place turned from a mining camp full of tents shanties and maybe a log cabin or two into a proper settlement deadwood's so-called business district was initially described as a lot of lemon boxes dumped out in a backyard some of them propped up on broomsticks but by September there were around 200 buildings in town the population was estimated at around 3,000 people by the the end of fall at first this might sound low given that 5,000 to 10,000 miners ared during the summer but keep in mind that most miners went home for the winter the fact that so many stuck around showed that thousands of people had already made Deadwood their new home one of the first people to do so was a man named Ethan Bennett farum better known as eie farum to the people of Deadwood and the fans of the HBO show he came to Deadwood from Wisconsin during the summer of 1876 and opened a general store thus becoming one of the City's first residents who was not a minor or a prospector faram then invested in more properties in and around town but more importantly he was elected by a provisional city government as deadwood's first mayor in Justice of the Peace consequently farum was responsible for a whole bunch of other firsts in Deadwood he helped establish the first school and fire department he sent the first telegram and he officiated the first marriage in town a plus as mayor he began levying taxes on businesses and organized a quarantine when a small poox outbreak ravaged the town in other words Evie farum was a pivotal character in the early years of Deadwood and was instrumental in establishing it as a proper City one important distinction between the real farum in his TV counterpart was that the former didn't actually stick around Deadwood for long once the duties of the mayor were split into multiple positions farum ran for justice of the peace again this time unsuccessfully after that he decided to pack up his bags and move to Chicago and by the 1880s census farum was out of Deadwood another notable early resident that show enthusiasts will immediately recognize was Charlie uter a former Trapper who decided to come to Deadwood to try his luck at prospecting however udder didn't come alone instead he and his brother Steve udder organized a 30 Wagon Train in Colorado filled it with miners gamblers and prostitutes and brought them all to Deadwood to give the town a healthy dose of let's say liveliness as if that wasn't enough utter even stopped on the way to pick up two wild west icons Calamity jeane and Wild Bill Hickock we might as well mention Wild Bill now since he was undoubtedly deadwood's most famous resident albeit briefly Hickok stayed in town for less than a month he arrived in July on utter Wagon Train and was killed on August 2nd 1876 while playing poker in Nettle and man's number 10 Saloon by that point Hickok was already a legend of the old west and if you want to get the full picture we did a video on him over at biographics a few years back his killer was another local named Jack McCall why exactly McCall wanted Hickok dead Still Remains uncertain but one day he walked up to Wild Bill while the latter was playing poker and shot him point blank in the back of the head killing him instantly while Hickok was holding pairs of aces in eights nowadays known as the dead man's hand a group of locals captured Mcall and held an impromptu trial since this was during deadwood's early days when it was still an illegal settlement however Mcall claimed that he killed Wild Bill to avenge his brother's death and since this was considered okay by Frontier standards they let him go but Mcall just couldn't keep his mouth shut and he bragged about his deeds so much that he finally got arrested in Wyoming and put on trial again a legit one this time he was found guilty and hanged in 1877 Wild Bill Hickock was buried locally in deadwood's Mount Mariah Cemetery where many other Town notables rest to this day as for Charlie uter Deadwood proved more beneficial to him than to his former partner soon after arriving in town he established an express delivery service to Cheyenne Wyoming with the profits he opened or managed several entertainment establishments such as saloons and dance halls not just in Deadwood but also in nearby towns such as lead and gayville just like Ebie farum the real Charlie utter did not stick around Deadwood for too long in 1879 the town was hit by a devastating fire that destroyed hundreds of buildings including those owned by utter like many people he didn't feel like starting over from scratch so he left Deadwood and drifted from town to town until he eventually ended up in Panama City Panama the last member of the famous Trio was Calamity Jane a Frontiers woman and Scout whose history before arriving in Deadwood seems more based on hearsay than any solid records even the origins of her nickname are a bit murky she only stayed in Deadwood for a few years years but she was remembered fondly for nursing sick residents during the small pox epidemic although she too moved on to greener pastures including a stint with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show she returned to the Black Hills in her final years she died in 1903 and was buried in Deadwood right next to Wild Bill Hickock some say this was done according to our final wishes others claim that they did it to play a joke on Wild Bill since in life Jane was in love with him but he had no interest in her this Geographic video is brought to you by 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mustach turned into some of the most lucrative businesses in town Duan in particular became a pillar of the community and she was so successful that she operated brothel throughout South Dakota including in lead Sturgis and Rapid City although her joint in belfo was her biggest Money Maker called didin Doras dufran was known for paying her workers a decent wage in maintaining a safe and clean environment something that was definitely not the case in most we Western brothel or in most strip clubs today and also for employing Calamity Jane as a cook from time to time both Duan and her husband were buried in Deadwood and although she does not appear in the HBO show the character of Joanie stubs was Loosely based on her if you had money to spend and were looking for a good time in Deadwood there were plenty of options available to you there was the melodian which had plenty of Music far tables live shows and all the sleev that money could buy there was the green front which had more of the same and then there was the Bella Union which again was basically the same as the first two but it was featured in the show so it's more famous and if you wanted something that was genuinely more upscale and less disreputable you had Jack lish's theater where you could see proper plays host weddings and church services and even catch an opera or two linguish was an Irish immigrant born in Dublin who began acting in New York City before starting his own theater troop and taking it on the road he arrived in Deadwood early on and built his theater in the summer of 1876 langrish represented the more respectable side of deadwood's entertainment industry during its first years but like many of the local businessmen he left town after the devastating fire of 1879 burned his place to the ground but of course when it came to the Entertainment District of Deadwood one place stood Head and Shoulders above all others in terms of infamy The Gem Theater and its notorious owner Al Swearingen the real saren J was a no good scoundrel through and through just like his TV counterpart although probably a little less murdery he was however ruthless and Shady particularly with the women in his employee whom he often tricked into working at the gym as prostitutes by promising them respectable jobs if they came to Deadwood but you don't have to take our word for it here is how contemporary author and firsthand witness John S mclin Talk described Swearingen and the gem on the east side of Main Street was constructed early in June a large two-story frame building this abominable institution was later known far and wide as The Gem Theater by reason of its drawing financial support from so many of the so-called leading citizens of the city as well as from practically all residents and floaters of the underworld who drifted into the hills at the time it very soon won and held for many years to the Everlasting shame of Deadwood the distinction of being the city's Chief attraction the floor in front was provided with a bar on one side and with seats for waiting patrons and Spectators on each side the rear end of the long building was cut up into small rooms it was here that swear engine kept under strict surveillance his herd of so-called female employees when in fact they were on the level of what slaves SAR engine kept at all times a full crew of underst strappers with Dan dhy as general manager and Johnny Burns's floor manager and several Burly Bouncers whose duties were to see to it that those who had spent their money kept quiet or hit the sidewalks on one occasion as I was passing up the street I heard a great Clash of voices and a shot fired I waited until others had rushed in and following them I beheld a man lying on the floor with a bullet hole clear through his head back of his eyes the woman Trixie had grabbed a pistol while he was beating her and turned turn the tables on him this vicious institution in its later years was conducted principally as a theater and frquently procured some of the best talent found among traveling attractions however it continued to end in maintaining its notorious record as a defiler of Youth a destroyer of Home ties and a veritable Abomination so yeah mclin talk was not a fan of Swearingen or the gem but many others were and the gem stayed in business for over two decades after the big fire of 1879 swear Engen rebuilt his successful brothel and then did it again after another fire ravaged deadwood's Main Street in 1894 the third fire did it though and after the gem burned down again in 1899 swear Engen called it quits in left Deadwood for Chicago he was found dead on the streets of Denver in 1904 likely the victim of a homicide that remains unsolved to this day [Music] but what about the other side of the coin swearingin represented the chaos and crime that helped gain Deadwood its reputation but the city also had those who stood for Law and Order In Chief among them was legendary Lawman Seth bulock bulock and his partner Solomon star arrived in Deadwood in early August 1876 and proceeded to open the first hardware store in town by all accounts Bullock arrived in Deadwood intent on doing business not to deliver justice but the lawlessness of the Wild Frontier Pro too much for him to stomach he had previously served as sheriff in Montana and yes in case you're wondering the opening scene in the show where Bullock hangs a man instead of turning him over to an angry Lynch Mob was real the guy's name was clle Watson bulock reached Deadwood around the time that Wild Bill Hickock was murdered and it seems that he wasn't the only resident who would have liked the town to be maybe just a tad less wild fighting drinking gambling opium and prostitution were all just good good clean American fund but Mall being able to walk up to Hickok and shoot him in the head in broad daylight and then being let go was a bit much even for Deadwood the citizens started calling for a sheriff to bring some Law and Order and in fact they elected one right after McCall's trial and guess what it wasn't bulock it was some guy named Isaac brown but he was killed just a few weeks later it wasn't until March 1877 that Seth bulock became the sheriff not just of Deadwood but of Lawrence County as appointed by territorial Governor Pennington bulock immediately deputized a few trusted men and got to cleaning up the town as best he could Deadwood hardly became a safe haven with him in charge but it was better than before as you would imagine bulock had several run-ins with swear Engen but the gem proprietor was too popular and well conned to get taken down by the new sheriff according to records bulock never killed a man during his time as Lawrence County Sheriff he didn't have to it was said that he could outstare a mad Cobra or a rogue elephant and a look from him was usually enough to dissuade most unruly citizens from starting any trouble that being said Bullock wasn't sheriff for very long in November of that same year a federal judge voided all Deadwood appointments and elections were held for the open positions Bullock surprisingly lost the sheriff job to a guy named John Manning however he was later appointed as US Marshall by President Teddy Roosevelt directly and he held that job for 9 years bullin sold star were vital members of deadwood's community because they became permanent fixtures who lived in town for the rest of their lives always trying to make Deadwood bigger and better they didn't just pack up and leave when the fires burned down their businesses which did indeed happen together they built the bulock hotel which is still in operation and they granted free use of their land to the Fremont elorn and Missouri Valley Railroad so that they would build a railway through Deadwood star got involved with politics and served as Deadwood councilman mayor postmaster later when South Dakota became a state he served the state legislature and Senator both men died in Deadwood and while bulock was buried locally star's family had him transported to St Louis but the Gold Rush wouldn't last forever at the 1890 census the population of Deadwood was only 2,366 people many of its landmarks had burned down many of its colorful characters had left town gambling and prostitution had become illegal and then so did alcohol as North in South Dakota enacted Prohibition in 1889 Deadwood had become just another small town the once Lawless Boom Town was a shadow of its former unruly self although its rebellious and violent Origins are still remembered and even celebrated during the days of the 76 annual event its place in American history was officially cemented in 1961 when the entire town of Deadwood was declared a National Historic Landmark well I certainly hope you found the script this video was based on to be and as informative and entertaining as I did be sure to do all that algorithmic jazz and stay tuned to Geographics for more content like this I'm Eric Malachite and I'll see you next time space cowboy [Music]

Channel: Geographics

Views: 130,876

Keywords: Geographics, Places, Wild West, history, biography, deep dive, travel, travel destination

Id: ThUDJGRd9YY

Length: 24min 19sec (1459 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024