Resurrecting the Old West

Resurrecting the Old West

Actor Marcus Volimas studied hard to understand Wild Bill Hickok, the Old West character he portrays in Deadwood, S.D. (pop. 1,380). "He was larger than life even when he was living," Volimas says.

But what Volimas really knows is Hickok’s death, having re-enacted his Aug. 2, 1876, murder more than 880 times. The legendary lawman and Wild West Show performer was shot while playing poker in Deadwood on that fateful day.

"According to one of the other poker players, Hickok fell to the floor and was instantly dead," Volimas says. "I take a little liberty and fall forward on the table to die, so the audience can see me better and so I don’t get my costume dirty. Sometimes kids are caught up in the moment and cry, and I have to get right up and tell them I’m OK, that we’re acting."

In one way or another, from gold prospecting to gambling to play-acting, Deadwood’s business always has been getting people caught up in the moment. That began with the town’s illegal founding in Indian country, the same year as Hickok’s murder, when gold rushers swarmed into the long, narrow Black Hills gulch.

Hickok’s murder at the hand of Crooked Nose Jack McCall is re-created four times a day during the summer at Saloon Number 10, which harkens back to the 1800s with sawdust covered floors, Wild Bill’s purported death chair, and an ample supply of Old West artifacts. Outside people line up for a bus ride to Mount Moriah Cemetery, the gravesite of Hickok and sharpshooter Calamity Jane, among others.

The perpetual celebration of famous and sometimes shadowy Deadwood characters hits a crescendo during the town’s annual Days of ‘76 festivities (scheduled July 26 to 31), when thousands pack the gulch for a professional rodeo, a parade, and late-night toasts to Western lore.

Joyce Carlsen, a third-generation Black Hills resident, appreciates how the Days of ‘76, as well as the HBO TV series Deadwood, has whet the public’s appetite for learning about the town. Carlsen works as an educator at the 1930 Adams Museum, the oldest history museum in the Black Hills. She says people who think of Deadwood as a gold camp are surprised by how rapidly it evolved into a comfortable community in a stunning alpine setting. She says that today’s Deadwood—a National Historic Landmark since 1964—is a far cry from when settlers found the gulch strewn with downed timber, which led to the town’s name.

Many visitors now "don’t expect our Victorian architecture and evidence of affluence, present shortly after the gold rush," says Carlsen, who lived in San Francisco for 14 years before returning home to raise her kids. "Deadwood," she explains, "is beautiful, always alive and never sleepy, and known for an ‘anything goes’ attitude."

Today, 80 gaming businesses operate throughout Deadwood, thanks to efforts by local business leaders who pushed to have gambling legalized in 1989.

"There’s a nonjudgmental character to Deadwood, a belief you can be anything you want here," resident Bill Walsh says. Like lots of other towns across the West, Walsh adds, Deadwood reinvented itself from time to time and has always welcomed new folks who bring fresh visions.

Twenty-five years ago Walsh was a newcomer who took ownership of a Deadwood treasure, the 1903 Franklin Hotel. One of the hotel’s former guests, actor Kevin Costner, fell in love with the town and became another newcomer with a vision. In addition to a Main Street casino and restaurant, Costner created Tatanka, an educational center on the town’s edge that celebrates the region’s American Indian and bison heritage.

But to fully appreciate Deadwood, residents stress that it’s important to step beyond the city limits and venture into the surrounding Black Hills. One way is along Mickelson Trail, which begins downtown and heads toward country that once dazzled prospectors and legendary gunfighters alike.

"Out there in the evenings," Carlsen says, "there’s the perfume of the pines and the whisper of mountain breezes. That’s why most of us live here. The earth speaks to you through the trees and the rocks."

For more information on Deadwood, log on to www.deadwood.org.

Paul Higbee is a freelance writer in Spearfish, S.D.

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