DEADWOOD ISN'T DEAD

by

Keith Taylor

Gold was discovered near Deadwood, South Dakota about 1875, and folks poured into town thinkin' they would strike it rich. Well, they're still a'comin, and their dreams ain't changed. Only thing is, now they expect to hit it big at the casinos, not the gold mines. Like a whole lot of other towns, Deadwood is using gambling to pay its bills.

My sidekick of 45 years, Bertha, and I passed through a while back on a Monday morning. We’d been a lot of places together because while I was in the Navy, our uncle had asked us to do a lot of traveling. But Deadwood was something else, then lots of places are I suppose.

We wanted to look over the town which had been home to the likes of Potato Creek Johnny, Preacher Smith, Charlie Utter, Miss Kitty Leroy, Poker Alice, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok and his killer, Jack McCall. Seemed like Monday ought to be a quiet day.

Well, we hadn't reckoned on the new gold-seekers. Dozens of 'em wandered from casino to casino holding cups of coins which were half-filled or half-empty, depending on which direction their luck was a heading.

A sign in front of a bar proudly proclaimed: "SALOON NUMBER 10 WHERE WILD BILL WAS SHOT." Apparently not many folks gave a hoot, because it was closed. On the other hand, Wild Bill's Saloon was open. Tara was bartending.

She offered, "That other bar was just braggin'. Nobody really knows where Wild Bill got it. The original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1879, and their replacements were destroyed in 1894. How can they say that's the place?"

According to Tara, "Wild Bill's Saloon, itself, had its own braggin' rights. It was a sporting house until the Feds closed it up. The girls sat waitin' right there, and the cowboys would take them upstairs."

No longer though. When the casinos opened, the painted ladies were run out of town. Deadwood could handle only so much vice at one time. Tara offered to keep telling us stories if we kept asking. We couldn't think of much of anything else to ask.

I did venture one question, "When the cowboys took the girls upstairs, what did they do?"

My partner told me to shush up.

Looks like gambling is a bigger attraction than curiosity about where Wild Bill (or the cowboys in the saloon) "got it." The Deadwood folks sure work at it too. Even on a Monday morning, young folks were passing out two-for-one blackjack chits. In those casinos, a guy could get a cupful of shrimp covered with tomato stuff for only a dollar. Giant hot dogs cost even less than that. A whole meal was only $1.99. We could have had free drinks if we'd stayed longer at the slot machines.

Unfortunately, I lost my first nickel and, spotting the trend, quit right on the spot. My reckless side kick lost 20 times that amount, but she doesn't care much for drinking on Monday mornings. Our retirement check withstood the assault.

Casinos were made legal in 1988. They seem to be doing pretty good even though the stakes are small. Visitors who want to get rich have got to have patience. The betting limit is only $5.00.

Movie star Kevin Costner and his brother Don aimed to fix that. They said they'd build a big, fancy casino if the state would just raise the limit to $100. They would hire lots more folks too. The golden goose nervously waited.

The local people liked the movie star's idea. Most of them voted for it, but a gal named JoDean Joy from the eastern part of the state kicked up a fuss. Because of her the initiative failed. Folks in Deadwood don’t speak too highly of the "trouble maker," as they call her. It's not likely that many little girls in Deadwood will be named JoDean for a while.

Anyhow, it looks like everybody's doing just fine. The town is guaranteed $5.6 million each year from gambling. That comes to $2800 for each of the town's 2000 (or so) citizens. I think they use the money to put up more old buildings.

Well, the sporting girls have gone, and old fashioned poker games have been pretty much replaced by machines which go bing and bong and have lots of flashing lights. Yet, you can still find some of the old rough, tough spirit. When my side kick and I were leaving, she pointed out a notice painted on the side of the building right in front of us. It said: "IF YOU LIKE TO GAMBLE, JUST PARK HERE. I BET I CAN TOW YOUR DAMN CAR AWAY BEFORE YOU GET BACK." Well, I won that one. That made me one for one if you count my loss at the slot machine.

Yes, a fellow can still walk the streets where once walked Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, and Potato Creek Johnny. He shouldn't try to hear their ghosts whispering to him though. The only sounds he could hear would be the clanging of a thousand slot machines, beckoning. One of them has my nickel!-30-

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