Deadwood

Note: click on the title to be taken to the website.

The website of Deadwood’s Chamber of Commerce reveals a lot about the modern character of the city. Designed primarily for tourists, as that’s where the city receives most of its business, it lists all of the recreational activities available.

Within the Gaming page, there’s a link to the Mineral Palace Hotel and Gaming complex, which is particularly noteworthy for its historical antecedent, Al Swearengen’s Gem Theater. Another notable figure of Deadwood’s past is Seth Bullock, and a link to his Historic Bullock Hotel can be found on the website.

There’s also the lack of regulations for opening and running a business in Deadwood. With “no corporate income tax, no personal income tax, no personal property tax, no inheritance tax and no business inventory tax,” irony appears to be abundantly present in the city. It appears Turner was right about western settlers’ aversion to the tax-gatherer. “You don’t need a bunch of permits to do business in Deadwood, usually a sales tax license is all that is necessary.”

Exploring this website gives the impression that like Las Vegas, Deadwood is a sort of postmodern version of a city. It’s taken its violent and anarchic history and turned it into a source of entertainment, infusing it with the mythic sweep of the Turnerian vision of the Old West (something I’m almost certain Turner didn’t envision for any of the Old West camps and settlements).

Note: click on the title to be taken to the article.

This article in the Rapid City Journal depicts Deadwood’s current state as a result of relatively large scale infrastructural decisions made for the city after it suffered blows to its economy in the decades preceding the 1987 Syndicate Fire. As explained in the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce blog post, the city has engaged its history to help rejuvenate its economy.

What’s peculiar about the article is when it goes into what has been lost since this rejuvenation. One detractor of the gambling boom is quoted as saying Deadwood “lost all of the wonderful, wonderful characters of the last 20 or 30 years,” reminiscing about previous residents like gunfighter Joe Barcelone. The implication seems to be the gambling boom drove many of these people out, although Joe Barcelone choked to death on a piece of steak in 1992. (On a side note, this brief video is a look back at Joe Barcelone’s life. I would suggest you watch it and then read the scathing comment about the man, located on the same page, by a reader named David Shoemake.)

If residents were in fact driven out (either by choice or not) by these changes to Deadwood, one can see how the city may change its appearance but still retain its character. It’s still not the easiest place to live. It’s still the centre of gambling we see in HBO’s series, though less cutthroat and more glamorous. Further, if the fate of Joe Barcelone is any indication, the city still awards its gunfighters ignominious ends (relative to the awe they attract with their skills).