Dr. Ben Jones:
This is History 605, where we discuss everything from Crazy Horse to cyberspace. I'm Dr. Ben Jones, South Dakota State historian and director of the South Dakota State Historical Society. Welcome to the show.
Today on the show, we have professor David Wolff, who has just released a book, The Savior Of Deadwood. But just as a beginning, intro to David, David Wolff is emeritus professor of history at Black Hills State University. He has written and taught about the American West for his entire career and has articles and books about Seth Bullock, the Black Hills and a book on industrializing the Rockies. He taught courses at Black Hills State on American history and South Dakota history. Hello, David and congrats on the book.
David Wolff:
Oh, thank you very much, Dr. Jones. I'm very honored to be here.
Dr. Ben Jones:
When you think about Deadwood, it never really occurred to me until I was reading the book, that the fact that it exists is kind of a miracle and the title of your book kind of evokes that, a savior and so forth. Deadwood could have been like any other of the hundreds of mining towns in the West. It could have just burned out very quickly as it came, but it didn't. And so, your book discusses that. Why didn't it? That's the question that animates the book and I was wondering if you could just briefly give a top line description of what is it that James K.P. Miller and others did that made sure that Deadwood didn't fade away?
David Wolff:
Well, any gold town, of course a town established around a gold rush, particularly Deadwood, which is established around the gold in Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks, has a temporary existence. The West is littered with former gold towns that disappeared, but then some of them survived and what did allow them to survive? Some of them survived because they had hard rock mines nearby, such as the Homestake in Lead. But of course, Deadwood could not guarantee it would live off the gold that was found up at the Homestake because whether it was Lead or Central City and there was all these other towns up there. So it was a very great possibility that Deadwood, once the placer gold disappeared, it would disappear. In fact, after the 1879 fire, some people, the pessimists in the crowd, would say, "Well, Deadwood's done for. Everybody's moving up the hill or they're moving out. It's time it goes the way of any other Western boom town."
But it didn't disappear, as you said, this is the main point of the book. Now, other Western towns didn't disappear and there's a number of factors that allow towns to survive. As you look at Deadwood, I really think the one animating factor are the people who were engaged in the town and its economic development, who had bought into its future, who wanted to invest in its future. And Miller was one of them, Bullock to some degree, Harris Franklin was certainly in there and somebody mentions the book, but not very extensively. There was a core of people that were in there that invested in the town, worked to save the town. So in this case, it's about people who work, in my argument, as you mentioned, The Savior of Deadwood, that Miller really stands out as probably the premier activist.
Because underlying his notion about what makes a town like Deadwood survive, you've got to make it an industrial center again. You got to bring new industries in after the placer gold's gone and he worked to bring in new mining industries to Deadwood and he believed beyond a doubt, like everybody in the West believed beyond a doubt, that railroads were the savior. If you didn't have a railroad, you were dead. If you had a railroad, typically, if you were the end of track, if you were that terminal, you could really prosper and that's what he worked. And because of his efforts, as the book argues, two railroads came to Deadwood. Both railroads ended in Deadwood in essence and it became an important railroad hub. A transportation hub, a mining hub, along with being a service center, which it was from day one. It reinvigorated that, so it really gave Deadwood a new boost in life.
As the book talks about, Deadwood went into several phases of existence and this was one of its reinventions, as I call it.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Well, and the first thing that strikes you too about the book is how little Deadwood's probably most famous temporary resident is in the book. Wild Bill Hickok is shot. That's.
David Wolff
Well, he was six weeks. Of course, obviously he's in the perpetuity.
I mean, as the book tries to point out later on, blood doesn't distribute references. But once they started celebrating their heritage in the twenties, Wild Bill becomes much more important.
And indeed one of the reinventions of Deadwood, became a tourism and the tourism element starting in the twenties, which of course drives Deadwood today.
I mean, you go to Deadwood. That town is packed brim to brim and people are ogling over Wild Bill's grave. So he lived there not long, but he sure made a big impact by being buried there.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Right. Well, I was wondering if you could kind of set the scene for us, which I think the first couple of chapters in your book do really well, the notion, the wild west is a phrase we use to describe lawlessness and so forth. But here in 1876 in Deadwood, it's not a metaphor. It's real. And the first miners who started the Deadwood gold camp, they were in this kind of legal no man's land.
I was wondering if you could set the scene for why that is.
David Wolff:
Well, of course, the Black Hills in 1876 were part of the Sioux reservation. Anybody coming in violating the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty were trespassers. And really then when you come in as miners or merchants in 1876, you have to set your own rules. Now, that does set up the metaphor you say for the wild west and there was certainly some of that. But what comes through in my, this has come through years of studying Western history is that people who came as prospectors, who came as miners, people like Miller who came, as I describe him, as a middle-class merchant, he and Bullock are the same ilk. They really wanted to make money and they needed to survive. So they sought order and underlying our notion then is yes, there is no law per se. There is no enforcement, but there was a drive for order.
So, there may have been more killings, which there certainly were, in this [inaudible 00:06:51] environment like that, there would be more violence. But there's also this effort to establish order and to punish the wrongdoers and keep a lid on it, so people could make their money. So yes, the place is violent, particularly, you look at that era in Deadwood, these people are outside the law, they're violating federal law then. Once the gold rush is really going hot and that's the summer of 1876 and 1877, it drags into all the ne'er-do-wells, the bummers and all, except, I mean, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, there for hanging out. And the crowd just goes to hell, everything goes downhill.
And so, there's lots of trouble. And it really starts, when Wild Bill is shot, you always get a summer of '76, it's all killings and stuff. And Wild Bill is part of the killing in the middle of it. You look at it, he's really the second, he's the second guy killed.
So, he's at the tip of it. And then, August of 1876 was a pretty ugly month. And then it dies down in the winters and a lot of bad people leave in the winter because they don't want to hang around in the winter.
And then they come back in '77. And '77 was probably more violent overall. It doesn't get the press. The days of '77 is not what we hear about.
But then by '78, in February '77, federal authority comes in, state as part of the Dakota territory and more law enforcement. Bullock's a sheriff and things start to calm down by '78.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Right. Well, and I appreciated that the discussion too in the book about the sentiment, the feeling in Deadwood, not only are they knowingly trespassing and violating the treaty, but Custer is killed and his whole command is wiped out just a day's ride away.
There's this sense that, where they next? And what was the population and their response was kind of curious in my view. But I was wondering if you could kind of explain that.
David Wolff:
Oh yeah. They were very concerned about it. Of course, they saw now there was really large groups of natives at this time. There was the Cheyenne and the Sioux who were up on the Montana, the Little Bighorn area, and the [power 00:09:06] river country, which were really non treaty Indians, non reservation Indians. And they are up there living where Custer was killed. Then there was the agency Indians who were living around Spotted Tail and Red Cloud agencies in the Northern Nebraska. And they knew that number of the agency Indians had gone up to the Montana country and were involved in the Custer massacre killing or whatever. And then they knew also that after that, a number of these people are going back to the agencies, including the non-agency Indians. And so, coming and going to the Little Bighorn, they either, Lakota and the Cheyenne, either go to the southern end of the Black Hills or the northern end of the Black Hills.
And as they came back, as a number of Indians came back across the northern end of the Black Hills, they really did take advantage of, or steal livestock and mix it up with the settlers if you will, that settled around the edge of the Black Hills.
So there was this real tense time, August 1876, in the summers of '77 as the Indians were coming and going. This after directly after Little Bighorn, people in Deadwood were convinced that they were next, that there was lots of problems and they really reacted, overreacted I think, whenever they heard rumors about Indian attacks. They grab their guns and run and try to run out the plains and get into a fight. So they were always on edge. However, Deadwood itself being in the Hills was pretty isolated from that, but they didn't understand that. It seems they didn't take a lot of comfort in that. It was the people that lived in Spearfish, and in Crook City, in Rapid City that bore the brunt of Indian attacks and really had the problems with these comings and goings of the population.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Right. So in 1876, what's the population of Rapid City?
David Wolff:
Oh, very small, few hundred.
And they're just developing and they, it's probably less than a few hundred. And they build a stockade and just that one Indian attack, I think what, 5, 6, 7, 8 guys are killed in that August 20, 22nd, right outside of Rapid City.
So Rapid City is almost abandoned at that time because it's such a, it's on the right out there at the vortex of the trouble. So lots of problems in Rapid City and very violent, early period.
Dr. Ben Jones:
And the response to all this, President Grant's kind of in a tough spot with treaty violators and so forth and wanting to use the army, but knowing that's tough to manage for a number of reasons, politically, as well as logistically. Can you go into a little bit about national policy regarding this treaty? And how that made impact.
David Wolff:
Well, in the treaty said of course, the whites were not allowed to enter the reservation unless they were agents of the government. Agents of the government is kind of a broad scope. And when the Custer expedition came in '74, some people say that thousand men troop was agents of the government. So they were here legally and in two days will say no, that's not the way you read it.
Nevertheless, when the gold rush started up to the army to keep the gold rushers out. And they did try to do that when the first group came, the Gordon party set up camp around the French Creek, where Custer is today. The army did come and remove them and they did try to block the trails. But as you mentioned, Grant was in a tough political spot. All these people were coming in. He recognized the, it was a futile effort to have the army try to keep them out. There's frustrations all around, but he knew that he, this was a treaty.
He didn't want to violate the treaty per se.
And so, he just told the army and stop enforcing the rules.
Stop stopping the rushers. And I guess, he thought it would take care of itself. And it did after Custer was wiped out, the momentum to remove the Black Hills from the Sioux reservation really picked up. And there was no hope of going back with the gold rush going on and Custer wiped out.
By February 1877, he's been removed. Once the Black Hills were out of the Sioux reservation, then the army could step in. They could legally then protect gold rushers and they could come into the Hills and start providing that element of safety that they could not beforehand. Because it would have been a violation of the treaty. All these people were in there.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Right. And just in that span of time from 1876 to 1877, now you have General Crook coming into Deadwood and making a speech and kind of.
Helping them, building their morale up, basically, even.
David Wolff:
Oh yeah. And that's an interesting event and Crook coming through and they get pretty excited. Of course, that's when they make their big plea for a fort.
And he doesn't do a lot to protect the Hills, but he does calm the whole demeanor down. Because he's got a large column and the natives know he's coming through. And so, they back off while his column is moving through the Hills. And then of course he, they make, they said the people in Deadwood want a fort and that didn't come till 1878, Fort Meade. And even then when Fort Meade is finally established, it was pretty much after the worst of the problems, if you will, were over.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Your sources for the book are largely the newspapers at the time. And I'm wondering if you could.
The Black Hills Pioneer has started I think that summer of 1876, is that right?
David Wolff:
Yes, that's correct.
Dr. Ben Jones:
And then there's another paper. So, when you're going back in and using these sources and your, while your appendix in the back, where you're talking about the list of murders that occur in those three years from '76 to 1879, and you note that even knowing the date of a murder through the papers is difficult because sometimes they conflict or sometimes they may not mention it. So how do you, given that the newspapers of the day are the basis of your sources for the whole book, can you describe kind of how you weigh how you can use them in the best way possible?
David Wolff:
Well, if you look at the sources carefully, the first part of the book is when he's in Montana and travels based on Miller's diary.
And it's nice to have a diary and I was really hoping I could find a diary that he kept his Deadwood years, and I'm afraid that I keep looking for it. And we contact repositories to have anything on diary by [J. Sydney Osborne 00:15:55], which he went by four time.
Or J.K.P. Miller. And we still can't find it.
Then the next part, when we talked about Custer and all that, yeah there's some newspapers, national newspapers brought in, but then also, there's a lot of primary sources there. Then in Deadwood yes, the newspapers are good, but also you got to always collaborate. I always try to check with what John McLintock wrote his book on Deadwood, he was a firsthand observer.
Annie Talent has the reminiscence that's out there. Seth Bullock wrote that little book that's a hundred pages maybe that was reprinted later. And even the collections, the South Dakota collections has a version of it.
And I've discovered that Bullock was an absolutely wonderful observer and kept careful account. And he's more accurate than many people.
So those are kind of the overlying primary observers you see and there's some others like Brown and Willard do a great job, they worked with Bullock, they knew the west, they knew some of these people. But then the newspapers, and it's lucky for me because Miller was so public that he was well-recorded in newspapers. And so, in that period, when Deadwood is in its growth period, and they're worried about economic development, you can really look at the newspapers. And you just can't assume that the Pioneer's right or then there's the Black Hills Daily Times. And luckily for more of an unbiased observation of Deadwood, you can draw on the Minneapolis papers, Montana papers. And particularly the New York times or some New York papers and the Chicago papers, had observers in Deadwood and they brought in a different version. So you have this mix of newspapers that can really give a good telling.
A story that couldn't be brought out through the primary sources. You look at the work my good friend Watson Parker did, book on Deadwood: The Golden Years, and he didn't use the newspapers very much. He relied on these primary sources that were out there, [android sky 00:17:54] and the others I've mentioned. And he consequently made lots of mistakes. Things that could have been verified by the newspapers, those people who wrote those primary sources have forgotten.
Like McLintock was what, was he? Nineties, I think when he wrote his account and so his memory had undoubtedly faded and it had because he's got errors in there. So, Watson didn't look at the newspapers hardly at all. And you look back and say, "Wow, Watson. I can't believe you said that because you can just easily see in the paper that that's not the way it happened or it's completely wrong."
And so it's lucky to have these papers now. Can you take everything newspapers say straight forward? No, you got to make sure that you can, if you can correspond with another source, that's important. Secondly, you're an historian, I'm an historian of some sort and you kind of look at it and does this make sense?
There's a lot of stuff in the papers or even in the primary sources that people will rely on. Does this make sense? Oral histories are famous for being filled with errors and that's why you have to check those just like newspapers.
And you as an historian, have to come back after you've heard that account or you read that account. Does that make sense? So that's the judgment. That's part of our interpretation as historians to try to draw out what seems the logical, most rational course that happened. Hence we are charged to some degree to rely on our sense of what human nature and human activities would be like at that time. And that's a faith the reader has to put in us, that we are doing a credible job as is as best. And that's part of our interpretive process.
Dr. Ben Jones:
As I was reading the book, I was reminded of several aspects of what makes community and when these people are struggling to make sure that life in Deadwood is stable, so that they can conduct business, so they can hopefully bring their families to town and so forth and have that kind of normal life. What were the things that would resonate today that we strive for, that would be similar? Even though it might be the technology or the issue might be different, but that connectivity.
David Wolff:
If you were wanting to bring your family to Deadwood back in 18 '76, '77, '78, and Bullock didn't bring his wife till later, Miller didn't bring his family till later. And I think the couple of things they were looking for, which people still look for, is there some kind of sense of order there that they could have their family there without concern. Is there some kind of governance and law enforcement? And I think today, when you think about moving to a new community or you assess a community, one of the things you read are crime statistics or you read about what it's like to raise a family there. And that's part of it, the governance, the law enforcement. Secondly, then as more families started coming, and this is kind of that natural step, once you have more women per se and families in the community, do you have those things that come with more social order?
Do you have churches? Do you have schools? And schools came to Deadwood very early or they hired school teachers, not always successfully.
But you start having schools and churches and other community activities that go along with it. And as I mentioned, these things all kind of go together with civic improvements and getting better roads and working as Miller did, towards better transportation. Those are the kinds of things that made for a community in the west and the communities today that I think they looked at, that would allow you to bring your family in.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Right. And it's also something that I think he's trying, as he goes around looking for investors, what is the investor of the 1870s kind of looking for?
David Wolff:
Well, I think the number one thing most investors back then wanted, a good return on their money and as quick as possible. And you're in a gold rush environment. But nevertheless, I think he was talking about the town would have longevity, that was a key. It would, once we get the mining industry, re-established there and the railroads in there, particularly the property values will skyrocket. So if you invest in property, you invest in these other ventures, you're going to make money because Deadwood's going to boom. Now, since they didn't live there, did they care as much about law and order, schools, churches? No, I don't think so, but they did care about could they make money? And that was a driving ethos at the time as we know, making money. And I think that they were worried about that.
He convinced them that there was that potential for great property value increase, that Deadwood was undervalued at the time and it had great potential.
And that's the kind of, it goes on and on. Like when gaming started in '89, people jumped into invest because they saw the potential. Always, there was always people at the vortex of, without knowing what was going to happen, potential in gaming, jump in, I'm going to take a chance and see what happens. Kevin Costner did.
Buy a casino, I'm going to build the Dunbar, I'm going to do this and this and this. I mean, now he's out of it because it didn't quite work out the way he hoped. And that happened. Some investors in Deadwood didn't work out the way it hoped, that Miller brought in other investors like Joseph Swift, I believe came out of Deadwood doing pretty darn well.
Dr. Ben Jones:
You mentioned 1989 and so forth, but take us back a couple of years, the 1987 fire that James K.P. Miller, the topic of your book, had a role in what burned down. Can you just quickly go through that?
David Wolff:
Yeah, that's right. I try to make a case there that, of course he built the syndicate block at the corner of Main and [Lee 00:23:44] street in 1888, went up in 1887. It was under construction. Opened in 1888 as the main city block or building block in that town. It would be the anchor of economic development. It would highlight the fact that Deadwood was an up and coming metropolitan city, along with building the syndicate block, he built a street railway. Every town of any quality [industry 00:24:08] where he built one of those simultaneously. And so he saw that as that, part of that economic takeoff, that was so critical for his investors to make money and for the town to increase in value. Well, then, Deadwood faltered in the late 20th century, as the homestake downsized and the mines and railroads pulled out a Deadwood and was just relying on tourism in the 20th century.
And so, that's when the Deadwood YouBet committee took charge as, we bring gaming back to Deadwood, bring gambling in, will have a new burst of life. And a new era will come to Deadwood. And they had to convince the voters of South Dakota to vote, to change the constitution, to do that. And it might've been a difficult charge to do, except in 1987, the syndicate block caught fire. The major block that Miller had built to reinvigorate the environment, the economy in 1888. It burned in 1987, almost a hundred years later. And luckily Dave Larson and Mary Dunn, the owners of the Adams block, which is two blocks away, had a four story building. They filmed the fire from the top story of their building.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Oh, wow.
David Wolff:
And took a video recording of it.
So the YouBet committee, which they were involved with, took the images of that and ran these statewide commercials saying, "You need to vote for gaming in Deadwood as the town burns. There won't be anything left unless we get it." And it was a very poignant ad.
A very compelling selling point, which then did, I'm sure help many people, persuade many people's votes to vote for gaming. So you can say that it helped, really help turn the corner to bring what Deadwood is today. So, I'd like to think that the syndicate block that Miller built had two roles in bringing new eras in Deadwood when it opened in '88 and when it burned in '87.
Dr. Ben Jones:
Well, good stuff. Well, David, thanks for joining us today and thanks for being on the show and congratulations on the book.
David Wolff:
Thank you.
Dr. Ben Jones:
I hope it does really well. And folks, if you're interested in that, you can go to the South Dakota Historical Society Press website and buy a copy. We'd appreciate that.
David Wolff:
Well, I hope they do. Well, thank you for visiting, it was a good chat and you have a good rest of your day.
Dr. Ben Jones:
You too, thanks. So, thanks to our sponsor, the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation and our partner, the South Dakota Public Broadcasting. But most importantly, thanks to you, the listener of this show. As always, if you liked the show, please share it with friends and help us get the word out. The South Dakota Historical Society can be found on the web at history.sd.gov, and we'd appreciate you checking us out. Now go do some history.
History 605 explores the history of South Dakota, the northern Great Plains, and the Midwest. South Dakota’s State Historian Ben Jones will visit with guests about their books, museum exhibits and artifacts, and historic sites in the state and region. Along the way, you’ll learn how to think, not what to think, about history and the people of the past.
The host is Dr. Ben Jones, State Historian and Director of the South Dakota State Historical Society. Ben grew up in Sioux Falls and De Smet, served in various locations around the world while in the USAF. He returned to South Dakota to become Dean of Arts and Sciences at Dakota State University, then served as South Dakota’s 15th Secretary of Education. Along the way, he earned his PhD in history and enjoys sharing history’s insights with all of you.