The Real Deadwood: A Gold Rush Town Built in a War Zone but Obliterated in an Inferno

Gunslinging, gold-panning, stagecoach robbing, whiskey guzzling – the myth and infamy of the American West is synonymous with its most famous town: Deadwood, South Dakota. The storied mining town sprang up in early 1876 and came raining down in ashes only three years later, destined to become food for the imagination and a nostalgic landmark that now brings in more than two and a half million visitors each year.

Once described as “the most diabolical town on earth,” Deadwood was not merely a place where outlaws lurked, like Tombstone or Dodge City, but was itself an outlaw enterprise, not part of any U.S. territory or subject to U.S. laws or governance. This gave rise to the Western outlaw behavior Deadwood is known for, but it also bred a self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation unique on the frontier, and made it an exceptionally welcoming place for Americans traditionally excluded from mainstream society.

Today’s guest is Peter Cozzens, author of “Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West. We look at the town’s complex story in full (including the stories of some of the most famous names of Deadwood — Calamity Jane, Hickok, Bullock, and Swearingen — who were made popular by David Milch’s HBO series). One frontier town came to embody the best and worst of the West—a relic of humanity’s eternal quest to create order from chaos, a greater good from individual greed, and security from violence.

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