While I did not expect the "vicious institution" or a "veritable abomination," as the history book "Deadwood: The Golden Years" calls the Gem Theater, I did not expect to be the lone patron at the bar at 9 on a Saturday night.
The "theater" gained new fame in the short-lived HBO series named after the mining camp. Today Deadwood lures history buffs, gamblers and motorcycle enthusiasts to the Black Hills region of far western South Dakota, a couple hours north of perhaps that most iconic of American tourist attractions, Mount Rushmore.
But this dispatch isn't about the Gem, but instead about the people of Deadwood. Not the well-known old-timers like Wild Bill Hickok, whose assassination by the "coward" Jack McCall has been exploited by many businesses in town, or Calamity Jane, or the lesser-known Seth Bullock, whose ferocious sanctimony Timothy Olyphant tried his best to bring to life in the series.
Nor is this story about George Hearst, the depiction of whom I only half-jokingly claim is the reason the series was canceled after three seasons. Hearst's well-heeled living heirs must have clout, and they can't have been pleased.
Hearst struck it rich in the Comstock Lode in what is now western Nevada, and then again in Lead, just up the road from Deadwood. The show made him a murderous-by-proxy villain intent on crushing all competition in the mining camp and brutally turning it into the quintessential company town, which he did in Lead. Come to think of it, maybe the show wasn't that far off.
But this dispatch is about the bartenders of the present, and the enduring lure of the West.
After ordering a beer and the least expensive steak dinner on the menu, I began a meandering conversation with the young bartender, whom we'll call Sarah, including whether Al Swearengen, pimp and owner of the theater in its bawdiest days, actually died trying to hop a train – the official story – or was murdered. The current establishment believes he was murdered. "He had a lot enemies," Sarah pointed out.
Our conversation moved to whether prostitution is still a popular profession in Deadwood. We agreed it probably was, though now done on the down-low instead of out in the open. And then to the difficulty finding good help in what is, after all, a small town in a rural area in a state with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
I was more interested in what brought Sarah to Deadwood. Raised on a farm outside a small town in the center of the state, after graduating college Sarah – like many others over the years – struck west, in pursuit not of riches, but stable employment in a place that might have a bit more life than her sleepy hometown.
Sarah lives in nearby Spearfish. Though only 15 miles away, unpredictable winter storms often shut down the interstate between the two towns, stranding many. The hotel that is attached to the Gem puts up its workers for the night. I didn't think to ask what happened to those not lucky enough to be employed by a hospitable place of lodging.
I asked if she liked Deadwood. She shrugged and said it was ok. I asked if she considered going back to Pierre. She scoffed.