Deadwood: The Golden Years

by Watson Parker

Deadwood, South Dakota, has been a source of American legend for over one hundred years. European exploration, Indian wars, gold booms and busts, presidential visits, frontier shootouts, and the natural beauty of the surrounding Black Hills have all captured the imagination of Americans and foreigners. The Golden Years recreates the town that assimilated all that its geography, gold, natural disasters, and the extremes of human behavior could throw in its way. Deadwood was a microcosm of the American frontier and the gold rush town. This history of Deadwood emphasizes its most volatile period, 1875-1925, with careful scrutiny of before and after.

The author, a western historian and foremost raconteur, carefully separates legend from fact and presents them the spirit of Deadwood was real. Witty and sympathetic understanding born of a lifetime in the Black Hills and acquaintance with many of the characters who traipse through the pages give this book a comprehensiveness rarely found. It is a lively, reliable, and sometimes irreverent narrative of Deadwood—the next best thing to having lived there for the last century.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Westerns

302 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written non-fictional history of the legendary South Dakota mining down, Deadwood. It was the book that the showrunners used in creating the HBO series Deadwood starring Ian McShane and Timothy Oliphant that tried to reproduce the heady goldrush atmosphere in the late 1870s. Having watched the show (and being admittedly a fan) and having read Pete Dexter’s masterful fictional account, Deadwood, I was a tiny bit disappointed not to read more about Al Swearengen and other seedy characters. But this book came out two decades before the TV show and one decade before Dexter’s book, so I had to reset my expectations. What followed was an interesting portrait of the town from a native of the Black Hills, trying to capture the fleeting history of gunmen, whores, opportunists and the like that made Deadwood such an interesting place. There is interesting detail on the technology available at the time to separate the gold from its natural habitat and plenty of tabular data to see economic trends and so forth. One of the funnier anecdotes was the expression “false friends” for beans because “they always talk behind your back.”
Recommended for those with an interest in the not so Old West as well as fans of the TV show.

As for the TV show and movie, I just rewatched everything and was blown away once again. The depiction of the town itself is stupefyingly realistic (despite a few anachronisms) and the historical characters such as Will Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, George Hearst, etc were great. It is unfortunate that Wyatt and Morgan Erpp played such a small role at the end of Season 3, but then they were based on Montana in the 1870s before fatefully moving to Arizona Territory in around 1879. I regret that there was no way to show how Seth Bullock became close friends with Teddy Roosevelt, as that would have made for some great storytelling. The performance, of course, of Al Swearengen was over the top, Ian McShane deserving of high praise for his inimitable streams of cocksucker and cleaning of blood stains. As for historical accuracy, there really was both a Gem Theatre and a Bella Union (and, as in the movie, Seth and Sol do end up owning a large hotel), the Deadwood Pioneer was run by Merrick, EB Farnam was mayor of Deadwood for quite some time, and Seth did become a Federal Marshall. The other embellishments (Joanie, Cy, Alma, etc) made for great scenarios but had little historical basis. Overall, I would put the show (and the 2019 movie) in the highest category for TV shows up with the Sopranos, Mad Men, Six Feet Under and just under the cinematographic perfection of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

[Ben Vogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Milch used this book as the historical background for his HBO series Deadwood. If you enjoyed the show, love history, or want to learn more about gold mining in the late 1800's you will find fascinating reading here.

The author writes well and with a sardonic wit. He goes into great detail about gold mining, the character of a frontier boomtown, aspects of entertainment, prostitution, medicine, city services, civilized society trying to impose itself on chaos, and the legendary figures of the area.

Recommended.

[Travis Heermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a comprehensive, well-documented history of what Deadwood was like, its larger-than-life personages, characters, and conditions, I highly recommend this book. Told in a great, entertaining style, it's also highly detailed, offering broader historical context for the events that brought Deadwood into being and what it was like to be a gold miner in the 1870s. Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, they're all here.

[Dylan Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Milch reportedly based the series on this book, and that shows both in the choice of characters (Seth Bullock and Sol Star come up frequently, though curiously Al Swearingen is an afterthought to Parker) and in the dense, parenthetical-rich prose. ("Undoubtedly the most dramatic performance on the Deadwood stage was the killing of Ed Shaughnessy, although unfortunately for profitable publicity it seems to have been unpremeditated.")

That said the book is an incredible slog, with many chapters devoted to listing just about everyone who ever mined placer or lode gold in the Black Hills. That's fine for a reference work, but less fine is the omission of some important historical figures like Dora DuFran (Joanie Stubbs on the show), a leading madam and associate of Calamity Jane. Parker consigns DuFran to the footnotes. Also less than ideal is Parker's unmasked disdain for the Sioux (Wounded Knee was much more complicated than a massacre, he assures the reader, and the Sioux were to blame too) and callousness toward the Chinese community of Deadwood. He reports on a "Caucasian league" formed in 1878 to "prevent the employment of Celestials" and concludes "not much seems to have come of it, except that in that year four Chinese houses were burned and [another] damaged by an explosion." Not much indeed!

It wasn't a total waste, though. It's extremely funny that Teddy Roosevelt had a lifelong mancrush on Seth Bullock and would send his dumbass sons out West so Seth could teach them to be men. And the list of town nicknames rules:

Cayoose Laura, Big Tim, Homestake Harry, Texas Frank, Colorado Charlie Utter, Lame Johnny, Swill Barrel Jimmy, Jerry the Bum, Gunboat … Johnny the Oyster, Club Foot Frank, Cheating Sheely, Laughing Sam, Pink Bedford, Bloody Dick

[Paul Lunger · Rating 1 out of 5]

With "Deadwood: The Golden Years", Watson Parker tries to write an early history of this city in South Dakota from 1875-1925. While well intentioned the book instead gets lost in itself in a disorganized mess that makes this book very hard to read & at times almost impossible to follow. Written in 1981, Parker divides up the history of the city into 9 distinct parts & for the most part does a decent job w/ trying to lay the foundation of this history; however, the book gets lost in trying to be too specific with things which can cause boredom with the book. As someone who has visited Deadwood in 2021, the book has given me reason to go back to the city to see certain parts of it that I missed, but I also believe that there have to be better representations of the history of this city in the Black Hills which deserves a far better job than this book provides.

[Fred Bradford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair book. Historically factual (even the unlikely stories were historical facts), detailed, and informative. Still, not a great read. Just okay. The author sometimes gets bogged down in his accounting. And right or wrong, there's a substantial degree of contradiction in that accounting.

If you're looking for historical background to flesh out Black Hills and Deadwood history, this book can help. Be aware though, that that history is not just limited to Old West or "pioneer" era, but includes information from the turn of the century, '20s, '30s, '40s, 50's, and even (as of the book's writing) current time.

There are far more interesting books, but that's not to say this volume is boring or lacking in value.

[Mark Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the ur-text for David Milch’s masterpiece television series, Deadwood. Watson Parker is a great writer, with inventive turns of phrase, great organization of his material, and a thorough mastery of the social history of Deadwood, likely from thousands of hours in front of microfiche and microfilm readers. (The book was published in 1981).

[Matt Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovingly researched and authored by someone with true fondness for his heritage, but a slog to read. There's no through line, no narrative to keep you invested. It's more a collection of interesting items found in his study of primary sources.

[JL Smither · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would be wonderful if I were writing a research paper. However, I just wanted to find out the 'true' stories of my favorite characters from the HBO show. I didn't finish it, as it went into impressive (but tedious, if that's not what you're looking for) detail of how to mine gold and claim land for prospecting. Wasn't a bad book at all, just not what I was looking for.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

good historical info about Deadwood. i especially appreciated the information about early mining and how it worked.