Knowing we would spend the day in a historic old west town we woke up very excited. The first thing the girls and I did was get our cowgirl hats. We had been talking about how much fun it would be to don our cowgirl hats together in Deadwood.
Once we arrived our first stop was the Days of ’76 Museum. In 1876 the gold rush began in Deadwood Gulch and as a result the population grew to 7,000. This was the perfect place to start our visit because through the exhibits we were able to get a solid understanding of how this town came to be and it’s history.
The museum was broken into 4 sections, parade collection, rodeo collection, carriage collection and Clowser collection (a plethora of artifacts collected by a Deadwood resident who lived from 1914-2004).
There were several interactive sections with costumes to try on. The girls got a huge kick out of Adam dressing up as a rodeo clown.
It was cool to get to climb into one of the historic carriages.
When we purchased our admission ticket to the museum we also bought admission to a historic house and each got a Deadwood PastPort. If you made it to specified destinations you would be given a prize.
Another benefit of participating with the passports was we got to ride the trolley at no cost. The Days of 76 Museum was a stop so when we were finished here we went out to wait on the steps for the trolley.
We disembarked at the Welcome Center. While Adam and I got information the girls had a blast playing in the tent.
Before we made our way down Main Street the girls took notice to the bridge just outside and decided to mosey on across it.
Almost immediately after getting onto Main Street we found a statue of Wild Bill Hickok and the girls were doing all kinds of poses with him.
A little further down the road we came across the Chuck Wagon. The girls were each given a turn to ring the triangle and yell “dinner’s ready, come and get it”.
After that we all realized we needed to “go and find it” because it was time for lunch. We decided to try The Gem Steakhouse and Saloon.
Right after lunch we backtracked a bit and went to the front of Tin Lizzie to witness the first reenactment of the day. While we waited one of the characters walked around giving Deadwood Deputy star badges to all the kids.
Just before it was time to start they shut down the streets. The show started with all the new deputies gathering in the street to be sworn in. Then the first reenactment took place, including shoot outs using cap guns. We all thoroughly enjoyed the reenactment and it did give us a very good feel for what life was like back then.
As we strolled the streets The Belle Joli Winery with a tasting menu caught our eye and we had to go check it out. The bartender was very kind to us and the girls. She gave the girls plastic bar glasses filled with grape juice and told them when they were done the cups were theirs to keep. The fruit used to make the wine came from a local farm. They featured some very unique varieties including pear wine and pineapple wine and Adam and I enjoyed all of them.
We continued our walk down Main St. checking out the shops and restaurants.
The Deadwood Alive characters gathered at Mustang Sally’s and played parlor games (read several rounds of go fish!) with the kids.
While the girls were being occupied I went off on my own to browse through some of the shops. When the games were over Adam and the girls came to get me and we all went back to Mustang Sally’s to watch the characters try to “sell” amazing magical elixir that would supposedly heal anything.
This show just happened to be across the street from The Bullock Hotel which had a casino inside. The laws in South Dakota are very different when it comes to children being in a casino. Minors are permitted on the gaming floor as long as they stay 3 feet away from the machines. So we tried to find machines that looked fun and they literally stood by my side while I played. It felt so funny but we were having a great time. I even got the bonus while playing wheel of fortune and got to spin the wheel!
Before we knew it, the next reenactment was about to begin. We got a spot on the street as they were closing the road again. This one also started with the deputies being called up.
After this was over we realized it was getting very late and we still had to tour the Adams House Museum. Adam thought we should walk over because it seemed close. While we were walking we passed by an arcade. The girls eyes lit up as it came into view and we promised them we would stop on the way back. We made the walk but it was definitely not as close as he thought and a lot of it was uphill so we got our exercise in for the day. We made it by the skin of our teeth to the last tour of the day. It was just us and one other couple on the tour. Our tour guide took his job very seriously. The gentleman on the tour with us was a bit of a joker and he kept trying to make the guide laugh and was asking him all kinds of questions. It made the tour even more entertaining.
As we started the walk back the girls made sure to remind us we had to go to the arcade.
Shortly past the arcade was a second visitor center. We had not collected all six stamps needed on our PastPorts to claim a prize. Unfortunately it was late in the day and the final locations we needed to visit were closed. So we decided to take our chance redeeming at this visitor center. Maybe some puppy dog eyes from the girls would do the trick. We were wrong. The guy working the desk was a stickler for the rules. We all walked out disappointed and decided to press our luck back at the first visitor center. Our legs were sore from walking all day so we took the trolley. This time we had success with a much more friendly and understanding man. The girls were very excited to collect our three bars of Deadwood gold chocolate and a pack of cards.
By the time we got back to Main Street we must have burnt a lot of calories because we were all feeling ready for dinner. We took notice to The Eagle Bar because they had live music and decided that hit the spot. Ella was having trouble finding something on the menu she wanted to eat. We eventually ordered without her. There was a gift shop connected to the restaurant and another restaurant on the other side of the gift shop. I took Ella over there to look at their menu and she decided she would get wings. The woman there was very nice and agreed to let us order from her. She even said she would come walk them over to us when they were done.
This was a bit of a full circle moment as we were coming to the end of our trip. The silly stools that were in one of our first restaurants in Gatlinburg were also in here. We had just as much fun with them the second time around.
After dinner we continued to stroll the streets and browse in the shops. Lily loved the sign outside one of the stores that read “a balanced diet means chocolate in both hands”. She is our dessert queen and this sign fit her to a tee.
We decided to go into The Franklin Hotel to check it out because it looked beautiful from the outside. There were slots inside and we played a few. The Silverado Casino was across from here and we decided to play a few slots in there too.
Once we finished it was about 10pm and the trolleys were now running every 20-30 minutes instead of every 5-10. We waited inside the lobby of The Silverado and then took the trolley back to our truck at the Days of 76 Museum. We were all exhausted after this very full day and went right to sleep when we got back to the RV.
