Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

Peter Cozzens tells the true story of Deadwood, South Dakota, a gold rush settlement that emerged in early 1876 and collapsed within three years. Once called "the most diabolical town on earth," the town featured figures including Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Al Swearingen, and Sheriff Seth Bullock. Cozzens separates fact from the layers of myth surrounding Deadwood—from nineteenth-century dime novels to HBO dramatizations to present-day tourism. Built on land stolen from the Lakotas, Deadwood operated as an outlaw enterprise outside U.S. territory and law, which enabled the gunslinging, stagecoach robbery, whiskey consumption, prostitution, and gambling it became known for. This lawlessness also fostered self-reliance and cooperation uncommon on the frontier, and made Deadwood notably welcoming to Black Americans and Chinese immigrants during an era of widespread discrimination. The book examines how Deadwood embodied both the best and worst of the American West—a place where people attempted to create order from chaos and security from violence, while pursuing individual gain. Today the town attracts more than two and a half million visitors annually.