Gunfight in Deadwood

Today we said goodbye to Custer and continued our road trip, heading north to Deadwood. On the way we visited the Crazy Horse sculpture, which has been progressing very slowly for more than sixty years. A Polish-American sculptor called Korczak Ziolkowski was asked by a Lakota elder called Henry Standing Bear to create a memorial along the lines of Mount Rushmore, in order to commemorate the Native Americans. They chose Crazy Horse as the hero to represent them. He dedicated the rest of his life to the project, and his (many) children and grandchildren are continuing it. It's such a massive (over-ambitious?) project - only the front part of Crazy Horse's head has been completed so far, and the intention is to end up with a huge Crazy Horse riding along on his trusty steed with his arm stretched out, pointing at his lands. I think we are talking centuries to finish it! It is also controversial; some Lakota feel that Crazy Horse wouldn't have wanted the mountain to be carved up for a memorial.

I have been feeling a bit under the weather today - a persistent wee headache and my arms and legs felt really heavy. Maybe I'm dehydrated or just exhausted - we are doing a great deal of walking on this holiday! When we checked into our hotel in Deadwood we found out that it is part of a huge gaming resort called Cracker Jack's. The hotel is absolutely immaculate and a short walk from the centre of Deadwood. Having watched the 2004 HBO series "Deadwood" in preparation, I loved visiting the town. It hasn't changed much from the photos in the museum which show it 150 years ago, because it is built in a narrow "gulch", so although the buildings were rebuilt in brick rather than wood after a fire destroyed most of the town in the 1890s, it has been built on exactly the same footprint and in the same style. Luckily the streets are now paved instead of mud. As our hotel proves, the gold may have gone but it is still a big gambling town and nearly every building houses a saloon and a casino. However the prostitiutes are gone - the last of the brothels was shut down in 1980 and apparently the locals came out to line the streets in protest, thus re-enacting the scene of a hundred years before, when the first prostitutes arrived and the locals lined the streets in celebration! 

The first thing we saw as we walked along the Main Street was a gunfight! This was one of many that are staged around the streets every day. The actors were well rehearsed and good natured. They were giving out sheriff's badges to kids but we couldn't persuade Davie to go up and get one! We strolled through the town and up the hill to the Mount Moriah cemetery, to pay our respects to Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. It was hot, hot, hot and the hill was steep, which made me a little grumpy. 

Back down in the town we had dinner in the restaurant above Saloon Number 10, which is where Wild Bill got shot by the cowardly Jack McCall. Actually it's across the road and down a bit from the original location of Saloon Number 10, but that doesn't stop the local troubadours from re-enacting the assassination several times a day! We had a lovely Italian meal then went downstairs to the bar for a drink, where we found Wild Bill about to play cards with some friends while interacting with the tourists. It was great (well not so great for Wild Bill of course!) and we all enjoyed it. I asked Davie why this evening was more enjoyable for him than yesterday evening and he explained "This is History." I am finding the American people extremely friendly and they keep saying to us "I love your accent!" Often they have a Scottish ancestor or have visited Scotland, like "New York James" the taxi driver that we met in Denver,, who had visited Dunoon in an American navy ship many years ago. And so we have now wended our weary way back to the hotel. It is only nine o'clock in South Dakota and we were planning to go downstairs to the beautiful bar and pool but James is fast asleep on the bed and I think I will join him!