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Historic place

Deadwood Main Street Historic District

Historic Main Street, Deadwood, SD

A gold-rush boomtown, gutted twice by fire and left to fade, saved itself in 1989 by legalizing the very vice — gambling — that built it in the first place.

📅 1876–present🏛️ Historic DistrictStill hereBuilt 1876
Open on the mapSlide back to 1876
Deadwood Main Street Historic District, Historic Main Street, Deadwood, SD
Main Street, Deadwood (2009) · Richie Diesterheft from Chicago, IL, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The story

Deadwood exploded into existence in 1876 after gold was found in the surrounding gulch, on land still belonging to the Lakota under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. On September 26, 1879, a fire reached eight kegs of gunpowder in a hardware store; the explosion destroyed some 300 buildings and left 2,000 homeless. The town rebuilt in brick within months, and the whole community was named a National Historic Landmark in 1961. By the 1980s Deadwood was fading — until the grassroots "Deadwood — You Bet" campaign passed a 1988 ballot measure legalizing limited-stakes gambling (effective 1989), making it the third legal gambling destination in the U.S. after Nevada and Atlantic City. Gaming revenue has funded Main Street's preservation ever since.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The 1879 fire was made catastrophic when it reached eight kegs of gunpowder, which exploded.
The entire town — not just individual buildings — was named a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Deadwood became the third legal gambling destination in the U.S. in 1989, after Nevada and Atlantic City.

Connected places

Guardian Building

Detroit, MI
National Historic Landmark

Cincinnati Music Hall

Cincinnati, OH
National Historic Landmark

Crosley Field

Cincinnati, OH
National Historic Landmark

Locke Historic District

Locke, CA
National Historic Landmark

Maker's Mark Distillery

Loretto, KY
National Historic Landmark

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

The Midnight Star

677 Main St · 26 m away
Kevin Costner turned a historic Deadwood building into his own casino after falling in love with the Black Hills filming

Old Style Saloon No. 10

657 Main St · 71 m away
"The only museum in the world with a bar" — and it's NOT where Wild Bill was shot, though it has spent 90 years happy to

Adams Museum

54 Sherman St · 125 m away
A Deadwood businessman gave the town its first museum in 1930 — and it's still city property nearly a century later.

Bullock Hotel

633 Main Street · 158 m away

Historic Franklin Hotel

700 Main St · 189 m away
Deadwood's first grand hotel opened in 1903 with an elevator, electric lights, and telephones — and hosted two future pr

The Gem Theatre

Lower Main Street (Wall & Main) · 213 m away
Al Swearengen's Gem Theatre pulled in as much as $10,000 a night from gambling, liquor, and coerced prostitution — and b

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Sourceshttps://www.cityofdeadwood.com/historic-preservation/page/national-historic-landmark