Deadwood: HBO, History and Today

Deadwood, South Dakota. HBO vs history vs real life today

The Deadwood movie starts filming in October, 2018, only 12 years after the HBO series ended. If you can’t wait to get your fix of all the Deadwood characters you loved to hate, that is great news. Today we visited the town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Most of the old town was burned or flooded or both, so the historical Main Street is mostly newer than the 1870s era of the TV show. Every business is named Wild Bill, or Hickok , or some variation on that theme. There are numerous saloons and bars and most of them are active casinos. Back when Deadwood was founded, that was also mostly true as well.

There are bus tours of Old Deadwood, there are nightly “trials” of the man who killed Wild Bill, and there are street shows with shootouts and drunken Calamity Jane. It reminded this California girl of Virginia City, Nevada and other mother lode towns today.

The good news is Seth really did exist and was the sheriff. Sol was a real businessman, and Swearengen was an honest to goodness sex trafficker, criminal and SOB.

The best thing I learned today was that Tarnation and goldarn were the real curse words of the day, and Black Hills was a rough place where those words were tossed back like cheap whiskey. The HBO series rightly thought today’s viewer would laugh, and had to modernize the swear words!

Is Deadwood worth a detour? I would say probably not. But, if you are headed to Mount Rushmore or the Crazy Horse Memorial, it is a pleasant diversion.