The Museums Of Deadwood, SD

Many people head to Deadwood, SD for the casinos, shoot-out reenactments and Spearfish Canyon. But, all within walking distance to the Wild West main street, there are a few great museums to learn even more about the history of the town.

I walked to all of them in one day and, while you can do this, I recommend spreading them out a bit especially if you walk all the way up to the cemetery. It’s a lot of walking and then adding in actually seeing all the exhibits at the museums, it can make for a really long day. However, if one day is all you have it’s definitely doable. You can also drive up to a few of the museums and the cemetery.

Days of ’76 Museum

First, I walked from our hotel to the Days of ’76 Museum. I thought this would be more about the 1870s, but it’s mostly about the town’s annual Days of ’76 parade. I wouldn’t skip it though as there are a few really cool exhibits, even if you’re not into learning about the history of the parade.

Parade Exhibits

Most of the first exhibits you’ll find are about the Days of ’76 Parade history which started in 1924. It celebrates all things 1876 and the whole town comes out to reenact historic places and faces.

There’s also some great information about some of the names that make Deadwood a famous destination. I recommend reading about them so you can know more when you head to the other museums around town and the cemetery.

In addition to the exhibits about the parade and rodeo activities that are part of the annual celebrations, there are really interesting exhibits about the Lakota people, local wildlife, firearms, carriages and more.

Lakota Exhibit

Wildlife Exhibit

This was something that stuck out to me more than almost anything else I saw during my time in Deadwood and maybe even South Dakota. It shows the number of bison that used to live on the plains until a coordinated plan was enacted by the US government to exterminate the indigenous populations by exterminating a key resource – the bison – that they used to live.

Firearms Exhibit

Despite not being a firearms enthusiast, I do enjoy history so seeing this large collection of historic firearms was interesting.

Carriage Exhibit

Other than the bison exhibit, this was probably my favorite exhibit at the Days of ’76 museum. It might’ve even been one of my favorite exhibits of the day. There are dates above the carriages so you can see when they were in service.

At the time of writing (July 2023) the fee to go to the Days of ’76 Museum is $10 for adults (13+), $5 for children (6-12) and free for younger children (5 and under).

Whitewood Creek Trail

The walk back towards the main part of town and the other museums is very pretty along the creek. You can pop in to the Deadwood Welcome Center for more information, to grab the trolley or just cool off along your walk.

You can see the town signs and get some great pics of them that can be harder to capture by car. There are really interesting History Link signs throughout the town, so you can learn on the go too! You can get a list of them from the Deadwood Welcome Center.

Adams Museum

The Adams Museum has quite a few exhibits that are worth stopping in to see. My favorite was the Legends of Deadwood exhibit where you learn about many of the colorful characters that make up the history of the town.

When you enter you get to see Potato Creek Johnny’s gold nugget up close!

In the basement there’s a cool exhibit about the fossils in the area including the fossil of a plesiosaur.

The Legends of Deadwood Exhibit

One of the best parts of the Legends of Deadwood exhibit was getting to learn more about each of these historic figures and seeing things that were personal to their lives.

At the time of writing (July 2023) the fee for the Adams Museum is free with a suggested donation of $5. Having said that, it’s more than “suggested” when a volunteer tells you it’s a suggested donation and then stands there and stares at you until you insert $5 into the donation box.

Historic Adams House

I walked from the Adams Museum to the Historic Adams House with the plan to go inside. Unfortunately, it’s guided tours only and I had about 40 minutes to wait until the next one. Knowing I had a set time to meet Stephen at The Brothel Deadwood, plus the admission fee ($12 in July 2023), I decided to skip this site and walked up to the Mount Moriah Cemetery which is Deadwood’s own “Boot Hill.”

Mount Moriah Cemetery

Fair warning – if you’re walking up to Mount Moriah Cemetery from the Historic Adams House, it’s quite the walk. There’s a diversion for pedestrians to stay on the sidewalk all the way up. There’s a better route to walk up that I discovered on the way down which I’ll share at the end of this section.

You can also drive up to Mount Moriah Cemetery if you don’t have the time or inclination to walk up the “inclination.”

Mount Moriah is very affordable at only $2 per person (July 2023.) A few things to know though – they don’t take credit card payments below $8. So, you need to bring your cash or be prepared to do what a nice guy that wanted to visit did – he paid for 3 of us to “join” him in the cemetery – covering our costs so he could pay with card for his own ticket. There isn’t an ATM up there either, so be prepared before you go especially if you plan to walk it. Mount Moriah Cemetery is also not a dog-friendly location, so plan for your pup to stay in the hotel since it can be very hot (or very cold) in Deadwood depending on when you visit.

All of that being said, this was one of the cooler things I did that day so I highly recommend going up to the cemetery to see where Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Dora DuFran, Potato Creek Johnny and more are buried. The cemetery is large and has a nice overlook to view the town in the canyon below.

As I walked back down to the town I found an alternative route, to go up and down, if you’re planning to walk but not go all the way to the Historic Adams House. There are public stairs that you can access behind the Pack Horse Liquor Convenience – find it on Google Maps here.

You can get water at the Pack Horse Liquor Convenience if you need to (like I did!), but if you walk a few more steps along the road you’ll see a Dollar Tree (you can’t quite see it from the convenience store) for cheaper water.

The Brothel Deadwood

A museum that Stephen and I were both looking forward to visiting was The Brothel Deadwood and it didn’t disappoint. Get there early to watch a film about the brothels in town and what happened when they were raided and shut down in 1980.

The Brothel Deadwood is recommended for ages 16+. While I wouldn’t say the content itself is explicit, it is still talking about sex work and the lives of sex workers so consider if your child is of an appropriate age to handle these discussions and questions that may be asked by other guests.

You get your ticket and there’s a small gift shop that has some fun souvenirs to look at while you wait for your tour to start if you’re not watching the film. You start out in the parlor where clients would wait for their session.

There are a few bedrooms and each is decorated for a different decade of operation since the brothels of Deadwood ran for over 100 years. They changed the names of the original brothels to just the color of the door (for example: Pam’s Purple Door.)

There are lots of facts and quotes along the walls and overall the entire space is well done and interesting. Our tour guide was interesting and had a lot of local knowledge to share.

You can buy a copy of the “Pleasure Menu” if you want from the gift shop.

This was one of the more interesting facts that we learned at The Brothel Deadwood. Men would say they were going hunting and would come to Deadwood to drink, gamble and carouse. Some of the Madam’s kept frozen deer for sale so that the men had something to bring home from the weekend – keeping up the charade and ensuring return customers each season.

The girls each had timers that you can see below and the Madams kept the money for them in a slotted dresser. There were guns and money hidden all over the brothel and Madams’ offices so that if they needed to keep anyone sweet (with bribes) or scared (with threats), they were prepared.

For some, and understandably so, this might not be the museum for you. Sex work is a contentious issue and is often exploitive, especially back in the late 1800s when Deadwood was in its heyday. We found it very informative and interesting to learn more about the historic life of Deadwood and how the various Madams supported the town financially.

At the time of writing (July 2023) it’s $15 per person to go to The Brothel Deadwood.

Conclusion

We had a fun time visiting the casinos, sampling the whiskeys and seeing the reenactments along the Main Street in Deadwood, SD. But there’s more history to experience and discover at the various museums. You can get some joint tickets covering some of the museums for a discount, so have a look at the Deadwood Museums website if you plan to go to several. For me, the highlights were the cemetery, the Legends of Deadwood exhibit at the Adams Museum and the Brothel Museum. But the Days of ’76 Museum also had some interesting things to see, especially if you have kids with you and will be giving the Brothel Museum a miss.