The Real Deadwood: A Gold Rush Town Built in a War Zone but Obliterated in an Inferno

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gunslinging, gold-panning, stagecoach robbing, whiskey guzzling – the myth and infamy of the American West is synonymous with its most famous town: Deadwood, South Dakota. The storied mining town sprang up in early 1876 and came raining down in ashes only three years later, destined to become food for the imagination and a nostalgic landmark that now brings in more than two and a half million visitors each year.

Once described as “the most diabolical town on earth,” Deadwood was not merely a place where outlaws lurked, like Tombstone or Dodge City, but was itself an outlaw enterprise, not part of any U.S. territory or subject to U.S. laws or governance. This gave rise to the Western outlaw behavior Deadwood is known for, but it also bred a self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation unique on the frontier, and made it an exceptionally welcoming place for Americans traditionally excluded from mainstream society.

Today’s guest is Peter Cozzens, author of “Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West. We look at the town’s complex story in full (including the stories of some of the most famous names of Deadwood — Calamity Jane, Hickok, Bullock, and Swearingen — who were made popular by David Milch’s HBO series). One frontier town came to embody the best and worst of the West—a relic of humanity’s eternal quest to create order from chaos, a greater good from individual greed, and security from violence.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Sky here with another episode of the History Unplug podcast.
0:08.0	Deadwood was the most famous Wild West Gold Rush Town of the 1870s, where its lawlessness,
0:12.9	gunfights, stagecoach robberies, inspired all sorts of penny novels about the West,
0:17.3	and introduced colorful characters like Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and others to
0:21.1	eastern audiences. All those things are interesting, but its founding was even more shocking.
0:26.4	Deadwood was formerly established in April 1876, right in the middle of a war zone,
0:31.4	in the Great Sioux War of South Dakota, between the United States military and the Lakota people.
0:36.1	When the United States turned the gold standard, it triggered the panic of 1873,
0:39.8	but the entire nation was desperate for gold, and a discovery of gold in the Black Hills by
0:44.2	George Armstrong Custer in 1874 led to an immediate band rush, the town of 800 quickly set up.
0:50.4	This gave rise to the Western outlaw behavior Deadwood is known for, but the town in many ways was surprisingly taint.
0:55.9	At a surprisingly low murder rate, a bank, a school, a telephone line, and in many ways it was safer than many other parts of the United States at the time.
1:04.3	Today's episode, I'm speaking to Peter Cousins, author of Deadwood, Gold Guns and Greed in the American West.
1:09.3	We look at what made this archetypal
1:11.2	frontier town what it was, whether self-government can really lead to better outcomes than
1:15.8	much more controlled areas, and how one frontier town came to embody the best and worst
1:20.0	of the West. A relic of the nation's desire to create order from chaos, a greater good
1:24.1	from individual greed, and security from violence. Hope we enjoyed this discussion with Peter Kosses.
1:31.8	And one more thing before we get started with this episode, a quick break for a word from our sponsors.
1:36.6	This episode is brought to you by PBS, Home of Ken Burns. Ken Burns' films aren't just documentaries.
1:42.8	They're national events. And his latest, The American Revolution, is the one you've been waiting for. When you think of the American Revolution, you probably picture tea crates in Boston Harbor, founders signing documents in Philadelphia, or Redcoats marching into battle. But Ken Burns, along with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, take us so much deeper.
2:01.6	This was a revolution that was bloody, complicated, and unbelievably consequential.
	...

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