The last mini-adventure on our way home from Texas this spring, was to stop for an overnight in Deadwood, SD.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we last visited Deadwood 15 years ago, so we were both looking forward to a little of the fun we knew Deadwood would supply.

We arrived in town shortly after 3pm on Monday, April 10th and after a little drive down historic Main Street, we decided to check for a room at the Mineral Palace. We had stayed there on our last trip to Deadwood and remembered it being adequate accommodation.

When we inquired about the room rates, we were surprised to learn that because we had signed up for players club cards the last time we were there, and because we were still in the system, our room charge would be $49 for the night!

After getting settled into our room, we enjoyed a drink and some people- watching on an outdoor patio. This was definitely off-season, because the typical bustling Main Street was very quiet.

There were most-welcome heaters above the table we chose

Across the street from our hotel was a place that sold jerky and they had free samples. Hubs and I consider ourselves jerky connoisseurs, so of course, we had to try some.

Typical building front on Main Street with homes built on the hills behind
There were at least six sampling stations,
each with different products and flavours

After sampling the jerky (some good, some not-so-good). We decided we’d try our hand at a little slot play. Gambling was legalized in Deadwood in 1989 and after the passage of this bill, Deadwood soon became the third gambling destination in the US, after Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Main Street Deadwood, in addition to the many restaurants, bars, hotels, and gift shops, is also home to one small casino after another.

I was surprised to learn that the brothel in this photo
was in operation until 1980!

Hubs and I like to try our luck every once in a while, and it had been around six months since we had last been in a casino, so we figured we’d see if the room would really cost just $49. Of course it didn’t. At the end of the evening, it was a wee bit more expensive, but we had lots of fun, so agreed that it was worth every penny.

Turn down service included these tasty chocolates

With the backdrop of the Black Hills, the historic buildings, the saloons, the gambling establishments (at Saloon 10, they even have a dedicated area where Wild Bill Hickok’s famous “dead man’s hand” is displayed on a table), and the overall Wild West vibe, one always has a sense of stepping back about 150 years when visiting Deadwood, SD.

From South Texas to South Dakota, and everywhere in between, hubs and I felt as though we had indeed had more history lessons than we had ever expected at the outset of our road trip home. We had one more state to travel through (tomorrow’s post), and then we’d be “home sweet home” for the summer.

Photo Note: Because the sky was quite dark by the time we had checked into our hotel (as you can see in the patio photo), I shot my feature photo and the photo of the beef jerky place before we left the next morning. Aside from cropping and resizing, all of the photos in this post required very little post processing .

“The Old West is not a certain place in a certain time; it’s a state of mind. It’s whatever you want it to be.”

Tom Mix