What's in a name?

Deadwood?

Vacationers often question the name of this Northern Hills town. When the first prospectors entered the gulch in l876 they found huge quantities of downed and dead timber - "dead wood" undoubtedly left by a previous forest fire. To identify the site of the new gold strike they called it "dead wood gulch." An earthy group, those early day prospectors commonly tagged landmarks according to whimsical first impressions.

Some of their more descriptive site designations included: Black Bottom Gulch, False Bottom Creek and Nipple Gulch; Lost Camp, Two Bit Gulch and Gilt Edge Road; White Rocks, Anchor Hill and Dome Mountain; Dead Ox, Jackass, Sweet Betsy, Breakneck and Bloody gulches.

Moonshine Gulch Saloon in the nearby town of Rochford undoubtedly derived its name from the illegal enterprise prevalent in an area where moonshiner's stills could be well concealed in the hilly terrain.

Many of today's Deadwood casinos were named for historical events or people --- Deadwood Dick's, Bullock Hotel, Hickok's ---but several were named after the precious metal that set up the 1800s gold rush. And that's another story.

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