In relatively good condition for its age and miles it has traveled, a Gladstone bag once owned by a pioneer Black Hills druggist will make one last journey this spring.

The bag, containing an intriguing collection of 19^th century documents, will be returned to Deadwood for display at the Visitor and Information Center.

In the past few months it has been the focus of a remarkable historical research project by history students of Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose, California.

Originally belonging to Julius Deetken, proprietor of Deadwood’s first drugstore, the brown leather case was a 1978 flea market find for a California college student.

David Rapaport had no idea of what he would do with the old valise, but he hung onto it through several moves, including cross-country travels from California to New York and back again.

Rapaport began teaching middle school in the late 1990s. Last fall, when the Bret Harte community club donated Apple computers with wireless connections to his classroom, he brought the Deetken bag to school as the centerpiece of a student historical investigation.

Setting up a classroom research laboratory, Rapaport organized six-member teams in each of his five eighth-grade history classes, involving 150 students in a hands-on learning experience.

With the diligence of museum curators, 13 and 14-year-old researchers patiently retrieved, archived and digitally-scanned the wealth of primary source information in the dilapidated satchel.

Among the century-old documents were Deetken’s U. S. citizenship papers dated October 22, 1872, the original deed to his Deadwood building, a handwritten family tree and records of two previously undocumented marriages.

The students also found pharmacy ledgers, prescription slips, family letters and keepsakes, including what some of them described as the "creepiest find" – locks of hair from Deetken family members, lovingly tied with tiny ribbons and preserved in small drugstore envelopes.

Through online federal census records, Library of Congress photo collections, out-of-print books and articles from old newspapers, they reconstructed facts of the Deadwood druggist’s life and explored the history of the western frontier town where he established his business.

They discovered Deetken was born October 27, 1844, in Germany where, at age 17, he began a three-year pharmacy apprenticeship. He immigrated to the United States in 1867 and came to the Black Hills nine years later, walking beside slow-moving freight wagons on the Cheyenne-Deadwood trail.

Arriving in Deadwood in May 1876, 31-year-old Deetken opened the mining camp’s first exclusive drugstore in a log cabin on Main Street.

When the cabin burned in the 1879 fire, Deetken and Edward C. Bent built a small brick building about a block up the street. Deetken bought out his partner in 1888 and added a second story to the building three years later, advertising his occupation with a large mortar and pestle on the cornice.

F. S. Howe, M.D set up his practice in offices above Deetken’s drugstore in 1901. In his book Deadwood Doctor, Howe said his office space in the Deetken building was rent-free in return for prescriptions sent downstairs.

Dr. Howe wrote about consulting with "the old druggist" on how to treat his first Deadwood case, a girl with second-degree burns.

There were no limitations on drugs in those years, the doctor pointed out. "At that time any person could go to a drug store and get any narcotic or other drug they cared to buy," he said.

Pharmacy records revealed the diversity of Deadwood’s population. Deetken’s customers included bankers and clerks, lawyers and judges, miners and merchants – and undoubtedly a few gamblers and prostitutes.

Methodist minister Henry Weston Smith preached sermons on the dirt street in front of the 1876 drugstore. Deetken, founding member and first secretary of the Society of Black Hills Pioneers, was instrumental in erecting the Preacher Smith Monument on Highway 14 north of town, near the spot where Rev. Smith was killed August 20, 1876.

Actively involved in community affairs, the druggist had mining interests, was one of the organizers of the First National Bank and served a two-year term as president of the Pharmaceutical Association of South Dakota.

A search for surviving family members led Rapaport’s students to the 96-year-old nephew whose name was mentioned in one of the letters. They scanned the letter and mailed a copy to Reinhard Deetken of Holly, Michigan.

They also met a self-styled family historian whose great grandfather was a cousin of Julius Deetken. Cathy Stevenson, Santa Rosa, California, spent a day in their classroom, sharing family knowledge and photographs, including one of Deetken himself.

"I was so impressed with the students," Stevenson said. "They were very polite and respectful. Most important of all, they are so into the project that brought history alive for them. And of course, David is just a fabulous teacher."

The Deetken building at 659 Main Street had several tenants after the druggist died in 1915. It was one of several historic structures wiped out by the disastrous 1987 Syndicate fire. Four years ago, Old Style Saloon Number 10 owners built The Utter Place, named for Wild Bill’s pal Charlie Utter, on the drugstore site.

How Deetken’s bag got to the Santa Cruz flea market remains a mystery.

Genevieve Maxwell Deetken took it with her when she moved to Berkeley, California, following her husband’s death. It apparently remained in California when Mrs. Deetken died in 1931. She was buried beside her husband and son in the Mount Moriah family plot.

"From there things get a little fuzzier," the Bret Harte teacher said.

The history students are so enthusiastic about their project they’ve carried it far beyond the research stage, adding missing data to the Deetken family tree and designing a brochure and materials for the display case in the Deadwood visitor center display.

Biographical information was forwarded to producers of the new Deadwood HBO television series for possible inclusion of a Deetken character in a future episode.

A video documentary and a book, Julius Deetken: Pioneer Druggist, is in progress, according to Rapaport, and the entire collection will be available online at www.sdgenie.org/deetken.

It has been rewarding for Rapaport to watch his students take ownership of the research project. "Even graduate students in history don’t have this kind of opportunity," he said. "Bret Harte students have demonstrated that very young researchers can make authentic contributions to the history field."

He hopes other teachers will look for opportunities to develop similar learning experiences for their own students. He can be contacted at his e-mail address: david_rapaport@sjusd.org.

"There is nothing more satisfying than having students rush into class, eager to get to work."

The Deetken Display will be unveiled at a 3 p.m. open house Saturday, May 29 at the Deadwood Visitor and Information Center. The pharmacist’s bag and historic documents will remain on display at the visitor center, courtesy of David Rapaport who will be present for the unveiling.