Featured Touring 3,113 Miles Across The American West - With A Nip Of Sturgis Mixed In

Day #8: An evening on Deadwood's Main Street

Other artists' works are also displayed and on sale in the Scott Jacob's gallery such as these metal work guitars.



Russell had joined us by now and we found ourselves in another gallery that contained absolutely beautiful wildlife photos by an artist named Karen Mahoney whose specialty is none other than "buffalo portraiture". I kid you not! That's exactly what it says in her bio. Buffalo portraiture. Only in the American West...

Russell fell in love with this piece and wound up buying it and shipping it back to Tucson. We recently saw it in his house and it looks even better on his wall! There were so many of Karen't photos that we liked. Steve and I may wind up with one in our house eventually, too.



Our hotel from a different angle plus I loved the sign on the arch



For dinner this evening we met up with all five of our group. We'd not seen Patrick and Roseanne much since we arrived in Deadwood but we all agreed to have dinner together at the Deadwood Social Club which is on the 2nd floor of Old Saloon No. 10.



Steve, Russell, and I were a bit early for our reservation so headed up to the roof to see what there was to see. Lots!





This evening's dinner was the best dinner I had on the entire trip. I ordered the walleye pike. I always laugh being from Minnesota that the only kind of fish you can get in Minnesota is walleye--baked, fried, steamed, basted, smothered, you name it. I was being smug. But not anymore. This was outstanding and I'll get it again next time we dine here. That's my Old Fashioned at the top of my plate. Probably not the proper pairing but I'd do that again, too!





So, back to Wild Bill. Here's a bit about him from Wikipedia before I show you the photos of him I took.

James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation.

Hickok was born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois at a time when lawlessness and vigilante activity were rampant because of the influence of the "Banditti of the Prairie". Drawn to this criminal lifestyle, he headed west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, working as a stagecoach driver and later as a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He served in and spied for the Union army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life.

In 1876, Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota) by Jack McCall, an unsuccessful gambler. The hand of cards that he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man's hand: two pairs; black aces and eights.

Russell and Steve had told me that there was a wax (?) statue of Bill in the window of one of the casinos at the top of Main Street and that I had to see it. They were right. It was uncanny...and even creepy! And from outside looking in the window you'd have sworn that Bill had come back to life.







Next up, Day #9: Deadwood, South Dakota to Laramie, Wyoming and a stay at The Mad Carpenter Inn

 

What the heck?! What's going on, @Bikerman? @learningtofly, are you still seeing all my photos??

 

Whew.......