Since the Gold Rush of 1870’s Deadwood SD has been an infamous town in the mind of America. The entire town of Deadwood is a National Historic Landmark and since the legalization of gaming in 1989, historic restoration of the towns buildings and history has been a priority. With the Homestake gold mine only a few miles away, for most of Deadwood existence, it has been a hub of commerce, freedom, and vice and a main thoroughfare to the northern Black Hills. It has featured many famous citizens from Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, to Eben Martin. Featured prominently in both book and film, Deadwood has been an icon of the west since it’s inception.
In Deadwood:
Mount Moriah
Deadwood’s most famous cemetery where it likes of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried among other local historical notables.
Nearby Deadwood:
Spearfish Canyon
Twelve times older than the Grand Canyon, this 19 mile drive is one of the most scenic in the Black Hills. Just off I-90 in Spearfish, it is easily accessible and traverses through thousand foot high canyon walls before ending at Cheyenne Crossing just south of Lead. With multiple hiking trails, waterfalls, and winding river ecosystems teeming with wildlife this is not to be missed.
Mount Rushmore
About an hour’s very scenic drive south through the Black Hills is Mount Rushmore National Memorial, a massive sculpture carved into Mt. Rushmore in the southern Black Hills region of South Dakota. Completed under the direction of Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum from 1927–1941, the sculpture’s roughly 60-ft.-high granite faces depict U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The site also features a museum with interactive exhibits.
Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park is a national park in southwestern South Dakota that protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles,and spires blended with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. Explore nearly 400 square miles of astounding beauty that attracts visitors from all over the world.
Devils Tower National Monument
About an hour and fifteen minutes drive northwest of Deadwood is the Devils Tower National Monument. Featured in movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Devils tower is a sight to behold as it juts above the flat plains of Wyoming.
Devils Tower is an igneous intrusion or laccolith in the Bear Lodge Mountains near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River.
