Deadwood Historic District

The settlement that became Deadwood was illegal from the start — built on land the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie had guaranteed to the Lakota people, after gold was announced in the Black Hills in 1874. The town reached a population of roughly 25,000 at its peak, drew Wild Bill Hickok, and buried him there. In 1961, the entire town was designated a National Historic Landmark for its preserved collection of late 19th-century frontier architecture. When gambling was legalized here in 1989, the revenue went toward keeping that architecture intact.