Description

‘What Peter Cozzens has done with this remarkable book is to show us that the truth about Deadwood is, in fact, even more interesting than the myth.’ S. C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon

Infamous for its stage-coach robbing, whiskey-guzzling and rampant prostitution, the gold rush settlement of Deadwood, South Dakota, was once described as ‘the most diabolical town on Earth’. Built in 1876 on land brazenly stolen from the Lakota people, it was an outlaw enterprise not subject to US laws or governance.

In Deadwood, award-winning historian Peter Cozzens sifts through myth and legend to recount the town’s meteoric rise – a place where the currency was gold dust – and its stunning fall. He reveals how Deadwood’s foundation bred a self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation unique on the frontier, making it an exceptionally welcoming place at a time of deep-seated discrimination. Along the way, Cozzens pulls back the curtain on legendary figures Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, and introduces us to colourful Deadwoodites: from Jack Langrishe to Judge Kuykendall, and Seth Bullock to Sol Star.

This is the first book to tell Deadwood’s extraordinary story in full, revealing the true tale of how one frontier town, in only three years, imprinted itself on our imaginations as the best and worst of the West.

Publisher Review

How did such a small, remote speck of a place come to loom so large in American lore and myth? With Peter Cozzens’ artful book, we get the answer. In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals. And you start to see Deadwood as something more, as a node of raw avarice and frank ambition reflecting larger American impulses that are still alive today. Deadwood isn’t dead. It lives on in legend, in pulp Westerns, films, and television shows, and now, in the pages of a fine non-fiction narrative that’s as alluring as its subject. * Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of The Wide Wide Sea * What a perfect marriage-one of the most exquisite chroniclers of America’s Wild West exploring the most notorious town of the era. Throughout Deadwood, Cozzens brings fresh drama and absorbing detail to paint a vivid portrait of the colorful characters who in just three short years etched this tiny if hellraising South Dakota mining community into the lore of our collective history. Exemplary in all respects, thanks to the author’s storytelling skills, Deadwood lives again. * Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, bestselling authors of Blood and Treasure * There is no western town more steeped in myth, legend, and fairy tale than Deadwood, South Dakota-not even Tombstone, Leadville, or Dodge City. It was the Wild West of dime novels, of breathless, not-quite-exactly-true accounts in the newspapers. What Peter Cozzens has done with this remarkable book is to show us that the truth about Deadwood is, in fact, even more interesting than the myth. * S. C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon * Peter Cozzens’ Deadwood is a sweeping saga of greed, stolen Indigenous land, and legendary westerners such as Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock, and Lakota leader Crazy Horse. With the in-depth research Cozzens is known for, thought-provoking new insights, and a narrative that moves along at a fast clip, readers of Deadwood are guaranteed to hit pay dirt on every page. * Mark Lee Gardner, author of Brothers of the Gun * In his rollicking yet nuanced book, Peter Cozzens pans the gold-mining boomtown’s history while sifting out some popular misconceptions… Cozzens’ deeply researched account follows some of the colorful characters associated with the town. * The Wall Street Journal * A master historian confronts the mystique of the wildest of the Wild West towns and the result is a fast-paced, superbly written narrative marked with all the usual Peter Cozzens graceful touches. A dream team of fabulous characters-Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Crazy Horse, Seth Bullock, George Hearst, Al Swearingen-helps the author to craft a marvelous true tale of deception, greed, and violence far stranger than any fiction. Here is Western history with the bark on! * Paul Andrew Hutton, author of The Undiscovered Country *