The discovery of gold in the southern Black Hills in 1874 set off one of the great gold rushes in America. In 1876, miners moved into the northern Black Hills. That’s where they came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold and Deadwood was born. Practically overnight, the tiny gold camp boomed into a town that played by its own rules and attracted outlaws, gamblers, and gunslingers along with the gold seekers.
Deadwood was comprised mostly of single men. In the beginning the ratio of men to women was as high as 8 to 1. The lack of affordable housing, the hostile environment, the high cost of travel, and the expense of living in Deadwood prevented many men from bringing their wives, girlfriends, and families to the growing town. Hordes of prostitutes and madams came to Deadwood to capitalize on the lack of women. By the mid-1880s, there were more than a hundred brothels in the mining community.
One of the most notorious cat houses in Deadwood was owned and operated by Al Swearengen. Swearengen was an entertainment entrepreneur who opened a house of ill-repute shortly after he arrived in town in the spring of 1876. Initially known as The Gem, the brothel was host to several well-known soiled doves of the Old West from Eleanora Dumont to Kitty LeRoy.
Among the many madams who ran other cat houses in and around Deadwood were Poker Alice Tubbs, Mert O’Hara, and Gertrude Bell. The names of some of the most popular brothels in Deadwood Gulch were the Shy-Ann Room, Fern’s Place, The Cozy Room, the Beige Door, and the Shasta Room. After more than a hundred years of continual operation, the brothels in Deadwood were forced to close in 1980.
The brothels in Deadwood were raided numerous times during their 103-year existence. The Shasta Room located at 610 ½ Main Street was raided by authorities nine times between 1936 and 1964. Some of the madams were charged with the illegal sale of liquor and some with disturbing the peace. On January 11, 1939, a customer named Lodell Jay was taken into custody and charged with assault and battery after beating Madam Reid and creating a disturbance at the brothel.
To learn more about busts at the brothels read An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos. Visit www.chrisenss.com for more information. An Open Secret is available everywhere books are sold, on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, and at the Brothel Deadwood in Deadwood.
