Gold and Deadwood 

In 1874, with one thousand men, George Armstong Custer rode into Sioux land in South Dakota to check out rumors about gold in the area. They found some gold but not a large amount. However, Custer went back East to publicize he thought there might be more. In November of 1875, prospectors found large placer deposits in Deadwood Gulch. This caused thousands of gold-seekers to flock there and establish the new town of Deadwood, still located within Native American land. Other new towns also sprang up in the area, fueled by the gold rush, and Deadwood continued to grow. The last active gold mine in the area, Homestake Mine, closed in 2001, but gold mining remained an important industry in the region for a long time. Of course, the process moved from placer mining to lode mining.

Visitors can tour some of the mines in Deadwood and nearby towns, such as Lead. One of the main mines in Deadwood opened in 1878, operated until 1904, reopened briefly in 1917, and became a tourist attraction in 1954 when it was named the Broken Boot Mine because of a boot left abandoned in the mine from long ago. It offers tours daily through the warmer months. Since gold drove the area for many years, its history is important to anyone like me, researching the history of Deadwood. 

Even though Beckett is a doctor, I still had to include gold-seeking in my book set in Deadwood in 1878. Gold was too important to the area not to. In fact, the chapter headers have pickaxes because of gold's importance in Deadwood's history. Beckett's Brides is on preorder now and will be published on June 1.

Breckett's Brides link