Deadwood Celebrates 20 Years at New Lodge
The Lodge at Deadwood opened with a bang — or should I say a bash — on Saturday night. The new resort hosted the Deadwood 20th Anniversary of Gaming and Preservation on Saturday night. It was an intimate little sit-down dinner for 700 people.
But everything went off without a hitch. The facilities were deluxe. The food was good. The mood was downright euphoric.
The event was to celebrate the 20 years since gaming became legal in Deadwood, a major turning point for Deadwood. Gaming touched off an incredible spate of investment, both in historic buildings and in city infrastructure, and created for Deadwood a whole new industry.
In 1989, Deadwood was a dying town with few prospects. Retail was being taken over by the Rushmore Mall in Rapid City. Mining was playing out. And summer tourism alone wasn’t enough to sustain the kind of historic preservation and reconstruction that Deadwood needed.
Legalized casino gambling was a novel idea. At the time, it hadn’t been done outside of Nevada and Atlantic City. The Deadwood You Bet Committee began advancing the idea of legal gaming to fund historic preservation as early as 1986. Despite long political odds, they pulled it off.
The Lodge at Deadwood is a good example of what that industry has helped create. The 140-room hotel, with a convention center large enough to seat 1,700 people, a modern casino and an upscale restaurant, will bring in new kinds of visitors to the Black Hills. You’ll likely see more conventions and conference, ski trippers and upscale travelers.
And the Lodge at Deadwood is indeed upscale. We took a tour of the water park, the Presidential Suite and other rooms in the hotel. It’s pretty nice. I’m attaching a collection of photos to give you a bit of an idea.
