namesake canyon . Almost overnight it mushroomed into a cesspool of greed and sin with a reputation for lawlessness .
Murders were common . Bars , brothels , and gambling houses kept the miners entertained and made more than a few fortunes . One of the most notorious of the Deadwood madams and pimps was a man named Al Swearengen . He ran the Gem Theater , a gambling hall and brothel , and controlled Deadwood ’ s opium trade . Swearengen , along with his henchmen Dan Dority and Johnny Burns , strong-armed women into working as prostitutes for more than 20 years . Seeds of prostitution sprouted strong and long-lasting roots in Deadwood . The last brothel , Pam ’ s Purple Door , was in operation until an FBI raid shut it down in 1980 .
After completing his expedition in 1874 , General George Armstrong Custer had returned to his station in the northern reaches of Dakota Territory . The expedition ’ s discovery of gold and subsequent influx of white men exacerbated tensions with the Lakota Sioux who had been angered by the disregard for their guaranteed exclusive access to the Black Hills . The U . S . Government attempted to buy the land from the
Sioux and when they were refused , ordered the Lakota onto reservations by the end of January 1876 . Cavalry troops tried to enforce the orders and were naturally met with resistance and hostility .
On April 9 , 1876 , four partners in a mining operation , Fred and Moses Manuel , Hank Harney , and Alex Engh , discovered gold a few miles from Deadwood Gulch . They filed a claim and named it the Homestake . But this wasn ’ t just the traces and small deposits of gold that had been found up to that time . Unbeknownst to them they had located the source of the placer gold that had been
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