Gamblers return to Deadwood casinos

Chet Brokaw

Wednesday, July 3, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

DEADWOOD, S.D. -- When the Holiday Inn Express and Gold Dust 777 Casino reopened this week, at least one gambler was eager for a little action after a forest fire had shut down the town for two days.

"It took 33 seconds to have our first slot player," hotel manager Brian Carmichael said.

Deadwood was far less crowded than usual Monday, but business owners were pleased that lights were flashing and bells were ringing as players returned to slots machines and card tables.

As the day wore on, more and more vacationers strolled up and down Main Street or played in the casinos.

Deadwood was evacuated Saturday after the Grizzly Gulch fire threatened the town in a northern Black Hills canyon.

Visitors said they weren't worried about any danger from the fire, which still was burning a few miles from town.

Clayton and Kay Wainscott of Meeker, Okla., said officials told them they would be safe in Deadwood, especially since areas near the city had already burned and been extinguished.

"They said we were as safe as we could be," Mrs. Wainscott said. "It looks like a fun town, and we feel safer than before."

Kacey Royce of Yakima, Wash., said she didn't even know the town had been shut down before she drove to Deadwood with her two children, Krista and Kyle, and her parents, John and Darlene Soden of Selah, Wash.

"We're on vacation. We haven't even looked at a newspaper," Royce said. "We're right on schedule, and we went: Oh, there's a fire."

Soden, a retired fire chief, said he was amazed that firefighters stopped the blaze right on the edge of town.

The family was in Deadwood mostly to look at historic sites, but also to do a little gambling. "We came to win," Soden said.

Pete Morgan of nearby Newcastle, Wyo., said he was on the way to Deadwood when the fire started Saturday, so he decided to visit Monday after the town reopened.

"We come over here all the time," said Morgan, seated at a slot machine. "We enjoy it in Deadwood."

Douglas and Dori Harrington of Ellington, Conn., and their son, Garrett, were in Deadwood when it was evacuated Saturday. They returned Monday to visit a shop that sells military T-shirts and other memorabilia.

"South Dakota is very beautiful, and we're glad we came here for our vacation," Mrs. Harrington said. "I would come back."

Bill Walsh, owner and manager of the Franklin Hotel, stayed in town during the evacuation because his hotel doesn't even have a lock. It has not been closed in 99 years.

Walsh said he and people from other hotels and casinos helped firefighters on Sunday and Monday.

"We're so damn competitive here in Deadwood. But half a dozen owners and managers who stayed behind, we became brothers in the last three days as we provided services to firefighters in any way we could," Walsh said.

Deadwood owes a big debt to the rest of South Dakota for amending the state constitution to allow gambling beginning in 1989 and now for sending volunteer firefighters to save the city, Walsh said.

Walsh said the first tourists showed up in the Franklin Hotel at 6:30 a.m. Monday to take a look and use the restrooms. Business in town remained slower than usual later in the day, but the hotels were expecting to be full for the Fourth of July, he said.

Deadwood has survived a number of fires and a flood, Walsh noted.

"The town with nine lives," he said.