Every once in a while a traffic backup in a small town isn’t simply an annoyance, it’s also a bit of entertainment.

One such happenstance for me was in Deadwood, South Dakota, a now small, tourist-driven hamlet that drew its name from the quantity of dead trees the founders came across in the valley. 

In its heyday during the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s, it was home to some 25,000 people and was the epitome of American west lawlessness.  It was visited by the likes of Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok (both Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried there). 

Today it contains about 1,200 folks and the entirety of the place is designated a National Historic Landmark District for its well-preserved buildings.  Throngs of tourists clog the streets and sidewalks.

An argument during a card game in a Deadwood saloon spelled Wild Bill’s demise in 1876. The hand he held at his death, two pairs; black aces and eights, is now known as the dead man’s hand.

It was a reenactment of his death that stopped me dead on my wheels in downtown Deadwood a few years ago.  There in the middle of the street, safely behind the orange cones that stopped the traffic, was a card game and some shooting and lots of shouting. 

The whole play took only a few minutes and happens several times a day.