Deadwood City Hall’s basement museum contains around half a million artifacts representing the city’s Chinese heritage and decades of mining history following the California Gold Rush.
Kevin Kuchenbecker, historic preservation officer in Deadwood, said the basement houses everything from photographs to archaeological digs.
“This is our archival and archaeological laboratories where we have the collections, both municipal and special collections, special collections that have been given to Deadwood or acquired from other organizations in Deadwood,” said Kuchenbeker. “We have ephemera, maps, photographs and then in the archaeological laboratory, we have a variety of collections from archaeological digs over the decades, the biggest one being the excavation of early Chinatown from 2001 to 2004, where we probably have about a half a million artifacts.”
Chinese miners and entrepreneurs came to Deadwood in the 1870s during the gold rush in the Black Hills, and integrated with the Black Hills community where their influence can still be seen today.
“We did have a Chinatown here in Deadwood,” explained Kuchenbeker. “But they were also scattered throughout the community and part of the community. So, like on Sherman Street here, there was a Chinese restaurant and a laundry. But there was a concentration in Lower Main Street, which is our Chinatown, where the last remaining Chinese building, the high key building, still stands.”
According to Kuchenbeker, Chinese miners played a very important role of Deadwood’s history, and the city is proud to share its Chinese heritage through exhibitions at various museums, as well as during tours of Main Street Deadwood.
“With those thousands of artifacts from Chinatown, we do have displays at our museums, at the History and Information Center,” said Kuchenbeker. “And then down here in City Hall, we offer an experiential tour where we do a walking tour along Main Street on the archeology of Lower Main Street and talk about the variety of archaeological digs that have been done in that area of town over the past two decades.”
For more information about Historic Deadwood, visit their website here.
Looking for more news and information? NewsCenter1 Media Group has you covered go to NC1.TV today for all of your Western South Dakota and Wyoming news today.
