Deadwood's Defunct Houses

Exeunt 27 "girls," along with an important source of income

Its name may sound lugubrious, but Deadwood, S. Dak. (pop. 1,974), has long been a pretty lively town. For more than 100 years it has sported some of the best little whorehouses in the West. Their combined commerce has, in fact, rivaled logging, mining and tourism as Deadwood's chief source of income. No longer. The bordellos have been closed down, and not all Deadwoodians are happy about it.

Pam's Frontier Room, Dixie's Shasta Room, the Pine Room and the Cozy Room were raided by a task force worthy of an Abscam sting: the FBI, U.S. marshals, the South Dakota division of criminal investigation, the South Dakota Attorney General's office and the Lawrence County sheriffs office. After state officials filed public-nuisance charges against the bordellos, 27 girls and their three poodles were taken into custody as material witnesses in a federal grand jury probe. They were released and have not been seen since. A lot of people miss them.

According to a survey by the Lead (S. Dak.) Daily Call, 42% of the locals were in favor of leaving the houses open, vs. 35% supporting their closure. Some 40 proponents of licensed lust even held a parade on Main Street to support les girls. Sportin' house advocates point out that the ladies kept to their quarters and had regular medical checkups. "They sure kept a lot of strange men off the streets," says Gayle Williams, a barmaid at Saloon Number 10. They also contributed to local charities, as well as such causes as the Jaycees and the Little League. Moreover, many of the hunters who flock to Deadwood purportedly to bag antelope, moose and elk in the Black Hills were said actually to have spent their time stalking Venus. Said one resident: "This is gonna kill the hell out of the hunting season."

Opponents of the bordellos point out that, for all their do-gooding, they did not pay Deadwood's 1% sales tax. Thomas Blair, an anesthetist who helped form a committee to support the anti-whorehouse drive, quotes reports that some of the houses made at least $5,000 a week. Their winked-at illegality was an affront to law-abiding citizens, he says, adding: "I'm not going to legislate my morality on someone else, but I don't want anyone legislating their immorality on me."

Last week Pam Holliday, who once greeted patrons at the door of Pam's Frontier Room, was busily auctioning off its furnishings. "I have very expensive lawyers," she explained. A witty redhead who can barely raise her left hand under the weight of diamond and emerald rings, Pam insists that she taught her girls all the social graces: "You might say it was a type of charm school." Buyers, many of them female, came from miles around to buy Pamorabilia and get her autograph (price: $2). Among the hottest items at the auction: oven timers, an electric vibrator pillow and a crushed-velvet tiger-striped bedspread with matching curtains. The sale netted several thousand dollars.

As for the future, Pam predicts that ordinary prostitutes will soon replace the banished charm-school graduates. "Are there going to be hookers in Deadwood?" she asks. "You better believe it. We're going to be loaded with them." qed

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