The Streets of Deadwood: The Thoroughfare
Multi-Functional, Contested Space
Image source: Stanley J. Morrow, “Deadwood from the South,” 1876, Library of Congress.
This the second in a series about the TV series Deadwood. Here is the introduction to the series.
The Thoroughfare
We see the second representation of a street through the eyes of Bullock as he steers a wagon into Deadwood. Traffic is heavy on the trail, and it looks like an unending line of vehicles filing into the camp. The main thoroughfare offers just enough clear space for a single line of vehicles. Wooden buildings define both sides of the street, though many tents are pitched at the frontages. Prospectors are exploiting the large rectangular pit dug in the thoroughfare. Some unnamed business is “COMING SOON,” as Bullock can see a platoon of carpenters erecting the building’s double-gallery. Two sawyers are sectioning tree trunks. A banner advertises game for sale: bear, deer, and elk. A photographer has his head underneath the curtain of his camera, a gentleman holds a rifle while inspecting a revolver with his other hand, a vendor sells whiskey shots from a shabby table, a hawker raises his arms to display a pair of live chickens, and a butcher extracts the innards of a deer. Not one person in the street is female, and many of these men are carrying rifles. Others carry picks and shovels. Star has already negotiated rent for a corner plot near the Gem Saloon, payable in cash daily.
Street Names and Wayfinding
In this same scene, the one where Bullock arrives at his new rental property for the first time, he asks Dority for the location of the Gem Saloon. Dority is not helpful, and says, “You’ll find it. Everybody does.” After scanning for a few seconds, Bullock finds the canvas sign for the Gem. No Deadwood character mentions the name of a street, and there are no street signs nor are there addresses on buildings. The size of the town is certainly a factor, since Deadwood is small enough to commit every location to memory without addresses and street names. This is a more common phenomenon with pre-industrial cities. Ancient cities, even large ones such as Rome and Athens, did not name many of their streets and certainly did not label them. Wayfinding required assistance from other people in the street. The ancients expected travelers would obtain directions when they arrived in the city. This idea finds its expression in Terrence and the New Testament. In The Brothers, Terence creates a comic situation when Cyrus gives ridiculous and convoluted directions in order to deceive Demea, who was visiting Athens.1 Paul receives instructions for his arrival to Damascus, “Go into the street which is called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas.”2 Wayfinding in Deadwood would be similar to these ancient cities, since in all these cases the traveler would need to be comfortable asking for directions from strangers, and be able to navigate by landmarks in the absence of street signs.3
Contested Space
Frustrations over street traffic lead to verbal abuse and an exchange of oaths. Star stands on the wagon bed passing down heavy and bulky bags to Bullock, who sets them into their tent next to a cache of brooms. Their parked wagon obstructs the path to the next stall. A teamster (Mike Haggerty) complains about the speed and skill of the two hardware purveyors:
Angry teamster: (yelling) Jesus Christ Almighty, move it! I can’t get to my spot until you finish. You’d have me circling my wagon like a fly around shit.
Star (stepping down from the wagon and removing his hat): We’re pretty near done. We’ve come a long way, same as you.
Angry teamster: Is this the first wagon you’ve f____in’ unloaded? Hold onto my horse and I’ll show you how it’s done.
Bullock: We know what we’re doing. Put your hat back on and stick with your wagon.
Angry teamster: And what if I don’t?
Bullock: (walking a beeline toward the teamster) Stand there and mouthin’ off and you’ll find out.
Star: (pulls a large porcelain bowl out of a box and walks toward the teamster) Sir, have a commode for your inconvenience.
Angry teamster: Think I’m gonna pay for that?
Star: Ahh, it’s free, from Star and Bullock Hardware, open in Deadwood as soon as we locate.
Angry teamster: (somewhat placated) Well, hurry up and get finished.
Calling, Hawking, and Peddling
By that evening, Star and Bullock have their store in ship-shape and ready for business. Bullock steps outside the tent to address the gaggles of men wandering the torch-lit main thoroughfare. His delivery is stiff, and inaudible over the din of competing human voices. Star is more confident. He projects his voice into the street, with the confidence of an experienced hawker. Bullock follows Star’s lead, but eventually finds his own voice—this time assured, audible, and rhythmic—inserting his phrases between Star’s calls. This draws an audience in front of their tent. A rival vendor operates in the crowd under the guise of a satisfied customer, exclaiming that he had found a five dollar prize in his bar of soap. The peddler attempts to lure customers aware from the hardware store, but Bullock steps toward him and stakes his claim to this part of the street. He tells the soap peddler to take his shtick elsewhere and not come back. After a doff of the cap and a meek apology, the man is gone. The streets of Deadwood are public and multi-functional, but they also represent contested space.4
Terence, The Brothers 4.2, citation and translation taken from Claire Holleran, “Street Life of Ancient Rome,” in Rome, Ostia and Pompeii: Movement and Space, David J. Newsome and Ray Laurence, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 247–8.
Acts of the Apostles 9.11, translation and citation taken from Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence, Pompeii: The Living City, 110, 320 n10.
Mary Beard, Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2008), 110; Alan Kaiser, Roman Urban Street Networks, (New York: Rutledge, 2011), 34; Deirdre Mask, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2020), 59-71; cf. Roger Ling, “A Stranger in Town: Finding the Way in an Ancient City,” Greece & Rome 37, No. 2 (1990): 204.
For ancient streets vendors and hawkers, see Beard, Fires of Vesuvius, 73; Holleran, “Street Life of Ancient Rome,” 247-8; Claire Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome: The Retail Trade in the Late Republic and the Principate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); 60-1, 97-8, 159, 194-231; Jeremy Hartnett, The Roman Street: Urban Life and Society in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 60-4. Hartnett also notes that Martial complained about street commerce, see 60-1. For street vendors attempting to access public contested space in a contemporary context, see Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Renia Ehrenfeucht, Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 128–9.