SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Old West city of Deadwood is planning to acknowledge its past by opening a brothel museum.
Nonprofit Deadwood History Inc. is working with a local property owner to renovate one of the former bordellos.
The group is finishing up construction, displaying exhibits and training employees with hopes of launching the museum next spring.
Dakota History’s executive director Carolyn Weber says support for the museum is widespread. She says staffers have spent much time researching the details to ensure it accurately portrays life at the brothels.
Federal authorities executed the final brothel raid in 1980. Sixteen women were arrested and charged with practicing prostitution.
Deadwood never officially permitted prostitution, but it had been embraced since the city’s founding 100 years earlier.
