COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL MAY 9, 2018 9A
Offbeat Oregon History: Deadwood Dick's adventures
By Finn JD John
For The Sentinel
Between the end of the Civil War and the begin-
ning of the 20th Century, the most popular form
of fi ctional entertainment in America was dime
novels.
Dime novels were cheap paperback novelettes
printed on pulpwood stock and sold for 5 to 15
cents each. They were pure entertainment, with
no literary aspirations whatsoever; plots were
lurid and melodramatic, characters were clown-
ish and overdrawn, and heroes and villains were
painted without shades of gray. Basically, they
were pulp fi ction before there was anything called
pulp fi ction.
One of the most famous dime-novel heroes
was Deadwood Dick, a roving gambler, gunfi ght-
er, and white-hat con artist, very much in the style
of television’s “Maverick.” Deadwood Dick was
the creation of Edward Lytton Wheeler, a New
York native who cooked up the character for his
Philadelphia Vaudeville theater and then used him
in a series of 35 dime jobs published by the Bea-
dle Brothers.
Wheeler, of course, didn’t make any trips out to
places like Laramie or Cripple Creek or Roseburg
to scout locations for his Deadwood Dick stories.
So, most of them are geographically ambiguous,
and those that do specify real locations contain
geographical howlers for the natives to scoff over.
But, they were great fun in an era before televi-
sion or radio, and nobody complained (much).
Now, these old dime novels are hard to come
by, and I have not been able to personally inspect
all 35 of the Deadwood Dick stories — nor the
100 or so that followed starring our intrepid he-
ro’s only son, Deadwood Dick Jr. But in his wan-
derings about the American West, Deadwood
Dick does seem to have strayed into the Oregon
country a few times.
DEADWOOD DICK’S BIG DEAL; or, The
Gold Brick of Oregon:
The fi rst time appears to have been in “Dead-
wood Dick’s Big Deal; or, The Gold Brick of Or-
egon” (1883). In this one, “Gold Brick” is a nick-
name for a gorgeous golden-haired broad who
owns a disreputable gambling house, the bank of
which Dick undertakes to “break” because he’s
recognized the “Gold Brick” as his estranged
wife, Calamity Jane, the mother of their 3-year-
old son. At the end of the book, having succeeded
in this little quest of spousal vengeance, Dick puts
a cherry on top of his victory by winning sole cus-
tody of Deadwood Dick Jr. in a hand of Euchre.
It’s probably safe to say the “heroic narrative”
in “Deadwood Dick’s Big Deal” hasn’t aged very
well. Although, who knows, it may have provided
inspiration for one or two embarrassingly self-in-
dulgent feature movies from the “auteur” era
made by bitter, freshly-divorced directors. “Te-
quila Sunrise” comes to mind.
DEADWOOD DICK’S DANGER DUCKS;
or, The Owls of Oregon:
In “Deadwood Dick’s Danger Ducks; or, The
Owls of Oregon,” the next Deadwood Dick story
set in the Beaver State, our hero is actually Dead-
wood Dick Jr. — he who was, on his previous
visit to our state, won by his father at a gambling
table and torn from his mother, presumably never
to see her again.
In spite of that bit of childhood trauma, he
seems to have grown up fairly well adjusted, and
when we join him at a campfi re near Roseburg
he’s a twenty-something “United States Detec-
tive” traveling with his two friends, rough-and-
ready mountain man Job Johnson and clownish
African-American Nicademus Noodle. (At least,
he says it’s near Roseburg. But he also says it’s an
hour’s ride east of the “famous lava beds.”)
Dick is there in not-so-hot pursuit of a murder-
er who’s escaped from the state pen in Salem. The
trail has gone cold.
But, as he’s making plans to turn back, a
strange forest girl with a head injury stumbles
into their camp; and then two local horsemen join
them for the night and, around the campfi re, tell
them of a gang of notorious bandits who have
seized possession of an island in the middle of
a lake “some ten miles down the valley” called
Lake Sylvan. There is, of course, a rich mine of
gold on the two-acre island, and it’s presided over
by a dangerous damsel known to all of the thor-
oughly cowed neighbors as “Lady Sylvan.” Ev-
eryone who’s tried to swim out to the island has
been turned back or killed by the desperados on
the island, who call themselves The Owls. (This
seems, to modern ears, a weird name for a gang
of desperados to affect. Perhaps all the scarier and
more gang-like monikers such as “The Bloods”
and “The Crips” and “The James-Younger Gang”
were already taken and all that were left were the
names of Boy Scout patrols?)
The next morning, one of the two strange horse-
men is dead as a doorknob, pinned to his bedroll
with a big Bowie knife, and there’s no sign of the
girl. The other horseman — who later turns out
to be the murderer — tries to pin it on the strange
girl, but Dick doesn’t buy it.
His interest piqued, Dick and his friends de-
cide to join the locals in investigating the island
by swimming out to it disguised as ducks — that
is, each of them wearing a dead, unplucked duck,
staged with some quick-and-dirty taxidermy to
keep its head from fl opping around, so that the
island sentries would see not a bunch of invaders
swimming ashore, but merely three very tall, stiff,
rigidly immobile ducks slowly and silently drift-
ing toward the island, their heads and necks gen-
tly rocking back and forth with the wave action
like the masts of tiny ships.
This plan goes just as well as you would ex-
pect it to, and all our heroes are promptly captured
and subjected to a sort of show trial presided over
by the girl with the head injury from Scene One,
who turns out to have been Lady Sylvan herself.
The murderer whom Dick was pursuing is there
as well. In good melodramatic fashion all appears
lost, and then virtue emerges triumphant with a
little help from the abiding love that’s been burn-
ing in the breast of Lady Sylvan since that night
by the campfi re when Dick fi xed up her head inju-
ry and gave her a blanket.
She, it turns out, is a fi gurehead; the Owls are
actually a gang of “counterfi tters” who are, appar-
ently, stealing gold from various places, bringing
it onto the island, and pretending to mine it there.
(As a side note, this would not have worked
in real life. Assayers in gold country in the late
1800s were surprisingly good at identifying the
source of freshly mined gold based on average
grain or nugget size and color and nature of impu-
rities, and used those abilities fairly regularly to
catch careless stagecoach robbers. Had someone
tried this stunt, the locals would have known ex-
actly what they were doing the minute they fi rst
tried to have their “diggings” weighed at the local
assayer’s offi ce. But, of course, our Philadelphia
author didn’t know that.)
In the end, justice is more or less served.
Nicademus Noodle, after forcing the murderer
to change clothes with him, fi nds $1,000 in the
pocket and hits the road with it. The murderer,
thinking he’ll restore his fortunes by burgling the
bad guy’s house, gets shot and killed, so Dick’s
job is done; nonetheless he insists on riding off
into the sunset to his next adventure, without
bothering to say goodbye to Lady Sylvan, who
we never hear of again.
All in all, it’s a pretty rough little story,
stretched with a lot of unnecessary “business.”
And the character of Nicademus Noodle, al-
though endowed with resourcefulness and wit, is
nonetheless a typical late-1800s African Amer-
ican character — that is, an insulting racial ste-
reotype brought to life. But overall it’s a fun, fast
read, and its descriptions of nonexistent Roseburg
scenery and geography surely brought a smile to
the face of more than one 1880s Douglas County
resident.
WHY I TEACH...
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DRAIN:
HOPE U.M.C.
131 W “A” St. Drain, OR
541-315-1617
Pastor: Lura Kidner-Miesen
Fellowship & Song: 11:30am
Potluck Lunch: 12:00pm
Worship: 12:30pm
Delight Valley
Church of Christ
33087 Saginaw Rd. East
541-942-7711
Pastor: Bob Friend
Two Services:
9am - Classic in the Chapel
10:30am - Contemporary in the
Auditorium
COTTAGE GROVE:
6th & Gibbs Church of Christ
195 N. 6th St. • 541-942-3822
Pastor: Aaron Earlywine
Youth & Families Pastor: Seth Bailey
Service times: 9am & 10:30am
Sunday School: 9am for all ages
Christian Education
Nursery for pre-k - 3rd Grade
www.6thandgibbs.com
First Presbyterian Church
3rd and Adams St
541-942-4479
Pastor: Karen Hill
Worship: 10:00am
Sunday School: 10:00am
www.cgpresbynews.com
Hope In The Grove
700 E. Gibbs • 401-855-5668
Pastor: Wayne Husk
Sunday services:
Worship: 9am
Coffee Fellowship: 10:15am
Bible Study: 10:30am
Calvary Baptist Church
77873 S 6th St • 541-942-4290
Pastor: Riley Hendricks
Sunday School: 9:45am
Worship: 11:00am
The Journey: Sunday 5:00pm
Praying Thru Life: Wednesday 6:00pm Hope Fellowship
United Pentecostal Church
Calvary Chapel Cottage Grove
100 S. Gateway Blvd.
1447 Hwy 99 (Village Plaza)
541-942-2061
541-942-6842
Pastor: Dave Bragg
Pastor: Jeff Smith
Worship: 11:00am Sunday
Two Services on Sun:
Bible Study: 7:00pm Wednesday
9am & 10:45am
www.hopefellowshipupc.com
Youth Group Bible Study
“FINDING HOPE IN YOUR LIFE”
Child Care 10:45am Service Only
www.cgcalvary.org
Living Faith Assembly
467 S. 10th St. • 541-942-2612
Center for Spiritual Living
Worship Services Sundays: 9a & 11a
700 Gibbs Ave. (Community Center) Youth Worship Sundays: 11a (all ages
Rev. Bobby Lee
welcome)
Meets Sunday 3:00 p.m.
Mondays: 5:30p (6th-12th grades)
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Non-Denominational
Church of Christ
Church of Christ
420 Monroe St • 541-942-8565
1041 Pennoyer Ave
Sunday Service: 10:30am
541-942-8928
Preacher: Tony Martin
Cottage Grove Bible Church
Sunday Bible Study:10:00am
1200 East Quincy Avenue
Sunday Worship:10:50am & 5:30pm
541-942-4771
www.pennoyeravecoc.com
Pastor:Bob Singer
Worship 11am
Old Time Gospel Fellowship
Sunday School:9:45am
103 S. 5th St. • 541-942-4999
AWANA age 3-8th Grade,
Pastor: Jim Edwards
Wednesdays Sept-May, 6:30pm
Sunday Service: 10:00am
www.cgbible.org
Join in Traditional Christian Worship
Cottage Grove Faith Center
33761 Row River Rd.
541-942-4851
Lead Pastor: Kevin Pruett
www.cg4.tv
Full Childrenʼs Ministry available
Service: 10:00am
Worship
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Our Lady of Perpetual Help
and St. Philip Benizi
Catholic Churches
1025 N. 19th St.
541-942-3420
Father: Joseph Hung Nguyen
Holy Mass:
Tue-Thu: 8:30am; Sat:5:30pm
Sun: 10:30am
Confession: After daily mass,
Sat. 4-5pm or by appointment
St. Philip Benizi, Creswell
552 Holbrock Lane
541-895-8686, Sunday: 8:30am
St. Andrews Episcopal Church
1301 W. Main • 541-767-9050
Rev. Lawrence Crumb
“Church with the fl ags.”
Worship: Sunday 10:30am
All Welcome
Seventh-day Adventist Church
820 South 10th Street
541-942-5213
Pastor: Kevin Miller
Bible Study: Saturday, 9:15 am
Worship Service: Saturday, 10:40
Mid-week Service: Wednesday, 1:00
Trinity Lutheran Church
6th & Quincy • 541-942-2373
Pastor: James L. Markus
Sunday School & Adult Education
9:15am
Sunday Worship 10:30 am
Comm. Kitchen Free Meal Tue & Thur
5:00pm TLC Groups
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United Methodist Church
334 Washington • 541-942-3033
Pastor:Lura Kidner-Miesen
Worship: 10:30am
Comm. Dinner (Adults $5,
Kids Free)
1st & 3rd Monday 5-6:00pm
umcgrove.org
When I graduated from col-
lege, I wanted a career in busi-
ness. I wanted to make lots of
money and drive a BMW. I got
a job selling and writing radio
advertising for a big radio sta-
tion in Portland. After eight
months of “dress for success”
and meetings with clients I be-
came discouraged. I realized
that even in my most successful
month of sales, all I was real-
ly doing was moving money
around. I wanted my time and
my life to be spent doing some-
thing that mattered more than
moving money. So, I went back
to college for another 18 months
and became certifi ed to be an el-
ementary teacher.
I have taught 1st, 2nd or 3rd
grade for 34 years, 32 of them
right here in Cottage Grove.
Sometimes I am tired or dis-
couraged. It is an overwhelming
job, because you want to help
every single child make lots of
progress. Classes can be huge
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and behaviors can be diffi cult.
Sometimes sadness from kid’s
lives make them uninterested in
learning. But every single day I
know my time was well spent
on the children and families of
our town. I am now teaching
the children of former students!
I have loved spending my days
with children. I will always be
glad I became a teacher.
Debbie Taie
Bohemia Elementary School
I became a teacher because the
most infl uential and supportive
people in my life were teachers,
either in a school or by nature.
When it came time to choose
what I wanted to pursue as a ca-
reer, I needed to know that my
life and my labors would help
other people and contribute to
the community I live in instead
of seeking to profi t. I wanted
a life focused on giving rather
than taking; in teaching, I have
that chance every day.
Daniel Henson
Kennedy High School
Language arts and
social studies instructor
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913 S. 6th Street • 541-942-5913
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Worship Service: 10:00am
Message: “WE BELIEVE IN
MIRACLES”
CRESWELL:
Creswell Presbyterian Church
75 S 4th S • 541-895-3419
Rev. Seth Wheeler
Adult Sunday School 9:15am
Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am
website www.creswellpres.org
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