Name: Save Our Tail: A Four-Day History Event Featuring Author Chris Enss and Filmmaker Justin Koehler
Start: 2026-05-20T16:00:00-06:00
End: 2026-05-23T17:00:00-06:00
Location: City of Deadwood, South Dakota

Save Our Tail: A Four-Day History Event Featuring Author Chris Enss and Filmmaker Justin Koehler

As part of Deadwood’s 150th Anniversary Celebration, award-winning author Chris Enss, who presents in full period costume, brings the stories of bold, unconventional women of the West to town for four days of presentations, performances, and book signings. May 20 features a special program for children and adults at the Deadwood Library at 4:00 p.m. highlighting trailblazing women physicians and teachers who defied expectations and shaped frontier communities. The program continues on May 21 with a special presentation at the Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center at 12:00 p.m. Enss will discuss her book The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn, an intimate look at the seven wives of U.S. Army officers killed at the battle. The presentation explores their shared grief, financial hardships, and the resilience that helped them rebuild their lives. Events continue May 22 when Enss appears in costume as Dora DuFran to commemorate the historic 1980 “Save Our Tail” parade, an impromptu procession that followed the closure of Deadwood’s brothels. The parade begins at 1:00 p.m. on Main Street. At 2:30 p.m., filmmaker Justin Koehler will screen his film Nita: Hotbed in Deadwood in the Eagle Bar beneath The Brothel Deadwood. A discussion with the filmmaker will follow. The series concludes May 23. Enss will host book signings from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Brothel Deadwood, featuring Wicked Women, An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos, and other titles. She will also present talks on Wicked Women and An Open Secret at 12:00, 2:00, and 4:00 p.m., and will deal Faro for book prizes throughout the afternoon. Brothel tours will be offered for $12 per person. Celebrate the fierce, complicated, and unforgettable women of the American West alongside one of its leading storytellers.