Watson Parker Ghost Town Notebooks

Known at the "Dean of Black Hills History", Watson Parker was a well-respected Historian and prolific writer on the History of the Black Hills. The son of Troy and Janet Parker, Watson was born in Evanston, IL June 15, 1924. The Parker family later moved to Hill City, SD where they ran the Palmer Gulch Lodge Resort and Dude Ranch from 1927-1962.

During World War II Parker served in Europe and the Philippines with the U.S. Army, 1248th Engineer Combat Battalion as Staff Sergeant in the Medical Detachment. After returning home, he pursued higher education, earning his A.B. in Liberal Arts from the University of Chicago 1948 and a B.S. from Cornell University in 1951. In 1950 he married Olga Glassman Parker. Together they had three children, James, David, and Rebecca. Watson and Olga returned to Hill City and managed the Palmer Gulch Lodge from 1950-1960.

Watson then attended the University of Oklahoma where he received a Masters and PhD Western American History and Plains Indian Cultural Anthropology. In 1965 Watson moved his family to Oshkosh, Wisconsin where he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh until his retirement in 1986. After retiring he and Olga returned to the Black Hills, splitting time between Palmer Gulch and Rapid City.

His first book, Gold in the Black Hills, was based on his dissertation published in 1966. His second book, written with his boyhood friend Hugh Lambert, was Black Hills Ghost Towns published in 1974. It has remained the authoritative work on that topic. Combined with his final book, Deadwood: The Golden Years, these three books are the cornerstone in any Black Hills scholars' and enthusiasts' library. In addition to these three titles, Watson wrote more than 40 articles on Black Hills and Western history and 40 scholarly book reviews. He had a gift for making scholarly topics accessible to all.

Watson was bestowed with many awards and honors. They include: the Dakota History Conference award for Distinguished Contribution to the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of South Dakota and the Northern Plains, 1986; the Rodman Paul award for Mining History, 1993; West River History Conference Herb Blakely Award, 2007; the Westerners' Living Legend Award, 2009; and in 2011 he was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

After a long battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis, Watson Parker passed away at home on January 9th, 2013. He will be long remembered for his vast knowledge of the Black Hills and as a man of strong opinions and dry wit.