HAUNTS OF DEADWOOD!
In this special edition of the newsletter, we also wanted to include this article on some of the hauntings of Deadwood �?that legendary town of the Old West �?since this is the anniversary of the day that James “Wild Bill�?Hickok was shot in the back while playing cards in that rough frontier town. Hope you enjoy it!

 

Deadwood, in the Dakota Territory, was sometimes referred to as the "wildest gold town in the West". It came into existence thanks to the Black Hills gold rush of 1874 to 1876.

At that time, the Black Hills belonged to the American Indian tribes and trespassing and prospecting here was forbidden. However, men dubbed the "sooners" were the first to learn that gold could be found in the Hills. Scientific expeditions confirmed the presence of the precious metal and before long, packs of "sooners" were squatting illegally in the Hills area. The prospectors were forcibly removed by the authorities.

 

It wasn’t long though before the military was having a hard time keeping the prospectors out, so the U.S. Government embarked upon another round of land cession from the Native Americans. This was not done without an attempt to uphold treaty obligations though. However, postponing the settlement of the region became impossible because of the onslaught of prospectors who came flocking in. Eventually, the land was seized and the Indians were moved out once again.

 

The prospectors moved in and slowly the Dakota rush moved northward, finally hitting Deadwood Gulch. Tents and shacks began to sprout up in the area and were quickly serviced by saloons, suppliers, opportunists and "camp girls". Soon, Deadwood was born.

The rich takings of the gold fields brought all manner of people to the area, including those who came to take the wealth from the hands of those who worked for it. Those who offered services came first, but the gamblers, the thieves and the lawbreakers soon followed them. The wide-open atmosphere of the region helped spawn the tales of adventure and the legends that still circulate around this area today. These tales were born in the saloons, the gambling parlors and the bordellos of Deadwood. Such establishments were considered the most legitimate of the town’s early businesses.

 

Many of the men who came to Deadwood have since vanished from history but there was one man whose name has become permanently attached to the town. His name was Wild Bill Hickok and while he may have passed on many years ago... it is said that his spirit has never left!

 

James Butler Hickok was one of the rare breed of gunfighters who never asked for fame and notoriety. All he wanted was a good card game and a steady income. On a good day, he managed both but he also went on to become one of the greatest legends of the Old West... And some say a restless spirit who still roams the town where he met his end.

 

James Hickok was born on a farm in Illinois and was raised with a taste for danger, having been exposed to it throughout his life. His father, a long-time abolitionist, allowed the farm to be used as a station on the Underground Railroad. This meant a constant stream of escaped slaves from the South and a constant danger of being found out by the authorities.

 

During the Civil War, Hickok joined up with the Union forces and served under General John C. Fremont, a future explorer of the far western states. It was said that Hickok greatly impressed his friends and officers by showing a deadly speed and accuracy with a gun. At the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, he was said to have picked off 36 Confederate soldiers in a matter of minutes.

 

After the war was over, Hickok settled in Springfield, Missouri and during his time here, made history. On July 20, 1866, while playing cards, Hickok quarreled with a man named Dave Tutt over a poker game, or over a woman named Susannah Moore, depending on the version of the story told. During the altercation, Tutt took Hickok’s prized Waltham pocket watch and refused to give it back. The following day, Tutt strolled down the street, wearing the watch. He stood in the dusty road, about 75 feet away from where Hickok waited, leaning against a porch post.

 

"Don’t come any closer, Dave!" Hickok warned the other man. Tutt came no closer, but he did reach for his gun. He fired first but the shot never came close. It was said that Hickok’s hand moved so fast that it blurred. He cleared leather and fired one shot. The bullet entered Tutt’s chest and the man died instantly. He was dead before he hit the street.  The West had just seen the first recorded showdown.

 

The pistol remained in Hickok’s hand. He turned to where several of Tutt’s friends stood watching. "Aren’t you satisfied, gentlemen?" he reportedly questioned them. "Put up your shooting irons or there will be more dead men here." None of the others dared to face him.

 

Hickok reclaimed his pocket watch from the dead man’s coat and he surrendered himself to the local sheriff. He was cleared of all charges on August 5. In September of that same year, Hickok ran for marshal of Springfield but lost the election. On that same day, a writer for "Harper’s" magazine named Colonel George Ward Nichols arrived in town, looking for material for an article that he was writing about the West. He was introduced to Hickok and told the story of the gunfight. Nichols published the story, now very sensationalized, in February 1867. Later that year, a story called "Wild Bill the Indian Slayer" appeared and caught the attention of the public, whose thirst for Western adventure was beginning to grow. It wasn’t long before "Wild Bill Hickok" became a household name.

 

Unfortunately for Hickok though, fame didn’t put food on the table. He ran for the Ellsworth County Sheriff’s office in November but was defeated again. After that, he turned to scouting and worked briefly for Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. In early 1868, he joined William "Buffalo Bill" Cody to supervise prisoner relocation from Fort Hays to Topeka, Kansas. He put the military behind him in February 1869.

 

Hickok eventually became a lawman. He was elected sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas and on the day after the election, shot to death a man named Bill Mulvey. He was determined to let the lawless element of the region know that he meant business and a month later, he killed a desperado named Jack Strawhim in Drum’s Saloon. His tenure as sheriff ended in July 1870 though when he put down a disturbance of drunken soldiers, killing one and wounding another. General Sheridan was furious with the gunfighter and ordered Hickok arrested. By that time though, Hickok had already drifted out of town.

He ended up in Abilene, Kansas, following the card games and the rich pockets of the inebriated cowboys who ended up in town after months on the trail. Hickok found easy pickings for his card-playing skills. Abilene was a rough town at the time, so it’s no surprise that Mayor Joseph McCoy tapped Hickok to serve as the town’s sheriff. He was appointed with a salary of $150 a month, which supplemented his poker games. His first act as sheriff was to ban firearms within the city limits

.

On the night of October 5, 1871, a group of about 50 cowhands began raising hell in town. A stray dog nipped the ankle of a cowboy named Phil Coe and in his intoxicated state, he shot the dog dead. Hickok, gambling at the Alamo Hotel, heard the shot and came running. He demanded to know who had the gun within the limits of Abilene and he spotted Coe with a pistol in his hand. Hickok attempted to disarm him but a fight ensued. Hickok’s hat was shot from his head but Coe died with a fatal wound to the groin.

In the confusion, Hickok’s friend Mike Williams rushed to help. Hickok saw only a flash of movement and thought that he was being ambushed by one of the other cowhands. He spun and fired and shot Williams dead by mistake. Hickok was so distraught over the shooting that he got drunk and ran every cowboy out of Abilene, shooting up the town in the process.

 

At the next election, the citizens of Abilene decided that they were tired of both cattle drives and Wild Bill Hickok. They banned one and got rid of the other.

 

By 1872, Hickok was both famous and broke. He decided to try and cash in on his image and he launched a theater production in Niagara Falls, New York called "The Daring Buffalo Chase of the Plains". It boasted a number of western characters, Indians and even real buffalo... but no audience. The show soon closed and Hickok sold six of the buffalo to pay train fare home for the Indians who retired from show business.

The following year, Hickok joined up with Buffalo Bill Cody for a stage show called "Scouts of the Prairie". This endeavor proved to be much more successful and Hickok stayed with the show for seven months. Although steadily working, Hickok took to drinking and one night, shot out all of the stage lights in the theater. That night’s appearance was his last and Cody kicked him out of the show. As he packed up and left, Cody was heard to mutter, "I wish I had killed that son of a bitch when I had the chance years ago."

 

Although no one knew it, Hickok’s drinking was most likely a result of the fact that he was losing his vision to glaucoma. He was having a tougher time seeing and facing down the young toughs who decided to try their hand at beating Wild Bill Hickok to the draw. He drifted across the West, sometimes narrowly avoiding being killed, playing poker and losing just enough money to stay broke. In 1874, he was in Cheyenne, Wyoming when an old flame named Agnes Lake appeared on the scene. The two of them were married on March 5, 1876 but after a short honeymoon in Cincinnati, they parted ways. Hickok was off to hunt gold in the Dakota Territory and in April 1876, rode into Deadwood.

 

Legend had it that Hickok had a premonition of death as soon as he arrived at the rough and tumble mining camp. "Those fellows over across the creek have laid it out to kill me," he reportedly said. "And they’re going to do it or they ain’t. Anyway, I don’t stir out of here unless I’m carried out."

 

Early in the afternoon on August 1, Hickok sat down to a game of poker at Carl Mann’s No. 10 Saloon. He took his seat in the corner, with his back to the wall, just as he always did. At some point in the game, a saddle bum named Jack McCall got into the game. The stories vary as to what passed between McCall and Hickok. Some say the gunfighter cursed McCall when he fell short on settling up and others say that he embarrassed the cowboy by giving him breakfast money when he played his last bad poker hand.

 

Regardless, Hickok went about his business, oblivious to trouble, while McCall seethed and swore revenge.

The next day, Hickok returned to the saloon to find a game in progress between Carl Mann, Charles Rich and an ex-riverboat captain named William R. Massie. They invited Hickok to sit in and Wild Bill said that he would if Rich, who had the seat by the wall, would trade him places. Rich made a joke about it and Hickok sheepishly took a seat with his back to the door.

 

By late afternoon, Hickok was losing badly to Massie. Still, he held a promising hand... two black aces, two black eights and a jack of diamonds. There was a potential here, he knew, but was unaware that danger had entered the saloon behind him. Some time around 4:15, Jack McCall had slipped into the saloon. He inched his way along the bar until he was two or three feet behind Hickok. He  suddenly pulled his Colt from its holster and aimed it at Hickok’s back. "Damn you, take that!" he yelled and pulled the trigger.

 

The bullet slammed into the back of Wild Bill’s skull, exited just under his right cheekbone and struck Captain Massie’s forearm, just above his left wrist. (Massie never had this slug removed and carried it with him until his death in 1910. It is now buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis) Hickok died without knowing what had happened to him. He fell forward onto the table and his cards, known today as the "Dead Man’s Hand", slipped out of his fingers and fell to the floor.

 

McCall turned his pistol on the onlookers and dared them to come after him. He ran out of the rear door and cries of "Wild Bill is dead!" followed him out into the alley. Hickok’s friends found the man hiding in a butcher shop less than a half-hour later. A trial was organized by the following morning, only to adjourn in the afternoon for Hickok’s funeral. When the hearing when back into session, McCall claimed that Hickok had killed his brother in Hays City in 1869, but could offer no proof of this. Regardless, a jury found him not guilty, to the dismay of Hickok’s friends and the prosecutor, a lawyer named May.

 

McCall remained in Deadwood a free man, but he became nervous thanks to threats from Hickok’s friends and angry local residents. May claimed that the jury had been paid off in the trial and he harassed and followed McCall everywhere. He would not rest, he vowed, until justice had been done.

 

May tracked McCall to Laramie and had him arrested. He had found a loophole in the law that said that since Deadwood wasn’t supposed to exist because of the Indian treaties, no court decision made there was actually legal. A new trial was held in Yankton, Dakota Territory on December 4, 1876 and two days later McCall was convicted for Hickok’s murder. He was hanged on March 1, 1877.

 

Hickok was buried in Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery but the local legends say that he does not rest there. Many believe that because he died unaware of what was about to happen to him, his confused and angry spirit still walks in Deadwood.

It has even been suggested that Hickok knew that he might die soon and that if possible, he planned to return to this world. A short time before that fateful day in the No.10 Saloon, Hickok posted a letter to his wife, Agnes. In it he said "Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife--- Agnes---and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore."

 

Was he planning to stay behind? Who knows?

 

Whether he planned it or not, some say that he has remained here. In the years since 1876, a shadowy figure has frequently been reported inside of the old No. 10 Saloon, which remains a landmark in Deadwood. Others claim to have seen this figure in the doorway to the building, as if looking out and perhaps seeking someone. Is this the ghost of Wild Bill?

 

© Copyright 2004 by Troy Taylor. All Rights Reserved.