Wild Bill Hickok Grave

the grave site of wild west legend wild bill hickok

James Butler Hickok, more famously known as Will Bill Hickok, was shot in the back on August 2, 1876, by Jack McCall while playing poker at Saloon #10 in Deadwood, then part of the Dakota Territory and now South Dakota.

He was holding a pair of aces and eights, a hand known today as the “Dead Man’s Hand.”

He had only been staying in town for a few weeks before he was murdered. His death chair is still on display at Saloon #10 in Deadwood, along with thousands of other artifacts and antiques, which is well worth a visit.

The legend of Wild Bill is alive and well all over Deadwood. Likenesses of him are literally everywhere, on signage, in the casinos, restaurants, and hotels… carved into standing logs (like huge replica wood busts of Hickok - truly weird). There’s even a shootout reenactment of the capture of Bill’s murderer, Jack McCall, in the evenings from mid-May to mid-September.

But one place Wild Bill is definitely dead (and you can go visit him) is Mt Moriah Cemetery just a short 5-minute drive from Deadwood’s main historic district.

Open year-round from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a mere $2 entrance fee, visitors can climb the rolling hills of this spooky treed graveyard overlooking historic Deadwood below. Go early in the spring and if you’re lucky, your walk with be graced by fog hovering above the ground.

Established in 1878, Mount Moriah is the final resting place for Deadwood’s most important early figures and legends.

Like many celebrity graves all across the world, Wild Bill Hickok’s grave is surrounded by barriers to protect the actual plot from vandalism and damage.

Famously buried right beside Hickok is Martha Jane Canary, aka Calamity Jane. Known for being brash and unfeminine, Jane was rumored to be in love with Wild Bill, even though he was married and didn’t love her back.

After she died many years later, the legend goes that the town buried her next to Hickok as some sort of weird joke that he would spend eternity next to someone he didn’t like.