How Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok Ended Up Dead Together in Deadwood

Without a doubt, Deadwood South Dakota is one of the old west's most popular tourist destinations. In fact, the entire city of Deadwood is on the National Register of Historic Places. The city was much restored during the late 1980's and is now a top spot for vacationers who also enjoy Deadwood's plethora of gaming establishments. An interesting side note about Deadwood was that it was the first small community in the U.S.(outside of Nevada and Atlantic City) to seek gambling income as a way of maintaining local historic qualities. Much about the Deadwood of the late 1800's had to do with gambling. At the time of it's very founding it was also one of the few communities that actually began unlawfully. Not in the fact that there wasn't a lot of law and order at it's start, which was true, but the town literally sprang to life on land which by treaty in 1868 was considered owned, or at least signed over to, the Sioux Indians.

When George Armstrong Custer led his expedition in 1875 to ascertain whether there was gold in the Black Hills, everything permanently changed. Custer not only discovered that gold was indeed there but he also learned that it was there in quantity and easy to recover with placer mining. As many people know, Custer, who had nurtured relationships with the newspapers of the time, let it be known to all who could read. Even those who unable to read heard it from friends and acquaintances. This of course started a stampede to the area of the Black Hills not seen since the days of the California Gold Rush. It would be just the event to attract both Calamity Jane and Bill Hickok.

The U.S. government knowing full well that the treaty of 1868 gave the Sioux control of their sacred Black Hills, offered at least symbolic help in trying to keep the hoard of gold prospectors away. Whether their heart was in it or not has been debated ever since. The end result, of course, was that the government couldn't keep the masses away and there is no better example of this then the creation of Deadwood itself. Deadwood South Dakota was one of those examples where a mining camp turned into a populated town almost overnight. As we also know from history of mining towns, people of all vocations, not just mining, flocked there by the thousands. Gamblers, saloon keepers, outlaws, confidence men, cowboys, wealthy easterners, women bringing their charms to town and in some instances, not often mentioned in history texts, even honest hard working prospectors and merchants. The stagecoach lines jumped in and all of the above were able to get to the Black Hills even faster.

Another element to the old gold town mixing bowl after the Civil War was the coexistence of prospectors and others with still strong emotions from both sides of the North/South conflict. The earlier emigrants to Deadwood had been primarily from the north but soon after those from the old Confederacy made their way to the Black Hills. Nothing good could come, or did come, from mixing people with old Civil War loyalties coupled with whiskey and firearms.

So what's the story of how Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok both gravitated to Deadwood South Dakota and even odder yet, how did they end up being buried next to one another in Deadwood after their passing?

Calamity Jane and Hickok Find Themselves in Deadwood

As you may already know, Calamity Jane was not really a typical frontier woman of the era. Her biography prior to her arrival in Deadwood in 1876 included being an army scout, Indian fighter, hotel worker and by some accounts a lady of dubious morals. In any event, she settled in Deadwood at the time of the gold rush. You would have to assume that the lure of money being spent in this new 1800's mining gold town was enough reason. In Deadwood, Calamity Jane befriended and was ultimately employed by one Dora DuFran. Dora was probably one of Deadwood's leading employers at the time, operating a successful brothel. Historians contend that it was during this time that Calamity Jane became quite acquainted with another new settler to Deadwood, Wild Bill Hickok. James Butler Hickok and the new booming Deadwood were made for each other.

They say that Jane, born Martha Jane Cannary (her most accepted real name by historians) in 1852 Missouri, greatly admired Hickok and many say became infatuated with him. The story out there says that she apparently was attracted to his colorful past, and it was colorful. Hickok had been a scout, cowboy, town sheriff (in Abilene KS as one example) and had the opportunity to enjoy being involved in several gunfights, some a bit strange. I've read several times that Hickok's alleged credo was "Shoot first and ask questions later". Supposedly this belief worked pretty well for Wild Bill since he survived to make it to Deadwood. You could say that two characters such as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok might have been destined to befriend one another in 1876 Deadwood. If nothing else, they certainly would have known of each other.

In any event, the tale is that the two did become quite good friends and the story continued even after Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed by a man in a Deadwood saloon. Bill Hickok was not a miner in Deadwood. He did like to gamble however and apparently did it on a daily basis. The tale is that Hickok regularly sat at a table where he could keep an eye ion the door. Probably a wise idea in 1876 Deadwood. The story says that on one particular day Hickok was in a card game sitting, however, in another seat with his back to the door. This was probably not a good idea. It was at this very time that a man entered the "Number 10 Saloon" and shot Hickok in the back killing him on August 2, 1876. There are a few versions of why the shooting took place. A few of them are...the man alleged that Hickok had killed his brother... the man owed Hickok money he didn't want to repay...and the version that the assassin was a hired gun sent by one of Bill Hickok's enemies. Take your pick..

It seems that very shortly after Wild Bill Hickok's death, his alleged close friend, Calamity Jane, made the claim that she and Wild Bill were a bit more than close friends. She claimed that they were actually married and that she had a daughter. At this point it should be noted that Calamity Jane had a reputation of being one of the old west's best spinner of yarns. A teller of tall stories. Probably the best story teller in Deadwood at the time. In fact, the dime novelists and an extremely willing press would print her word as fact. On the constant lookout for sensational stories that would help sell newspapers, the embellished claims of Calamity Jane made front page news in many publications. The problem was that many of the claims were totally inaccurate. Calamity Jane, in one of her ghost written memoirs, even had the name of the saloon wrong where Hickok was killed, naming it as the Bella Union.

Hollywood of course has made money in pictures and television with the supposed Calamity Jane/ Wild Bill Hickok romance, but there has been no material, save for Calamity Jane ghost written memoirs, that I have come across that substantiates any of it. I suppose you could argue that a very close relationship could be a romance, which it might, but there still is nothing concrete to prove the fact and certainly nothing to prove a marriage. There has never been either a marriage license or a birth certificate produced. This doesn't mean Calamity Jane's assertions were proven false, just that there's some reason to believe they were. Another report makes the claim that at the time of the alleged birth of a daughter, Calamity Jane was away working for the army as a scout.

Like all stories from the old west, there are a few versions floating around about what Calamity Jane did after Hickok was shot. The most viable version I found was this. In 1881, Calamity Jane bought a ranch and moved to the area of Miles City Montana. She reportedly got married to a Texan and had a daughter. The daughter it is said ended up in foster care. The marriage to the Texan didn't last and Calamity Jane worked for a short time in the early 1890's as a "storyteller" with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West. This demonstrates that if you are highly proficient in telling "tall stories" it can lead to gainful employment. The Calamity Jane story goes on to say that she returned to Deadwood essentially broke and took a job in the kitchen of Dora DeFran's still operating brothel cooking meals for the employees. Calamity Jane is thought to have died in 1903 at age 51 after traveling to nearby Terry South Dakota. Her remains were brought back to Deadwood.

In Deadwood for Eternity

Calamity Jane was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood right next to Wild Bill. There is a lot of controversy as to why this occurred. There is a story that it was done as a sort of joke by people (the ones who brought Jane back from the town of Terry) who believed that in life Hickok had no use for Calamity Jane. Another equally selfish version contends that it was done for publicity reasons. Having two big old west legends buried side by side in the Deadwood cemetery couldn't hurt tourism. The Mount Moriah Cemetery was eventually moved due to urban expansion and all of the graves were relocated to the new cemetery. Both Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are interred in the newer cemetery, however not side by side. There is absolutely nothing out there that points to the fact that the two were originally buried side by side due to "marriage". I believe what is absolutely true is that the colorful and bigger than life characters of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok are an interesting part of the history of the old west.

(Photos are in public domain)