Mount Moriah Cemetery: Deadwood's History on the Hillside

More Than Two Famous Graves

Mount Moriah Cemetery is often introduced as the burial place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.

Those graves deserve a visit.

But stopping there misses much of what makes the cemetery important.

The hillside above Deadwood became the community's principal cemetery after the earliest burial ground could no longer meet the town's needs.

Over time, Mount Moriah became a record of the people who built, worked in, governed, entertained, and died in one of the American West's best-known mining towns.

Wild Bill and Calamity Jane

Hickok's grave is one of Mount Moriah's central landmarks.

He was originally buried elsewhere in Deadwood following his murder in 1876. His remains were moved to Mount Moriah in 1879.

Calamity Jane died in 1903 and was buried beside him.

The neighboring graves helped strengthen the popular legend connecting the two, even though historical evidence for a romance between Hickok and Jane is weak.

Their graves are a good place to begin exploring Mount Moriah.

They should not be the place where the exploration ends.

A Cemetery That Reflects a Community

Walking farther through Mount Moriah reveals a much more complicated Deadwood.

The cemetery contains graves and sections associated with people from different economic, ethnic, and social backgrounds, including members of Deadwood's Chinese community.

Gold-rush towns were not populated only by gunfighters, gamblers, and famous lawmen.

Deadwood depended on miners, merchants, laborers, cooks, craftspeople, immigrants, families, business owners, and civic leaders.

A cemetery makes that reality visible in a way that a collection of famous names cannot.

The Climb to Seth Bullock

One of Mount Moriah's most rewarding walks leads uphill toward the grave of Seth Bullock.

His burial site is considerably higher on the hillside than the better-known Wild Bill and Calamity Jane graves.

The climb provides a better sense of Deadwood's unusual setting.

The town occupies a narrow Black Hills gulch surrounded by steep slopes.

Visiting with Respect

Mount Moriah is both a historic attraction and a place of burial.

Treating it as both improves the experience.

Give yourself enough time to walk slowly, read markers, and notice the names that are not famous.

For anyone interested in Deadwood history, Mount Moriah is much more than an optional side trip.

It is one of the places where the mythology of the Old West gives way to individual lives.