Saloon No. 10: Following Wild Bill's Final Hand Through Deadwood

The Saloon Everyone Associates with Wild Bill

Few names in Deadwood tourism are as recognizable as Saloon No. 10.

Step inside the modern establishment and the Old West story is everywhere: Wild Bill Hickok, the Dead Man's Hand, frontier memorabilia, and an atmosphere deliberately connected with Deadwood's rough early years.

But travelers interested in history should know an important detail:

The present Saloon No. 10 is not the original building where Wild Bill Hickok was killed.

Understanding that distinction actually makes exploring Deadwood more interesting.

Nuttall & Mann's and the Killing of Wild Bill

On August 2, 1876, Hickok was playing poker at Nuttall & Mann's saloon when Jack McCall approached from behind and shot him.

The original establishment later became associated with the Saloon No. 10 name, but the early building did not survive Deadwood's destructive history of fires and rebuilding.

The historic location associated with Hickok's death is separately identified along Main Street.

Visit today's saloon for its interpretation and atmosphere, then find the historic location to understand where the actual event occurred.

The Dead Man's Hand

The cards traditionally associated with Hickok's final poker hand — pairs of aces and eights — became known as the Dead Man's Hand.

The phrase is now so closely tied to Deadwood that visitors encounter it throughout town.

Like many stories from the American frontier, later retellings helped transform details into legend.

A relatively brief event inside an 1876 mining-camp saloon became one of the most recognizable stories of the American West.

The Modern Saloon No. 10

Today's Saloon No. 10 represents another chapter in Deadwood history: the preservation and presentation of the town's Old West identity for later generations.

Deadwood has reinvented itself repeatedly.

Mining created the original boom. Commerce helped build a permanent town. Historic preservation and tourism later provided new reasons for visitors to walk the same narrow streets.

Walking the Story

A good way to experience this part of Deadwood is to treat Main Street as an open-air history route.

Visit the modern Saloon No. 10.

Find the historic location associated with Hickok's killing.

Explore the surrounding buildings and markers.

Then continue uphill to Mount Moriah Cemetery, where Hickok is buried.

Together, those locations tell three different stories:

1. The historical event.
2. The legend that grew around it.
3. The modern town that continues to interpret both.