Est. 1878 · Wild West History · National Register of Historic Places · Gold Rush Era · Frontier Law Enforcement
Mount Moriah Cemetery was established in 1878, the year after Wild Bill Hickok's murder made Deadwood infamous. The cemetery sits on a ridgeline above the gold-rush town, its sandstone markers visible from the gulch below.
James Butler Hickok — the frontier lawman and gambler known as Wild Bill — was shot in the back of the head at Saloon No. 10 on August 2, 1876, while holding what became known as the Dead Man's Hand: two black aces and two black eights. He was buried at Deadwood's Inyan Kara Cemetery, but in 1879 his remains were exhumed by friends and reinterred at Mount Moriah.
Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane, was buried beside Hickok in 1903 at her own request. Whether the two were romantically linked remains a point of historical debate, though her dying wish to be placed beside him became the defining statement of her public persona. Potato Creek Johnny, the prospector who discovered one of the largest gold nuggets found in the Black Hills, is also interred here, as is Seth Bullock — the first sheriff of Deadwood and a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt.
The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and continues to be maintained by the City of Deadwood. A Visitor Center opened to provide educational context for the more than 3,000 plots in the cemetery.
Sources
- https://www.cityofdeadwood.com/parksrec/page/mount-moriah-cemetery
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Moriah_Cemetery_(South_Dakota)
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/66242
- https://wereintherockies.com/mt-moriah-deadwood/
- https://goldcountrydeadwood.com/find-ghosts-of-deadwood-past-at-mount-moriah-cemetery/
- https://paranormalunknown.com/mount-moriah-cemetery-ghosts-and-legends/
ApparitionsShadow figuresPhantom voicesDisembodied laughter
The most commonly reported experience at Mount Moriah is a sensation of surveillance — visitors who are entirely alone in the cemetery describe the certainty that someone is watching them from behind the trees or around the next row of markers.
Multiple visitor accounts mention hearing voices near the graves of Hickok and Calamity Jane, including what some describe as the sound of children laughing. Given the cemetery's history of burying Deadwood's entire social fabric — from frontier luminaries to anonymous miners who died without family — the range of alleged presences is broad.
Shadow figures have been reported after dusk in the older sections of the cemetery, though the Mount Moriah grounds close at 8pm during the summer season and are not formally accessible for nighttime investigation. Some visitors claim to have photographed anomalous shapes near headstones during daytime hours.
The local lore does not attach specific identities to the reported phenomena, with one notable exception: a few accounts describe a male figure near Wild Bill's grave who disappears when approached. Whether this represents residual activity tied to Hickok's violent end or simply the power of imagination at a heavily storied site is not something the available accounts can resolve.
Notable Entities
Wild Bill HickokCalamity Jane
