Famous Figures
The people behind the legends, with what the record actually shows.
All figures
Alice "Poker Alice" Ivers Tubbs
1851 (or 1853)-1930. Gambler and brothel owner
A professional card dealer whose life is known mostly through her own stories and whose final years were spent as a living relic of the old days.
Charles H. "Colorado Charlie" Utter
1838-1915. Freighter and friend of Hickok
The friend who led the wagon train, buried Wild Bill twice, and then disappeared into a long second life far from Deadwood.
Crazy Horse
c. 1840-1877. Oglala Lakota war leader
AI-generated illustration
A Lakota war leader born in or near the Black Hills country, who refused the 1868 treaty and fought the campaign that followed the gold rush.
Dora DuFran
1868-1934. Brothel owner and Calamity Jane's biographer
A Liverpool-born madam who ran houses across the Black Hills, employed Calamity Jane, and wrote about her afterward.
Ellis Albert "Al" Swearengen
1845-1904. Owner of the Gem Theater
AI-generated illustration
The real owner of the Gem was a violent operator whose business exploited women, and his crimes need no embellishing from television.
Ethan Bennett "E.B." Farnum
1826-after 1900. Merchant and Deadwood's first mayor
AI-generated illustration
The real first mayor of Deadwood was a merchant and judge with a busy civic record, not the toadying hotel keeper of the television series.
Henry Weston "Preacher" Smith
1827-1876. Methodist preacher
AI-generated illustration
The first preacher in the Black Hills camps, killed on the road to Crook City less than three weeks after Hickok died.
James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok
1837-1876. Scout, lawman and gambler; killed in Deadwood
A nationally famous gunfighter who lived in Deadwood for about a month, and whose murder gave the town its most lasting story.
John "Jack" McCall
c. 1852-1877. Killer of Wild Bill Hickok
AI-generated illustration
A drifter with several names who shot Hickok from behind, walked free from a miners' court, and was then tried again and hanged.
John "Potato Creek Johnny" Perrett
1866 (or 1868)-1943. Prospector and local celebrity
AI-generated illustration
A very small Welsh-born prospector whose gold nugget and tall stories made him one of Deadwood's favorite characters.
Martha "Calamity Jane" Canary
c. 1856-1903. Frontier personality and self-mythologizer
A poor orphan turned frontier celebrity, whose real hardships have been buried under dime novels and her own tall tales.
Seth Bullock
1849 (or 1847)-1919. Merchant, first sheriff of Lawrence County, U.S. marshal
A hardware merchant who became Lawrence County's first sheriff, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and one of the Black Hills' most durable public men.
Sitting Bull
c. 1831-1890. Hunkpapa Lakota leader
A non-treaty Lakota leader who rejected the 1868 treaty and resisted the campaign that followed the taking of the Black Hills.
Sol Star
1840-1917. Merchant, postmaster, longtime mayor of Deadwood
Seth Bullock's business partner, a Bavarian-born merchant who held Deadwood public office for four decades.
William Emery "W.E." Adams
1854-1934. Merchant, six-term mayor, museum founder
AI-generated illustration
A grocer who arrived in 1877, built a wholesale business, and gave Deadwood the oldest museum in the Black Hills after losing his family.