Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1876–now
Deadwood, South Dakota, rose on the gold-rush frontier and buried much of its early story on the mountainside above it. Mount Moriah Cemetery, opened in 1878 after the flooded Ingleside burial ground was abandoned, gathered gunfighters, miners, madams and marshals into just under five acres of ground, now holding close to 3,400 burials.
The short answer
Mount Moriah Cemetery, on the mountainside above Deadwood, South Dakota, opened in 1878 when Lawrence County bought just under five acres to replace the flooded Ingleside Cemetery. It now holds close to 3,400 burials, including Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and the town's first sheriff, Seth Bullock.
Wild Bill Hickok's grave overlooking Mount Moriah Cemetery — 1978 · Larry Koester · CC BY 2.0
1878
A mountainside burial ground replaces a flooded cemetery
Mount Moriah Cemetery is a working graveyard on a steep mountainside above Deadwood, still owned by the city and still open from dawn to dusk. Close to 3,400 people lie here, on terraces cut into the slope, with the Stars and Stripes flying over the grounds around the clock, lit at night by tradition rather than any rule.
The ground opened in 1878, when Lawrence County, South Dakota bought just under five acres on the mountain to replace Deadwood's first burial ground, Ingleside, down in the gulch. Ingleside flooded and the town wanted its land back for houses. The first person buried at Mount Moriah was James DeLong, miner killed in mine collapse, a miner crushed by a rockfall in the Pecacho Mine that year. A man named Yung Set, the first Chinese resident given a public burial in Deadwood, was laid in the same new ground alongside him.
Through the 1880s, workers dug up most of Ingleside's dead and carried them up the mountain for reburial here. People in Deadwood still find bones in their gardens and basements from those abandoned plots.
Wild Bill Hickok was one of the ones moved. He had been shot in the back of the head while playing poker at Nuttall & Mann's Saloon No. 10 in 1876, killed by Jack McCall. Buried first at Ingleside, his body came up to Mount Moriah in 1879, carried by drinking friends late one night at Calamity Jane's urging. In 1891, a sculptor named J.H. Riordan put a red sandstone bust of Hickok on the grave. Souvenir hunters chipped at it for years until by 1903 the head was gone entirely.
1878 to 1928
Chinese and Jewish sections record Deadwood's gold rush migrants
Deadwood's gold rush had drawn hundreds of Chinese immigrants, maybe 400 at the town's peak. The first recorded Chinese burial at Mount Moriah came on September 1, 1878. Over the next fifty years, around 33 more were laid in a section of the cemetery set aside for them. Most families later asked that the bodies be sent home to China, following tradition, and the graves were dug up and shipped back. Only three Chinese headstones remain today, though cemetery signage still lists two. In 1908, the Chinese community won permission to build a burner and altar in the same section, for burning offerings to the departed. The Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission rebuilt it in 2013.
Close by, a Jewish section holds about 33 graves, many with headstones carved in Hebrew. An estimated 400 Jewish residents lived in early Deadwood, mostly merchants and tradesmen who came for the same gold rush, and most left again once the mining boom ended.
The mountain holds other sections too.
1903
Calamity Jane is buried beside Hickok against his wishes
Calamity Jane died that year in the mining camp of Terry, just outside Deadwood. Deadwood businessmen, trading on her fame, buried her next to Hickok at Mount Moriah. Local legend says it was her own dying wish, out of love for him. Other accounts call that affection one-sided, since Hickok himself had reportedly asked that she be buried nowhere near him. His friends either forgot that wish or chose to ignore it, and she had outlived him by 27 years.
1919
Seth Bullock is buried at the cemetery's highest point
Seth Bullock, Deadwood's first sheriff and a U. S. Marshal, was buried at the cemetery's highest point, 750 feet above the main grounds. Local tradition holds that he chose the spot himself, so he could keep watch over the town even after death. Martha Bullock, his wife, was buried beside him two decades later, in 1939.
1943
Potato Creek Johnny is buried next to Wild Bill Hickok
Potato Creek Johnny, a prospector famous for finding one of the Black Hills' largest gold nuggets, was buried next to Hickok that year, joining the two names tourists come to see most.
2025 to now
Renovation and a nearby fire touch the old grounds
Renovation crews worked on the grounds through 2025, hired by the city, and Deadwood's parks department has more repair work planned for 2026. A visitor center on site opens from May through September with self-guided maps, and the cemetery itself stays open year-round, dawn to dusk.
In August 2026, a patio fire broke out nearby on Lincoln Avenue, and the cemetery was briefly evacuated as firefighters from Deadwood and Lead worked to contain it. No graves were damaged.
Deadwood's own worst days came earlier, when Henry Weston Smith, the Black Hills' first Christian minister, was murdered on the road to Crook City in 1876 while riding out to preach. Smith's grave at Mount Moriah is marked by a life-sized statue.
The flag still flies over the graves around the clock, and visitors still walk up to stand between Wild Bill and Calamity Jane.
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Modern
Mount Moriah Cemetery
One section of the cemetery holds a mass grave for eleven men killed when a lumber mill burned down, and another holds children lost to typhus, cholera and smallpox outbreaks.
About 400 Jewish people lived in early Deadwood and 33 of them are buried here in a section with Hebrew inscriptions, most of the community having left when the mining boom faded.
Henry Weston Smith, the first Christian minister in the Black Hills, was murdered on August 20, 1876 while walking to preach in Crook City, and his grave now stands at Mount Moriah.
Lawrence County purchased 4.6 acres on the mountainside in 1877-78 to establish Mount Moriah, replacing Ingleside Cemetery, which flooded and was wanted for housing.
Miner James DeLong was killed when rock collapsed on him in the Pecacho Mine, and became the first person buried in Mount Moriah when it opened in 1878.
Roughly 33 Chinese migrants were buried here between 1878 and 1928, but most families had the bodies disinterred and shipped back to China, leaving only three Chinese graves today.
Ingleside Cemetery site; reinterred at Mount Moriah
In the 1880s most bodies from Deadwood's first cemetery, Ingleside, including Hickok and Smith, were exhumed and reburied here because the old ground was wanted for housing.
A red sandstone bust of Wild Bill, carved by J.H. Riordan in 1891, was slowly stripped of its nose and hair by souvenir hunters until by 1903 the head was gone entirely.
Martha 'Calamity Jane' Canary died in 1903 and Deadwood businessmen, cashing in on her fame, buried her beside Hickok despite his reported deathbed wish that she never be placed near him.
Seth Bullock, lawman and businessman, died in 1919 and was buried at the highest point of the cemetery, where he is said to have wanted to keep watch over the town.
A patio, trees and tall grass caught fire on Lincoln Avenue near Mount Moriah Cemetery on August 28, 2026, fully engulfing a covered patio before crews arrived.
Deadwood's dead were first buried at Ingleside Cemetery down in the gulch, but it flooded and the town wanted the land back for housing, so Lawrence County bought ground on the mountainside in 1877-78 and most of Ingleside's bodies, including Wild Bill Hickok and Preacher Smith, were exhumed and carried up to Mount Moriah.
Who is buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery?
Close to 3,400 people lie there, including Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, lawman Seth Bullock and his wife Martha, prospector Potato Creek Johnny, murdered minister Henry Weston Smith, and brothel madam Dora DuFran, buried with her pet parrot.
Why is Calamity Jane buried next to Wild Bill Hickok?
Deadwood businessmen, trading on her fame, buried her beside Hickok when she died in 1903, even though he had reportedly asked on his deathbed that she never be placed near him.
What happened to Wild Bill Hickok's grave marker?
A red sandstone bust carved by J. H. Riordan was placed on the grave in 1891, but souvenir hunters chipped away its nose and hair over the years until the head was entirely gone by 1903.
What happened to the Chinese burials at Mount Moriah?
Around 33 Chinese migrants were buried in a dedicated section between 1878 and 1928, but most families later had the bodies disinterred and shipped back to China, leaving only three Chinese headstones at the cemetery today.
Who was the first person buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery?
James DeLong, a miner crushed by a rockfall in the Pecacho Mine, was the first burial in 1878, alongside Yung Set, the first Chinese resident given a public burial in Deadwood.
