2024

MOUNT MORIAH CEMETERY

Cemetery to visit
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Located on a mountainous plateau overlooking the city center, the historic cemetery dating from the Victorian era is a popular attraction for visitors. Created in 1878, the cemetery first welcomed the graves of the newcomers from Deadwood: minors, prospectors, prostitutes, bandits… In the 1880 s, the city's Catholic cemetery was closed and merged with Mount Moriah's. Many dead have been transferred and other graves, already present, have been displaced. Also, it is not uncommon for employees to find human bones even today when they are forced to dig the ground. The cemetery is particularly famous for the graves of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane (who claimed that he was her husband and the father of his children) and the locally famous Potato Creek Johnny.

In summer, stop at the Visitor Center to get a plan and more information on the cemetery. The site is divided into 4 sections: the part dedicated to the Jewish community, the Potter's Field which brings together unknown people buried without a distinctive sign, a part dedicated to the many dead children of typhus, plague and cholera, and another to the workers deceased during a fire in a sawmill.

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 Deadwood