The story
The Historic Bullock Hotel commands the corner of Main and Wall Streets in Deadwood, South Dakota — built 1894-96 by Seth Bullock, the frontier titan who arrived in the gold camp the day before Wild Bill Hickok was shot, became Deadwood's first sheriff, tamed the town, ranched with and was honoured by his friend Theodore Roosevelt, and raised this sixty-room hotel above his burned hardware store as the Black Hills' finest; restored in the 1990s after decades of other uses, it operates with rooms, casino and Seth's Cellar beneath. Its haunting is the hotel's proudest amenity: staff and guests describe Bullock's tall presence on the second and third floors — activity increasing, the house telling insists, when staff stand idle, as if the sheriff still supervises — with items moved, showers starting alone, whistled tunes answered, a girl in period dress of guest accounts, and the cellar's heavier atmosphere; Unsolved Mysteries brought it national fame in 1992 and ghost tours run regularly. Present the Bullock as Deadwood history first — its builder's biography needs no ghost — with Seth's supervision the West's best-managed haunting. Details from the hotel's pages.