Calamity Jane

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Calamity Jane

Deadwood, South Dakota

Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok rode into the wild gold-mining town of Deadwood, S.D., in June 1876. Hickok's residence was of short duration as he was shot while playing poker on August 2. Jane left the town in the fall of 1877 and wandered mostly around the West until she returned to Deadwood a few years before her death in 1903. She is buried next to Hickok in Deadwood's Mt. Moriah Cemetery. The entire city of Deadwood is today a National Historic Landmark. In an effort to encourage tourism, gambling was legalized in 1989, a move that Wild Bill and Calamity would no doubt approve.