{"id":402,"slug":"wild-bill-bar-deadwood-south-dakota","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Wild Bill Bar is the marked — the 'site true' that's the spot kept, the 'building wrong' that's the bar's truth. The 'dead man's hand' is the coined — the 'aces eights' that's the cards' fame, the '1926 said' that's the story's late birth. The 'McCall lied' is the fled — the 'brother claimed' that's the excuse gave, the 'Yankton hanged' that's the law's catch.","The 'back of head' is the shot — the 'poker played' that's the seat's pick, the 'no face' that's the duel's break. The 'recreated' is the sold — the 'Kellogg's idea' that's the '30s pitch, the 'million bucks' that's the legend's worth. Wild Bill Bar is the split — the 'real spot' that's the ground's truth, the 'fake room' that's the story's stage.","The file keeps the Wild Bill Bar: the true spot, the late hand, the fled liar, and the sold legend.","Wild Bill Bar is the archive's South Dakota file — where the site is real and the room is not."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Wild Bill Bar is the archive's South Dakota file — the honest marker on a recreated legend.","A bar keeps its spot — the file's suggestion being that Wild Bill's hold is the split: the 'site true' that's the ground's mark, the 'hand late' that's the story's birth, and the 'recreated' that's the legend's sell."]}],"name":"Wild Bill Bar","aliases":["Original Saloon No. 10 site"],"type":"BAR","type_label":"Bar","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","lodging"],"desc":"The original saloon where Hickok died in 1876 burned in 1879; the bar interprets its approximate site.","full_desc":"Wild Bill Bar is a bar in Deadwood, South Dakota. The original saloon where Hickok died in 1876 burned in 1879; the bar interprets its approximate site. Its signature presence is Wild Bill Hickok — the figure the file’s accounts keep returning to. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. It still pours.","address":"624 Main Street","city":"Deadwood","county":"Lawrence","state":"South Dakota","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":44.387048,"lon":-103.720742,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Tourism-supported identity and attributed claims; operator access details require enrichment. Current business and historical footprint must not be conflated.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":61.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":303,"type":"HAUNTING","description":"Tourism reports Ghost Lab investigators claimed contact with Wild Bill Hickok. The bar's reports are the kind old establishments accumulate — footsteps after close, presences in empty rooms. Investigators logged it; whether instruments or interpretation produced it is the open question. The reports keep the place on every haunted list it qualifies for.","evidence":"PARANORMAL_INVESTIGATION_CLAIM","evidence_label":"Investigation claim","entity":"Wild Bill Hickok","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.7,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Haunted Deadwood: A Wilder West Experience","url":"https://www.travelsouthdakota.com/trip-ideas/haunted-deadwood-wilder-west-experience","publisher":"Travel South Dakota / Austin Kaus","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The original saloon where Hickok died in 1876 burned in 1879; the bar interprets its approximate site. An old bar with its history on record gives the dossier a verified foundation. Media accounts document it — reported history rather than legend. Sources including 'Haunted Deadwood: A Wilder West Experience' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Haunted Deadwood: A Wilder West Experience","url":"https://www.travelsouthdakota.com/trip-ideas/haunted-deadwood-wilder-west-experience","publisher":"Travel South Dakota / Austin Kaus","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"legends":[],"entities":[{"name":"Wild Bill Hickok","claimed_identity":"Wild Bill Hickok","verified":null,"summary":"Tourism reports Ghost Lab investigators claimed contact with Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill Bar's file is the sort restaurants and bars collect over decades — staff sightings, closing-time sounds, the building after hours. The account appears in 'Haunted Deadwood: A Wilder West Experience'. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is Wild Bill Hickok.","behavior":"Tourism reports Ghost Lab investigators claimed contact with Wild Bill Hickok.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Haunted Deadwood: A Wilder West Experience","url":"https://www.travelsouthdakota.com/trip-ideas/haunted-deadwood-wilder-west-experience","publisher":"Travel South Dakota / Austin Kaus","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Haunted Deadwood: A Wilder West Experience","url":"https://www.travelsouthdakota.com/trip-ideas/haunted-deadwood-wilder-west-experience","publisher":"Travel South Dakota / Austin Kaus","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":0,"entities":1,"sources":1}}