Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in Deadwood, SD

The history

Deadwood's haunted map starts with gold, and its own history organisation says so plainly. Deadwood History, Inc. — the nonprofit that runs the town's Adams Museum, the Historic Adams House, the Days of '76 Museum and The Brothel Deadwood — describes the Days of '76 celebration as beginning in 1924 "as a way to honor Deadwood's first pioneers – the prospectors, miners, muleskinners, and madams who poured into the Black Hills in 1876 to settle the gold-filled gulches of Dakota Territory." Its Adams Museum page adds the town's defining disaster: "Deadwood's massive 1879 fire destroyed over 300 structures and businesses," after which "the city rebuilt over the next 50 years."

Two Main Street–area buildings carry that rebuilding on their own pages. The Historic Bullock Hotel, at 633 Main Street, calls itself "Deadwood's First and Finest Hotel" and "the Jewel of Downtown Deadwood," within walking distance of Saloon #10, the Adams Museum and the Days of '76 Rodeo Arena. Smithsonian Magazine's account of the real Deadwood fills in the frame the hotel's own short homepage leaves out: Seth Bullock arrived in 1876, ran a hardware store with his partner Sol Star on the site, lost it to fire twice, and then built a grand hotel there instead — "The Bullock Hotel opened in 1895 with three floors (each with a bathroom), 65 rooms and steam heat," and "is still open today, now with 28 rooms and a 24-hour casino on the premises."

The other anchor is a house, not a hotel. The Historic Adams House at 22 Van Buren Street was "built in 1892," per Deadwood History, a Queen Anne-style home "well-known for its oak interiors, hand-painted canvas wall coverings, stained-glass windows, thoroughly modern 19th century plumbing, electricity, telephone service, and original furnishings." The Adams Museum & House record adds the ownership line: the house was built by Deadwood pioneers Harris and Anna Franklin, and in 1920 W. E. Adams — the businessman who founded the Adams Museum in 1930 and gave it to the city — bought it.

The legend

This section is folklore — reported by the sources cited, and never asserted as fact here.

The Bullock Hotel makes its claim on its own homepage, in quotation marks: visitors are invited to "walk through the very same rooms and hallways that Deadwood's first Sheriff, Seth Bullock, still proudly 'haunts'." The fuller legend is recorded in the hotel's Wikipedia entry, which is careful about its own correction: "Contrary to popular belief, Seth Bullock did not die at the hotel in room 211, but at his home at 28 Van Buren Street. It is possible that incorrect reports of his demise at the hotel propagated reports of his ghost being sighted at the hotel, which continue to this day by guests, workers, and tourists." Guests and employees quoted there say Bullock's ghost "merely continues to 'play host'," that apparitions and orbs are reported, and that the hotel was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in 1992 and on a 2015 Halloween episode of Ghost Adventures. Smithsonian tells the same legend at the same strength: "According to legend, the ghost of Seth Bullock himself still roams the halls. Guests claim to have watched him walk through the halls and the cellar, smelled his cigar smoke, and even seen his reflection in mirrors."

The walking operator, Deadwood Ghosts (US Ghost Adventures), publishes the town's wider cast as its route, and its claims are carried here as the operator's stories. At the Adams House, it says, "observers routinely note the scent of cigar smoke and a rocking chair moving alone," in a house whose "sorrowful past" it ties to sudden deaths in the Adams family. At the Fairmont Hotel — "once a notorious brothel and saloon" — guests "frequently hear phantom footsteps and disembodied whispers," per the operator. At Wild Bill Bar, which the operator identifies as the spot where Wild Bill Hickok was killed by Jack McCall, visitors "report sudden cold spots and mysterious shadows." And at Mount Moriah Cemetery, the operator says, "the spirits of outlaws and pioneers are still seen wandering the grounds." The operator's own framing of why the town is haunted — Gold Rush gunfights, fires and harsh winters leaving "an incredibly grim landscape" — is its storytelling premise, recorded as such, not as a finding.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 3 places in Deadwood, SD. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Bullock Hotel — haunted house, 633 Main St, Deadwood, SD 57732
• Deadwood Ghost Tours — ghost tour, 501 Main St, Deadwood, SD 57732
• Historic Adams House — haunted house, 22 Van Buren St, Deadwood, SD 57732

Attraction stories

Bullock Hotel

The Bullock Hotel's own homepage, collected, is short — 1,157 characters of usable text — and its haunting claim fits in one quoted word. The hotel is "the Jewel of Downtown Deadwood," it says, and visitors can "step back in time and walk through the very same rooms and hallways that Deadwood's first Sheriff, Seth Bullock, still proudly 'haunts'." It promises "19th Century history and elegance combined with 21st Century amenities," gives its address as 633 Main Street, Deadwood, SD and its phone as 1-800-336-1876, and notes it stands within walking distance of Saloon #10, the Adams Museum and the Days of '76 Rodeo Arena. The collector found no separate history or lore page at the usual paths on the hotel's site — a gap recorded plainly here: everything beyond that homepage claim in this story comes from the corroborating sources below, not from the hotel itself.

Those sources agree on the building's frame. Smithsonian records that Bullock and Sol Star's hardware store burned twice on the site before Bullock built the hotel, which opened in 1895 with 65 rooms and steam heat and operates today with 28 rooms and a 24-hour casino. The hotel's Wikipedia entry records the same arc — built between 1894 and 1896 with 60 luxury rooms in its telling, converted to a hardware store by a later owner in 1976, then bought back and restored as a hotel fifteen years later — and the two room counts (60 in one telling, 65 in the other) are recorded here unreconciled, as the sources give them.

The legend, at the strength those sources give it, is of a proprietor who never left. Wikipedia's haunting-folklore section corrects the common version — Bullock died at his home at 28 Van Buren Street in 1919, not in the hotel's Room 211 — and then records that sightings of his ghost "continue to this day by guests, workers, and tourists," that employees say he "makes sure 'his' employees are working hard," that ghost tours of the hotel are held regularly, and that the hotel was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in 1992 and on Ghost Adventures in 2015. Smithsonian adds the guest-reported details: Bullock seen walking the halls and cellar, cigar smoke smelled, a reflection glimpsed in mirrors. All of it is presented here as those sources present it — as legend attached to a real, operating hotel. Confirm current room rates, casino hours and any in-house ghost tour schedule on the hotel's site or at 1-800-336-1876 before going.

*Website: http://www.historicbullock.com/*

Historic Adams House

The Historic Adams House is the rare haunted attraction whose haunting is programmed by a history museum. Deadwood History, Inc., which operates the house, lists "Paranormal Investigations of the Adams House" on its own homepage among its upcoming events — the sitting collected ran on the evening of October 23 — and a local Black Hills events listing gives the format: Deadwood History and Black Hills Paranormal Investigations (BHPI) offer "exclusive access to one of Deadwood's most haunted sites" (the listing's billing), with participants searching the house alongside the BHPI team using, among other equipment, parascopes, para-lanterns, Rem-Pods, ghost boxes, laser grids, divining rods and EMF meters. That listing gives investigations at 6:00, 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 p.m., tickets at $35, groups limited to 22, a minimum age of 12, and reservations required.

The documented house underneath the investigation is unusually intact. Per Deadwood History, it was built in 1892 in the Queen Anne style, with oak interiors, hand-painted canvas wall coverings, stained-glass windows, modern-for-1892 plumbing, electricity and telephone service, and original furnishings; its Adams House page adds a 45-minute guided tour running "back in time from 1892–1934," an 1895 fire in the turret that nearly destroyed the house, and cookies still in the kitchen cookie jar from 1936 — the year, per the same page, that Mary Adams locked the house up, after which it sat empty for 51 years before a $1.5 million, two-year restoration from 1998 to 2000 reopened it as a museum. The ownership line — Harris and Anna Franklin, 1892–1905; Nathan and Ada Franklin, 1905–1920; W. E. Adams, 1920–1934 — is given on that same page.

What the house's own operator does not publish, in the material collected here, is a ghost story of its own: Deadwood History's pages present the investigations as events, without narrating who is said to haunt the house. The haunting narrative comes from the walking operator down the street, which tells its guests the house hides "a remarkably sorrowful past marked by the sudden deaths of the Adams family," that their grief "seemingly trapped them here," and that observers note cigar smoke and a self-moving rocking chair. That is the tour operator's telling, attributed to it — the museum itself, in the pages collected, sells the investigation and lets visitors draw their own conclusions. The house's regular hours, per Deadwood History, run daily May through September and Tuesday–Saturday in April and October, closed November–March; the paranormal investigations are separate ticketed events. Confirm dates and book on Deadwood History's site before going; the house is at 22 Van Buren Street, phone 605-578-3724.

*Website: https://www.deadwoodhistory.com*

Sources

• Bullock Hotel — official website, homepage as collected ("Deadwood's First and Finest Hotel"; "the Jewel of Downtown Deadwood"; rooms and hallways that Seth Bullock still proudly "haunts" — the hotel's own quoted claim; 633 Main Street, Deadwood, SD; 1-800-336-1876; within walking distance of Saloon #10, Adam's Museum and the Days of '76 Rodeo Arena): http://www.historicbullock.com/
• Bullock Hotel — Wikipedia entry, haunting folklore section (Bullock did not die in Room 211 but at his home at 28 Van Buren Street; ghost sightings reported by guests, workers and tourists to this day; ghost "continues to 'play host'"; ghost tours held regularly; featured on Unsolved Mysteries in 1992 and a 2015 Halloween episode of Ghost Adventures; built 1894–1896 with 60 luxury rooms in this telling; converted to a hardware store in 1976 and restored as a hotel fifteen years later — Wikipedia is a lead, corroborated above against Smithsonian where the two overlap): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullock_Hotel
• Smithsonian Magazine — "See the Real Deadwood" (Bullock and Sol Star's hardware store burned twice on the site; the Bullock Hotel opened in 1895 with three floors, 65 rooms and steam heat; still open today with 28 rooms and a 24-hour casino; "according to legend, the ghost of Seth Bullock himself still roams the halls" — guests claim to have seen him in the halls and cellar, smelled his cigar smoke and seen his reflection in mirrors; Bullock's grave in Mount Moriah Cemetery): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/see-real-deadwood-180972287/
• Deadwood History, Inc. — official website, homepage as collected (Adams Museum founded 1930 by W. E. Adams and donated to the City of Deadwood; Days of '76 celebration began in 1924 to honour the pioneers who poured into the Black Hills in 1876; Historic Adams House built 1892, Queen Anne style, oak interiors, hand-painted canvas wall coverings, stained-glass windows, original furnishings, 22 Van Buren St, 605-578-3724; "Paranormal Investigations of the Adams House" listed among upcoming events, October 23): https://www.deadwoodhistory.com
• Deadwood History, Inc. — Historic Adams House page, via this batch's seed research (45-minute guided tour, 1892–1934; 1895 turret fire; Harris and Anna Franklin owned 1892–1905, Nathan and Ada Franklin 1905–1920, W. E. Adams 1920–1934; Mary Adams locked the house in 1936 and it sat empty 51 years, cookies still in the cookie jar from 1936; $1.5 million restoration 1998–2000; hours May–September daily, April and October Tuesday–Saturday, closed November–March): https://www.deadwoodhistory.com/landing/adams-house.php?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21496708774&gbraid=0AAAAAC3efUrJNBODAqFrxbW8MNUJ819d_
• Deadwood History, Inc. — Adams Museum page, via this batch's seed research (Deadwood's massive 1879 fire destroyed over 300 structures and businesses; Potato Creek Johnny's gold nugget, the City of Deadwood's Wild Bill Hickok Collection and the Thoen Stone among the exhibits): https://www.deadwoodhistory.com/landing/adams-museum.php
• Adams Museum & House — Wikipedia entry (Adams Museum founded 1930 by W. E. Adams, the Black Hills' oldest history museum; Historic Adams House at 22 Van Buren built in 1892 by Harris and Anna Franklin; W. E. Adams bought the house in 1920; completely furnished with original Adams family furniture — Wikipedia lead, corroborated against Deadwood History's own pages above): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams_Museum_%26_House
• Local Black Hills — Paranormal Investigations of the Adams House event listing (Deadwood History, Inc. and Black Hills Paranormal Investigations; "one of Deadwood's most haunted sites" — the listing's billing; equipment incl. parascopes, para-lanterns, Rem-Pod, ghost box, laser grids, divining rods and EMF meters; investigations at 6:00, 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 p.m. on October 23, 2026; tickets $35, limited to 22 per investigation, ages 12+, reservations required): https://localblackhills.com/events/paranormal-investigations-of-the-adams-house/
• Deadwood Ghost Tours / Deadwood Ghosts (US Ghost Adventures) — official tour page as collected ("Dark Deadwood Ghost Tours: Ghosts & Graves of Gunslingers' Gulch"; 1 hour, 1 mile, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., $26, all ages, meet at Deadwood Welcome Center, tours daily rain or shine year-round; Adams House cigar smoke and rocking chair moving alone, Fairmont Hotel phantom footsteps and whispers, Wild Bill Bar as the spot Hickok was killed by Jack McCall with cold spots and shadows reported, Bullock Hotel and Mount Moriah Cemetery on the route; Phantom-X EMF detector rentals; operator address 501 Main St, Deadwood, SD 57732 — all operator claims attributed as such): https://usghostadventures.com/deadwood-ghost-tour/