State file · SD
Haunted places in South Dakota
What are the most haunted places in South Dakota? The best-known are Historic Bullock Hotel and Hotel Alex Johnson.
South Dakota’s ghost stories gather in the Black Hills, where the 1874 gold discovery and the rush of 1876 created boom towns almost overnight on land guaranteed to the Lakota by treaty. Deadwood, the most famous of those camps, packed gunfights, fires, epidemics and fortunes into a few short decades – Wild Bill Hickok was shot there in August 1876 – and its saloons, hotels and hillside cemetery now support a lively ghost-tour trade alongside the casinos that revived the town after 1989.
- 2 hauntings
- 9 recorded sightings
- 1 news story
Haunted places in South Dakota
Historic Bullock Hotel
Deadwood’s first lawman, Seth Bullock, built this hotel in the 1890s. Staff and guests say he still checks on the place – though he did not die here. Widely reported
Hotel Alex Johnson
Rapid City’s 1928 “Showplace of the West” keeps a book of guests’ ghost encounters. Most centre on a Lady in White on the eighth floor and on the founder. Regional legendThe ghost lore of South Dakota
The state’s best-known haunted building is Deadwood’s Bullock Hotel, built in the 1890s by the camp’s first sheriff, Seth Bullock, who is said to keep an eye on his staff to this day. In Rapid City, the 1928 Hotel Alex Johnson collects its guests’ ghost stories in books at the front desk.
The Black Hills, known to the Lakota as Ȟe Sápa, are also sacred ground for the Lakota and other Plains nations. Their traditions are living religion rather than ghost lore, and visitors should treat sites such as Bear Butte with the respect due to places of prayer.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Deadwood’s Main Street
A National Historic Landmark district of 1890s stone buildings, saloons and hotels, nearly all with a ghost story attached.
- Mount Moriah Cemetery, Deadwood
The hillside resting place of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock, open to visitors by day.
- Downtown Rapid City
The historic commercial district around the Hotel Alex Johnson hosts seasonal ghost walks.
- Lead
Deadwood’s neighbouring mining town, built around the Homestake gold mine, has its own tales of miners and old opera houses.
Timeline
- August 1876Seth Bullock reaches Deadwood Historic Bullock Hotel
Bullock and Sol Star set up shop in the gold camp days after Hickok’s murder. In 1877 Bullock becomes the first sheriff of Lawrence County.
- 1894Fire and a new hotel Historic Bullock Hotel
After their store burns, Bullock and Star build a 63-room luxury hotel on the site, completed around 1896.
- September 23, 1919Death of Seth Bullock Historic Bullock Hotel
Bullock dies of cancer at his Deadwood home, not in the hotel, as later legend claims. He is buried above Mount Moriah Cemetery.
- July 1, 1928The hotel opens Hotel Alex Johnson
Alex Carlton Johnson’s hotel opens to the public and is formally dedicated that August. It becomes the city’s landmark and tallest building.
- 1959North by Northwest Hotel Alex Johnson
Hitchcock’s thriller mentions the Sheraton-Johnson Hotel by name; the director and his stars stayed here while filming at Mount Rushmore.
- 1991–1993Restoration as a hotel and casino Historic Bullock Hotel
Following the legalisation of gaming in Deadwood, the building is restored as a hotel. Reports of Bullock’s ghost become part of its identity.
- 2011Ghost Hunters investigates Hotel Alex Johnson
SyFy’s TAPS team films an episode at the hotel for its seventh season, and the hotel says its investigators reported significant activity.
- October 2015Ghost Adventures Halloween special Historic Bullock Hotel
The Travel Channel series features the Bullock Hotel in a Halloween episode, bringing its stories to a national audience.
- October 2021Staff speak to local TV Hotel Alex Johnson
The general manager and chief engineer tell KOTA-TV about Room 812, the Lady in White, figures in mirrors and moving objects, and describe the hotel as embracing its legends.
From other news sites