A letter surfaced in an old Spanish Mission "flea-market" on the west coast years ago… It was part of a collection from a woman who liked history of the old west. It was written to someone in San Francisco, from Deadwood, in July of 1876, and both Calamity Jane and Wild Bill were mentioned in it. The girl telling about them was either a whore, or someone involved with the brothel in question, I think a maid or "day-keeper," as most of the first person "witnessed" parts of the story happened during the daytime, the "heard" portions happened at night.

What she wrote to her friend started with some second-hand information about this old man playing cards with Wild Bill… "One evening this miner came in with a pouch of fine gold, a bit mixed with iron sand. He received chips or markers from the bartender, and got into a "big game" with Wild Bill, it was not mentioned what kind of a game, but I assume it was the serious poker game. (It is documented that most bars had two kinds of poker action at this time… a penny-ante game called "joker-poker" where a deck of badly marked cards, some with different backs was used. Winners of this game moved on to the more serious game, one that had a much cleaner deck with few markings, often played for large sums of money, mining claims, deeds, etc… Wild Bill had been lucky on this day, and had already moved into this game before the old miner arrived).

It was noted that he bought the miner a bottle of whiskey, and that they already knew each other. The miner got very drunk and lost everything, Wild Bill was the biggest winner of his money as well. It was noted that this did not concern the miner, there was more gold where that came from! Wild Bill then bought his friend an "overnite" girl, which included a bed. From this point on, the report seems to have been witnessed by the girl writing the letter. She explained how she was woken by some commotion about someone "upstairs" having a heart attack while having sex. Wild bill was summoned due to him being the one paying for the girl and the room. Calamity Jane came into the room with him to check on the fellow, and the writer heard parts of the conversation. It concerned mostly his family, belongings, and his claim… it was obvious the stress had been too much for him, and he was dieing! The girl also said there was another man in a "crib" next to them that could hear even better than she could. (At this time there were very few brothels with an "upstairs" containing "cribs" that were not part of a bar, only two are documented to have been completed for sure in July, this had to have been in one of them… The upstairs had somewhat larger rooms, for the time being divided into at least two rooms each, with only a blanket hung on a wire between them. The man over-hearing the conversation was also with a girl on the other side of this blanket in the same room, this girl told the writer what she heard the next day). In the conversation the man described an area rich in iron sand… also a small natural pool smoothly cut into bedrock. At the bottom of the pool lay several pounds of mostly gold, somewhat mixed and covered with black sand. The girl also said some agreement was reached about Wild Bill recovering the gold and other belongings, to be either held, or returned to some family member at a later date. Wild Bill returned to the game, Calamity Jane remained with the man until he died, reportedly less than an hour later…

The girl said she saw Calamity Jane go back into the bar, and soon after watched her load "a drunken" Wild Bill on a horse, they left town riding southwest. She also said the man over-hearing the location of the claim left with a friend the following morning, going in the same direction. He reportedly told his "girl for the night" he would share some of the gold with her if she did not tell anyone about it!

This part of the story may be totally made up, as it was mostly told by Calamity Jane upon her return, but it may have been somewhat true, many facts do back it up, and it explains some things that happened later! This is what was told to the other whore, who though she would gain from this finding, but got nothing but a funny story to tell others!

Calamity Jane got Bill to the general location, he then helped her find the pool in question and the old man's tent. She found two "salt sacks" and filled them with the gold/sand mixture, one was slightly larger than the other! They used a frying pan and a broken shovel to separate and scoop up the gold. She was building a fire close by when a rifle shot rang out from the location below, where their horses were tied up. Wild Bill had a rifle, but it was on the horse, she only had one hand gun, and the shots were coming from an area out of range! Wild Bill was somewhat useless according to Calamity, but a plan was developed, by her she said... and it worked better than either thought it would! Bill was to keep their attention by drawing fire, using a hat on the end of the shovel, firing a round once in a while. She was going to try to get to them from behind, or get to the rifle. She claimed she came upon one man and knocked him out with the frying pan, also later did the same to the other... The men were robbed of their guns, stripped of their clothes, and sent back to Deadwood. Wild Bill went back as well, with the smaller sack of gold, after a meal prepared by Jane, and she would only say she had rode north from there!

It was independently documented that two men did ride into Deadwood with nothing, saying nothing other than they were robbed... both had head wounds, one needing sewed by a whore in an "upstairs" room. It was also said that the last two and 1/2 weeks of Wild Bill's life he played only in the serious games, and seemed to be "well staked" most of that time! Another independent report talks of a couple somewhere in the Belle Fourche river area that had a small girl who was not their own, possibly belonging to Calamity Jane, or at least brought to them to raise by her... It was said she later showed up with a "salt sack" of mostly gold with mixed iron sand, some guns, camping equipment, and clothes from three different sized men. She left everything there with these people, who took the child back east with them shortly after!

Another report says these two "robbed" men seemed to be very much afraid of both Calamity Jane and Wild Bill following their return to Deadwood without much explanation, although the whore who sewed one of them up told the "letter writer" what had happened, she also later ask Calamity, and got somewhat the same story! 

The man who read this letter found it in a pack of others, sorted by location, offered for sale by the bundle. He was ask to watch her stuff that afternoon, and as it was slow, he read a number of letters in the "Black Hills" bundle. (The lady who was with him was from Faith, South Dakota... he was looking for her last name mentioned in those letter, as her family were pioneers, he did not find it, he said he also could not afford the price of that bundle). He did recognize the names Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, and said he remembered the "robbed" man who heard the location was named Murry he thought. (The man who was badly injured was named Murphy by another source... that's close, considering problems with incorrect names of that time). 

The man telling me of this story later moved to the Black Hills, and followed up on this information. He has not showed me the location, but said it is located on what is now known as Iron Creek, he even found the hollowed out pool in the bedrock, but said it was dry when he was there. The most important thing he found close by was a broken shovel, with a number of old rifle holes in it. I have been to his camp, and as the old story goes... "I did not see the gold, but I did see the shovel"... 

The letter about this "date" may still be for sale, for sure it was somewhat valued, and has been saved. Maybe someone out there in southern California can help in this matter!