Reviewed by Josh N · Updated July 27, 2026 · How we verify
Reported Phenomena
- Apparition of Seth Bullock
- Unexplained touches
- Voices calling names
- Orbs reported
- Alarm clocks activating
- Televisions turning on
- Clocks chiming unprompted
- Sense of being watched
Reported by visitors & local legend. Stories, not verified claims.
The Bullock Hotel Deadwood stands at the corner of Wall Street and Main Street in Deadwood, South Dakota, and it is the oldest hotel in the town. It was built by Seth Bullock, an early sheriff of Deadwood, and his business partner Sol Star, at a cost of around $40,000, rising from the ruins left by the Deadwood fire of 1894. The building’s history is well documented. The ghost stories attached to it are reported experiences, and the single detail most often repeated about them, that Bullock died in room 211, is not correct.
Quick Facts
- Location: Corner of Wall Street and Main Street, Deadwood, South Dakota
- Built: Between 1894 and 1896, at a stated cost of around $40,000
- Built by: Seth Bullock and his business partner Sol Star
- Original size: Three stories, 63 sleeping rooms
- Style: Described as Italianate and Victorian
- Later use: Sold to the Aryes family, converted to a hardware store in 1976
- Restored: 1991 to 1993 by Bullock Properties
- Today: Working hotel with a casino, restaurant and 28 rooms
The History of the Bullock Hotel
The Deadwood fire of 1894 tore through much of the town and destroyed the two story wood frame building that stood on the site. What Bullock and Star put up in its place was not a new build from scratch but a conversion: a warehouse turned into a three story hotel, finished somewhere between 1894 and 1896.
The layout reflected what a frontier boomtown expected of a first class hotel. The ground floor held a large dining room at the rear, a kitchen and pantry, a grand lobby, offices at the front, and a sample room where travelling salesmen could store their cases. That last detail says a lot about who the hotel was built for. Deadwood in the 1890s ran on commerce, and the men who moved goods through the Black Hills needed somewhere to sleep and somewhere to lay out their wares.
The second and third floors are said to have held 63 luxury sleeping rooms. Baths were down the hall, in the fashion of the period. Two large banks of skylights brought natural light into the interior rooms, and the rooms themselves were reportedly furnished with iron and brass beds and oak furnishings.
Seth Bullock
Bullock was one of Deadwood’s early sheriffs and one of its more durable public figures, a lawman, businessman and civil servant whose name still attaches to half the town’s history. He was also a lifelong friend of Theodore Roosevelt, a friendship commemorated today in the hotel’s restaurant and bar, Bully’s.
Hardware Store Years and Restoration
The hotel was sold to the Aryes family, who in 1976 converted the building into a hardware store. The original furnishings were auctioned off that same year, which matters for anyone assessing what is authentic in the building now: almost nothing inside is original.
Around 1991 new owners, Bullock Properties, began turning the building back into a hotel. The restoration ran from 1991 to 1993 and was, by the owners’ own description, an attempt at re-creation rather than preservation, carried out “based on the best available information regarding the late 1800s and by uncovering details that gave clues as to the original decor.”
The work included lowering some ceilings to deal with heat accumulation, stripping and re-staining most of the woodwork, and re-papering and decorating ceilings in what was thought to reflect the original Victorian designs. Forty eight inch solid brass chandeliers were installed, chosen from period replicas. The old kitchen and pantry became Bully’s.
The most significant change was to the guest rooms. Even with reported attempts to keep the original floor plans where possible, the 63 rooms of 1895 were reduced to 28. The result is a set of rooms that are larger than the originals and, in some cases, oddly shaped, with unusual angles left over from the older layout. Modern plumbing brought the bathrooms in from the hallway, and every room now has a private bath. Some luxury rooms are reported to include Jacuzzis and wet bars.
Setting the Record Straight on Room 211
The story told again and again about this building is that Seth Bullock died of cancer in room 211 and never left. It is repeated on tours, in listicles and in most short write-ups of the hotel.
He did not die there. Bullock died at his home at 28 Van Buren Street. That single misplaced detail may well be the origin of the whole ghost tradition here: incorrect reports of where he died appear to have fed the reports of his ghost being seen at the hotel, which continue to this day.
None of this settles whether anything unusual happens in the building. It does mean the most commonly cited piece of evidence for the haunting, a death in a specific numbered room, is not supported by the record.
Reported Phenomena
What follows is what guests, employees and tourists say they have experienced. These are reported experiences, not verified events.
- Apparitions attributed to Seth Bullock, reported by guests, workers and visitors over many years
- Being touched or called out to, with people who describe contact almost always saying they were not harmed
- Orbs, frequently reported by guests
- Electrical oddities, including alarm clocks that set themselves off, televisions switching on while unplugged, and long silent clocks chiming
- A sense of being supervised, described by staff who say they felt a presence while on break and went back to work
That last one is worth noting for what it says about the culture of the place rather than the physics. The staff account of a ghost who “plays host” and checks that his employees are working hard is a story about Bullock the proprietor, told by people who work in his building. It is folklore in the proper sense: a narrative the community maintains about itself.
The electrical reports are the easiest to explain away. This is a building from the 1890s, gutted for use as a hardware store, then rewired and reconfigured in a restoration completed in 1993. Odd behaviour from clocks, televisions and lighting has plenty of mundane explanations. The apparitions and the reports of being touched or called by name rest entirely on individual testimony and cannot be tested either way.
Visiting
You can stay here. The Bullock is a working hotel with 28 rooms, a casino and a restaurant, sitting at one of the busiest corners in Deadwood’s Main Street historic district.
Ghost tours of the hotel run regularly, and the building has attracted plenty of paranormal investigation groups, thrill seekers and sceptics who have booked a night specifically to see what happens. In 2015 the hotel featured in a Halloween special episode of Ghost Adventures, which is a large part of why it now appears on most lists of haunted places in South Dakota.
Set expectations sensibly. The interior you walk into is a 1990s re-creation of a Victorian hotel rather than a preserved one, since the original contents were sold off in 1976. What is genuinely old is the shell of the building itself, put up in the immediate aftermath of the 1894 fire by the man whose name is on the door. That, and the corner it occupies in a town that has been trading on its own legend for well over a century.
See Bullock Hotel for Yourself
Sources
- historicbullock.com
- legendsofamerica.com
- yesteryearsnews.files.wordpress.com
- books.google.com
- Wikipedia: Bullock Hotel
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Bullock Hotel located?
Bullock Hotel is located at 28 Van Buren Street.
Can you visit Bullock Hotel?
Bullock Hotel is a place where you can stay overnight. Always follow posted rules and respect private property.
Reader sightings
Nobody has reported anything here yet. If you have been, you would be the first.
Report your own visit to Bullock Hotel Deadwood: History and Reported Hauntings
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