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Seth Bullock
and
Sol Star
were running a hardware business in Helena, Montana when gold was
discovered in Deadwood in 1876. Seeing opportunity, they soon loaded up
their wares and traveled to the booming miing camp
in a an ox-drawn wagon piled
high with mining equipment, dutch ovens, frying pans and chamber pots.
On the very night they arrived in the camp,
Bullock
began to auction equipment and supplies to the highest bidder.
That was the beginning of their successful
hardware store business. Soon they bought a lot on the corner of
Main and Wall Street (the current site of the
Bullock
Hotel) and within a year the partners built a new store and warehouse.
When a fire swept through the town in 1894,
the wood-frame store facing Main Street was destroyed, leaving only the
brick warehouse behind.
Changing tactics,
Bullock,
along with his partner,
Sol Star,
then decided to build
Deadwood's
finest hotel over the original store and warehouse. The
Bullock
Hotel's grand
opening was held in April, 1896.
The
Bullock
Hotel
still greets guests today.
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