Formerly: Old Style Saloon
Deadwood, South Dakota · Founded 1930
A working Deadwood saloon at 657 Main Street that preserves the Wild Bill Hickok story from a different 1876 saloon site.
Saloon No. 10 operates at 657 Main Street in Deadwood, where its own history traces the business to Stu Donavitz's 1930s Old Style Saloon. The venue commemorates Wild Bill Hickok, who was killed by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876 during a poker game at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon at a separate original site. The original building burned in 1879; the present saloon is not the physical site of the shooting.
Jack McCall shoots and kills Wild Bill Hickok during a poker game at the original Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood.
Source: Historic Deadwood, "Original Site of the Killing of Wild Bill Hickok"
The original Nuttal & Mann's building burns in the Deadwood fire.
Source: Historic Deadwood, "Original Site of the Killing of Wild Bill Hickok"; Clio, "Saloon No. 10"
According to the current business history, Stu Donavitz opens Old Style Saloon at the present 657 Main Street location; the exact opening year requires independent confirmation.
Source: Saloon No. 10, "History"
According to the venue's history, Lew and Marion Keehn purchase Saloon No. 10 from Stu Donavitz.
Source: Saloon No. 10, "History"
Historic Deadwood lists Saloon No. 10 as an operating Main Street attraction, bar, restaurant, and entertainment venue.
Source: Historic Deadwood, "Saloon No. 10," updated January 17, 2025
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
Historic Deadwood identifies August 2, 1876 as the date on which Jack McCall shot Hickok in the back of the head while Hickok played poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon. This occurred at the original saloon site, not inside the current 657 Main Street Saloon No. 10 building.
Historic Deadwood explicitly states that the current building is not the original Nuttal & Mann's Saloon building. The original building burned in 1879, and the original killing site is marked separately.
The aces-and-eights association is an enduring Deadwood and poker tradition, and modern accounts generally accept it. No contemporary report reviewed here proves the precise suits, and the fifth card or kicker is disputed; accounts proposing a queen, jack, or other card emerged later.
The venue says Hickok's death chair is displayed above its front door, but this review found no independent museum provenance, 1876 inventory, chain of custody, photograph, or expert authentication establishing that the displayed chair is genuine.
The venue's own history identifies Stu Donavitz as founder of Old Style Saloon at the present location in the 1930s and describes a 1963 sale to Lew and Marion Keehn. This review did not locate independent city-directory, liquor-license, newspaper, or ownership records confirming the timeline.
Historic Deadwood and the active Saloon No. 10 website list the venue at 657 Main Street as an operating bar, restaurant, entertainment venue, and historical attraction.
Wild Bill Hickok was killed inside the current Saloon No. 10 building at 657 Main Street.
Hickok was killed at the original Nuttal & Mann's Saloon site. Historic Deadwood states that the current Saloon No. 10 building is not the original structure, which burned in 1879.
Source: Historic Deadwood, "Original Site of the Killing of Wild Bill Hickok"
The current Saloon No. 10 rebuilt directly after the 1879 fire on the original site.
The original Nuttal & Mann's building burned in 1879. The current Saloon No. 10's own history traces its present-location business to Stu Donavitz's 1930s Old Style Saloon, not an immediate post-fire rebuild of the 1876 business.
Source: Historic Deadwood, "Original Site of the Killing of Wild Bill Hickok"; Saloon No. 10, "History"
The exact five cards in Hickok's final hand are documented.
Aces and eights are the enduring Dead Man's Hand tradition, but contemporary evidence does not conclusively establish the suits or fifth card. Later accounts give conflicting kickers.
Source: Cardplayer Lifestyle, "A Complete History of the Dead Man's Hand," June 28, 2022; Historical Marker Database, "Dead Man's Hand"
The displayed chair at modern Saloon No. 10 is proven to be Hickok's actual death chair.
The venue identifies the chair as Hickok's, but no independent provenance or authentication was located in this review.
Source: Saloon No. 10 official website
Saloon No. 10 survives because it turned Deadwood's best-known murder into a durable public-history and entertainment identity. The current venue's value lies in interpretation, reenactment culture, food, drink, and tourism—not in a false claim that its present building is the original Nuttal & Mann's saloon.
Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed by Jack McCall at the original Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood on August 2, 1876. The original site is separately marked; it is not the current Saloon No. 10 building at 657 Main Street.
No. Historic Deadwood states that the current Saloon No. 10 building is not the original Nuttal & Mann's Saloon structure where Hickok was killed. The original building burned in the 1879 Deadwood fire.
The Dead Man's Hand is traditionally described as a pair of aces and a pair of eights, often specified as the black aces and black eights. The exact suits and the fifth card have never been conclusively established from contemporary evidence.
The present Saloon No. 10 at 657 Main Street traces its history to Stu Donavitz's 1930s Old Style Saloon. That account comes from the current business; an independent city-directory or liquor-license record is needed to establish the exact opening date.
Saloon No. 10 displays a chair it identifies as Hickok's death chair, but this review found no independent provenance or museum authentication confirming that it is the chair from the 1876 shooting.
Yes. Saloon No. 10 is operating at 657 Main Street in Deadwood as a bar, restaurant, entertainment venue, and historic attraction.
657 Main St, Deadwood, SD 57732
(605) 578-3346
The current saloon is a separate later venue from the original Hickok killing site; check its current show, dining, and reenactment schedule directly before visiting.