DEADWOOD DICK DEAD

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 June 1930, Page 4

DEADWOOD DICK DEAD

WILD-WEST HERO. Deadwood Dick, aged eighty-three, pony express rider. Indian fighter, and one'of the last picluresque characters of the ok! West, has just passed awav at Deadwood, in South Dakota. Heio of countless exploits of the Black Hills gold rush, Deadwood Dick whose real name was Richard W. Clarke, was a familiar figure in fact ami fiction of the history-making period oL I he earlv days, claiming the acquaintanceship of “Wild Bill" Hickok, "Buffalo Bill," Capiaiu -lack Crawford, ••.Poker Alice” Tubbs, ami "Calamity With his.deal h the Black Hills lost the- last of the famous characters who fougb.. gambled, and dug lor gold in Hie frontier days when the West” lived up to its name. "I oker Pace." an English woman, quo. u <n the gambling hulls, died only a ew months ago. , r lr . Deadwood Dicl; died with his bout..0,. Survivor of the rigours oi pnm-.m life, ht- lived 10 betimie. a tradition in the decades that followed the missing of the stage coach, the gold rush .-.nd the threat of Indian uprising. Weakened by old age. he lor scmia. -ciir-j bad been pointed out to tour U; as the last living land mark of the old West. Early last year lie made an aeroplane trip to Washington, whore be was received by President

Coolidge. It. was the last long trip he made from, the Black Hills. He was born in Hansborough, England, December 15, 1845, and went to the United States when sixteen years of age. Joining a party of prospectors in Illinois when a young man, Dick made the long overland journey to the Black Hills at the time when the excitement of gold discovery was at its height. During the years that followed., he was a pony express rider. Indian fighter, guide, and assistant to United States marshals. As Richard Clarke, he was connected with the stage coach line that terminated at Deadwood, where his headquarters were for many years. Because of this he became known as “Deadwood Dick.”