By their nature, historic figures tend to be locked on particular periods in their lives. If they also happen to become a key character on television or in film, it is fairly certain they will be forever stereotyped by that portrayal. For many, Seth Bullock has become the handsome, somewhat idealistic and good-hearted sheriff from the HBO series Deadwood. Yet like all human beings, historic figures are always far more or much less than our image of them. With his concise biography, Seth Bullock: Black Hills Lawman, David A. Wolff shows that there was a great deal more to Bullock than commonly believed.
Indicative of how narrow the perspective of historic figures can be, Bullock served as sheriff for less than 10 months. The rest of his life was spent in pursuit of other activities that Wolff methodically casts into three stages.
Although the first period includes Bullock's time as sheriff, Wolff terms it a period as "pioneer and politician." Bullock was a sheriff and legislator in Montana before embarking for the northern Black Hills of what would become South Dakota during the area's gold rush in the summer of 1876. Yet indicative of his future activity, Bullock was not a wide-eyed gold prospector but, with his partner Solomon Star, headed to Deadwood, then little more than a mining camp, to open a hardware store with a fireproof storage facility. It was a business venture that would last nearly 25 years.
Just 11 days after arriving, Bullock was elected to the nascent community's first attempt at self-government and was appointed sheriff when county governments were created the following year. By that time, the town had a population of probably less than 5,000 but about 60 saloons. Although Bullock focused on bigger issues than disorderly miners, he was ousted in an election later that year. Bullock remained active in and a booster of the community, such as promoting the creation of a fire department. Promotion, even speculation, would mark the next phase of Bullock's life, a stage which, ironically, would find destructive fires affecting both its beginning and end. And while his role as sheriff might define him to the public years later, he did not become an Old West legend like other Deadwood personalities such as Wild Bill Hickok. That's because, Wolff writes, "Bullock's story did not contain the requisite amount of bloodshed."
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