Monument marks the spot where Preacher Smith was murdered.

Preacher Smith Monument

Deadwood, South Dakota

The Reverend Henry Weston Smith, known to the locals as "Preacher Smith," had the misfortune of not only being murdered in Deadwood in 1876, but of being murdered only a few days after the famous Wild Bill Hickok was also murdered in Deadwood -- which is probably why you've never heard of Preacher Smith.

Before he left town on Sunday, August 20, on foot to deliver a sermon to the miners in Crook City, he supposedly told his friends, "The Bible is my protection. It has never failed me yet." And then he was shot dead.

Smith's murderer was never caught, although blame was placed on either unfriendly Indians or a hired killer, paid for by the owners of Deadwood's brothels and saloons. Smith was eventually buried in the same cemetery as Wild Bill and a lot of other sin-soaked Deadwood residents, and in 1914, on the anniversary of his death, the Society of Black Hills Pioneers erected a monument on his roadside murder spot. It blames the Indians.