The fenced area in the center of this photograph is the final resting place of Wm. (Curley) Grimes a noted Black Hills robber who was killed by a posse in 1879 near present-day Sturgis.
Curley Grimes Grave
The stage from Cheyenne to Deadwood, commonly known as the Deadwood Stage, was one of the most dangerous rides in the entire West because it was so frequently robbed. During its first year various stages were robbed almost weekly someplace in the Black Hills. One of the most conspicuous highwaymen was William "Curley" Grimes whose career in the Black Hills lasted about two years before a posse caught and killed him on Hogan's Ranch near present-day Sturgis. His headstone reads "Buried with his head down/just as he fell/the whispering pines/will never tell". Other famous pirates of the prairie were "Peg-legged" Bradley; Bill Price: Dunk Blackburn, who was caught and sent to the Nebraska penitentiary, and "Lame" Johnny, hanged near Buffalo Gap.An agent for the stage line, Scott Davis, who bragged that he was the self-appointed undertaker for many of the road agents took credit for killing Grimes but the actual deed may have been done by Boone May, one of the best pistol shots in the region, who also killed the outlaw Bill Price in a gunfight on the streets of Deadwood.
The Deadwood Stage itself, complete with bullet holes, later became famous as the centerpiece of Wild Bill Cody's Wild West Show. In the 1890s the coach was shipped to Europe and toured with the show for many years. It now resides in the Wild Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.
The headstone reads "Wm. (Curley) Grimes" "1850 - 1879" "Buried with his head down/just as he fell/the whispering pines/will never tell"