Richard Clarke (frontiersman)

Richard Clarke (15 December 1845 – 5 May 1930), born in Yorkshire, England, was a United States frontiersman, Pony Express rider, actor, and armed forces member who was widely considered by the American public to be the original inspiration for Deadwood Dick.

During his career, Clarke fought alongside George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn against the combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples.

[citation needed] Clarke was widely considered to be a hero of the Old West – a man who endured the hardships of frontier life, engaged in mining, battled Amerindians, worked for the Pony Express, acted as a local guide, and was employed as an assistant to United States Marshals.

Following the battle, Clarke devoted time to refuting the rumor that Custer's death had been a suicide and supporting the notion that the military leader met his end at the hands of the Indians they were fighting.

[3] Many believe Clarke to have been the inspiration behind a number of dime novels published between 1877 and 1897, written by Edward Lytton Wheeler, and starring a protagonist named Deadwood Dick.

Provided with a residence adjacent to the town's tourist park, Clarke dressed in buckskins and would regale visitors with stories of his past as an adventurer and warrior.

[citation needed] In 1927, Clarke met then President, Calvin Coolidge when the summer White House was established near Rapid City, South Dakota.

At the age of 82, in 1929, Clarke made the journey from the Black Hills to Washington, D.C., for the express purpose of extending a personal invitation to President Coolidge to visit Deadwood.

His appearance back East attracted a great deal of press interest, and the many scars that attested to Deadwood Dick’s violent past fascinated journalists.