We wouldn't blame them if they never stepped foot in the old boundaries of Dakota Territory for as long as Deadwood and Yankton still exist --- but give the McCall family some credit. They still come to visit us in South Dakota.

Jack McCall, you'll recall, became infamous when he gunned down Wild Bill Hickok in Saloon #10 on August 2, 1876. He was found innocent in Deadwood, then retried in Yankton.

I just received a letter from Tom McCall, who runs an accounting service in Maryland. He wanted to know why the historic marker on Highway 81 (which noted the spot where his ancestor was hung) was taken down. He wrote that he liked to take his grandchildren by the marker "since it was always something that I could relate to as to the last name."

The marker came down when the state widened the intersection. There was also a billboard nearby that read, "We Haven't Hung Anyone Since Jack McCall." I think the billboard was misleading. It seems the city fathers did hang an Indian in the city sometime later. But there was a big effort to erase that from our city history. Hanging Jack McCall was politically safe, however.

I wrote Tom to tell him that there is still a marker at Third & Capitol in Yankton that memorializes his famous kin. It is on the old Gurney Hotel, which was a federal courthouse when McCall was tried and sentenced to death in 1877.