DEADWOOD STAGE
With the stages carrying gold, the danger from road agents was always present, indeed, to such an extent that the line used a ironclad coach named the "Monitor" for transporting gold. The coach, specially constructed in Cheyenne, was lined with iron plate with a "treasure box" bolted to the floor on the inside. Regular passengers were not permitted and extra guards known as "messengers" would be on board. Among those who were employed at various times as "messengers" were D. Boone May and Wyatt Earp.

Cheyenne was the logical “jumping-off” place for stage and freight lines wanting to service the Black Hills when the time came. Jack Gilmer was one of the first operators to consider the possibility of a stage line from Cheyenne to the Black Hills; however, his line was not the first to serve the hills, that was left to Cuthberson and Young and Yates and Brown. To make a long story short, Gilmer bought out Yates & Brown in 1876 and formed what became known as the Cheyenne & Black Hills Stage Line, known to both history and motion picture buffs as the “Deadwood Stage.” The Deadwood Stage carried gold bullion from Deadwood, S.D., to Cheyenne, Wyoming.