OK, this one took me by surprise. I know that geneologists have established that presidential candidate Barack Obama has families ties with both Brad Pitt and Dick Cheney.

But Deadwood’s own Wild Bill Hickock?

Well, it turns out that it’s true. Obama and James Butler Hickock, a.k.a. “Wild Bill” are sixth cousins, six times removed.

The story is all over the wires this morning. Obama, in a campaign speech in Springfield, Mo., challenged Sen. John McCain, his Republican presidential rival, to a “duel” on taxes. The Illinois senator then dropped the Wild Bill name.

“I don’t know if people are aware of the fact,” Obama said, “but the family legend is that Wild Bill Hickok, he’s a distant cousin of mine.”

The crowd laughed. But Obama added, “I’m serious, I’m serious … I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the family legend. But we’re going to research that.”

The press checked the facts, and sure enough, there is indeed a family connection between the Democratic presidential candidate and the famed lawman who was murdered in Deadwood in 1876. The New England Historic Genealogical Society reports that they share an ancestor: Dutchman Thomas Blossom who landed at Plymouth, Mass., in 1629.

Wild Bill Hickok, who claimed to have killed more than 100 men during his career as a lawman and gunfighter, came up to the Black Hills in 1876. At the time Deadwood was little more than a lawless camp of prospectors, gamblers and entrepreneurs. Hickok apparently came to play cards. In the Saloon No. 10, he was holding Aces and Eights, a full house known today as the “Dead Man’s Hand.” Jack McCall, for reasons that have never been completely explained, shot Wild Bill in the back of the head.

Hickok is buried in Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery. The cemetery, which is also the final resting place of Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock, is a popular tourist destination even today.

Maybe Obama, if he’s campaigning in South Dakota sometime soon, will stop by to pay his respects. But not on Monday. Sen. McCain is scheduled to appear at the Buffalo Chip Campground east of Sturgis.

This town ain’t big enough for the both of them.