The Deadwood Firearms and Old West Auction & Show, set for Aug. 14 to 17 at the Deadwood Pavilion, will feature more than 1,500 auction items including rare firearms, antiques, Old West collectibles and Native American craftwork.

But perhaps the most intriguing sale item is a collection of legal documents related to the 1897 arrest, conviction and execution of Charles Brown in Deadwood. The documents include subpeonas, transcripts and the death warrant, according to a recent story in the Black Hills Pioneer. One document is signed by famed lawman Seth Bullock.

There’s a lengthy story about the case in the recently published “Outlaw Tales of South Dakota,” by T.D. Griffith. Brown, born a slave in Missouri in 1843, worked a number of jobs as a freeman. He was a servant, a seaman and a cowboy. He traveled to California, New York, England, Chicago, New Orleans and Mexico. He ended up at the end of one cattle drive at Fort Randall in Dakota Territory. Brown moved to Deadwood in 1879, just three years after the town was founded.

In May 1897, Brown tried to burglarize the restaurant where he once worked. The owner, Emma Stone, suprised him during the burglary. He killed her with a meat cleaver, and fled to his home near Whitewood. He was arrested a short time later, tried on June 10 and hanged on July 14. Brown became another story in Deadwood’s colorful history.

Someone apparently had a particular interest in that story. At some point years later, the Charles Brown court file was taken from the Lawrence County courthouse. The papers turned up in an Arizona estate sale in the mid-1970s.The buyer recently decided to sell them, and took them to an antiques auction house in Arizona.

By coincidence, the co-owner of the shop was Rick Olesen, an antiques dealer who divides his time between Rapid City and Arizona. Olesen and his parters were putting together the big Deadwood auction. Olesen immediately recognized the historical significance of the papers and contacted Kevin Kuchenbecker, historic preservation officer for the city of Deadwood.

Kuchenbecker was as intrigued by the papers as Olesen was. In fact, Kuchenbecker would like to see the city of Deadwood acquire the collection. In fact, the city has authorized Kuchenbecker to bid on the city’s behalf at the auction.

It’ll be interesting to see if the city gets the papers. And at what price.We’ll probably never know the story of how the documents left Deadwood in the first place.