The graves of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were not desecrated, but someone did damage six tombstones and remove the only Chinese gravestone at Deadwood's historic Mount Moriah Cemetery.

The short, thick and dense blue marble marker weighs maybe 75 to 100 pounds. "You wouldn't need to be a he-man or football player to move it," Greg Akrop said Friday. "A healthy adult - man or woman - if you took a mind to move it, could carry it."

Akrop and his brother David reset the stone in 2002 and helped Edith Wong and her mother, who interpreted the Chinese characters in 2007. "Hui Ta Mei Fen" roughly translates to indicate a large common grave or tomb, he said.

The Chinese section is one of 12 distinct areas in Mount Moriah. The cemetery dates to 1878 and overlooks the pioneer gold camp.

There was no date on the Chinese marker - rediscovered in 1983 during a cemetery cleaning - and records at the Akrop family's Deadwood Granite & Marble Works do not indicate that grandfather Al Duchene carved the headstone. He started the business in 1904-06 as Young & Duchene, making it perhaps Deadwood's oldest continuously family-operated business.

Greg Akrop was with city historic preservation officer Kevin Kuckenbecker to look over the damage that occurred sometime in the past week. Akrop said vandals hit three sections near the flag, which can be seen from throughout Deadwood.

"It appeared to me that it was real random. They were kind of scattered," he said. "It's totally illogical. What would possess anyone to do anything like that?"

Kuckenbecker likewise struggles to understand "this type of senseless damage and desecration."

All of Deadwood is a national historic landmark, and the vandalism mars one of the city's famous attractions. More than 80,000 people a year visit the cemetery, many taking tour bus rides from the downtown gambling district. They come to see where such Black Hills pioneer legends as James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, Calamity Jane and Preacher Smith are buried.

The damaged and broken grave markers date to the late 1800s. Akrop said he did not recognize the names as among the city's historic celebrities.

He said the stones can be reset, and chips and breaks repaired. But the scars will show.

"As for getting 100 percent back to the original, that isn't going to happen," Akrop said. "They will never go back to the original or pre-condition. It's the nature of stone; it can be glued or worked on quite a bit to what I call repair it. But it's all the priceless stuff, all the weathering and the aging over the years. You will always know it was broken."

Officials did not offer a damage cost estimate Friday. Kuckenbecker appealed to the public to help authorities arrest the perpetrators "for this horrible act"

"Anyone caught for cemetery vandalism should be prosecuted and charged with the cost of the repairs and damage, plus a strong community service requirement," he said.

Anyone with information about the vandalism is urged to call the Deadwood Police Department, 578-2623, or the nearest law enforcement agency.

The Society of Black Hills Pioneers - a group whose ancestors were in the Hills in 1876 - offers a $2,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of people caught damaging or destroying any cemetery in the Black Hills area.

Vandalism committee member Vernon Davis of Beulah, Wyo., said damage involving items in cemeteries more than 100 years old and exceeding $500 is considered a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.