Murder Gulch was the derogatory nickname given to a section of Bismarck’s frontier downtown along 4th Street between Broadway and Main Avenues where “corruptible” businesses were clustered. It was also sometimes referred to as “Bloody Fourth” and “Wicked Fourth.” The block was the town’s center for saloons, gambling houses, and other institutes of ill-fame. Shootings and brawls were common, earning the nickname.
At the time, Bismarck was reputated to be the bloodiest town in America and knwon as “the wickedest city in the west.” Linda Slaughter referenced the block’s notoriety in her manifesto, stating that “no respectable woman would ever walk down that street.”
